Artificial intelligence represents a new era of thinking. Few people capture this shift as sharply as Brian Solis, Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow, bestselling author, and renowned digital anthropologist.
With his latest book, Mindshift: Transform Leadership, Drive Innovation, and Reshape the Future, Solis challenges leaders to move beyond fear and efficiency toward curiosity, creativity, and reinvention.
We were thrilled to get a few minutes of Brian's time. In this candid conversation with our lead writer, David Kirkpatrick, he explores what it truly means to lead (and live) in an increasingly AI-driven world.
What does it mean to operate in a post-industrial, AI-first world?
Brian Solis: In the industrial and even the digital era, value accrued to companies that could standardize, scale, and optimize. For more than a century, businesses were built on industrial-age principles: efficiency, scale, and standardization. We’ll add cost-takeout for good measure.
Even as we entered the digital era, most companies simply digitized those old processes rather than truly transforming them. The result? Faster, shinier versions of yesterday’s systems.
But AI changes the game entirely. It’s not just a new technology layer; it’s a new operating system for business and society. At least it should be. But the threat to progress is holding on to the past. For example, we see many companies automating yesterday’s processes that were recently digitized.
In a post-industrial, AI-first world, intelligence becomes abundant and accessible. The companies that will thrive are those that stop thinking in terms of “how we’ve always done things” and instead design for continuous adaptation and infinite scalability.
AI allows us to move beyond the limits of yesterday’s work and traditional hierarchies. And for those who are curious to explore new horizons, it creates the potential for digital employees, AI agents, and new forms of collaboration between humans and machines.
It’s important to note that this AI revolution isn’t about replacing people; it’s about elevating human potential and augmenting capacity so that creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and innovation become the focus, while AI handles the repetitive and routine to free up resources for augmented work.
What’s the difference?
Brian Solis: Automating work is doing what we did yesterday, better, faster, less expensively, at scale. Augmenting work is doing what we couldn’t do yesterday or couldn’t imagine yesterday without AI.
Operating in this new world demands courage. It means letting go of legacy thinking and becoming comfortable leading when the map is still being drawn. Leaders must become architects of a future that doesn’t yet exist. And that’s both exhilarating and deeply challenging, but it is the way forward.
Where is the market moving near-term? What are leaders worried or excited about?
Brian Solis: Right now, I’m seeing a clear divide between two mindsets. Some leaders are gripped by uncertainty and therefore lean on what they know. They see AI and disruption as a threat to jobs, to their business model, even to their own roles as leaders. Others are leaning in, recognizing that periods of great disruption are also periods of unprecedented opportunity.
The near-term marketplace is moving toward agentic automation: AI that doesn’t just assist but actively works alongside people, autonomously, but with a human orchestrator. Think of it as going from apps to intelligent interns who extend human capacity to increase output, and then using the time and resources saved to unlock entirely new possibilities.
This is where the most forward-thinking companies are investing: in systems that can orchestrate work, learn continuously, and drive outcomes without constant human supervision. But then they ask a critical question: What can we do with the time and resources saved that we couldn’t do before?
There are two sides to always consider…
Excitement comes from what this unlocks: New revenue models, entirely new markets, and the ability to deliver new value for employees and customers at scale.
Anxiety comes from the unknown: Can legacy companies move fast enough? Can they upskill their workforce in time? Will AI replace jobs? Can they identify use cases that push the boundaries of AI’s status quo and also deliver ROI? Can they build trust and governance to deploy AI responsibly at speed and scale?
The truth is, the next 18–24 months will determine which companies leap ahead and which become irrelevant. Leaders aren’t just navigating disruption; they’re navigating a complete rewriting of the business playbook.
What should people take away from Mindshift about meeting disruption head-on?
Brian Solis: Mindshift is deeply personal for me because we are experiencing some pretty disruptive times, beyond AI.
Technology will continue to evolve at breakneck speed. Markets will shift. Competitors, new and old, will rise. And even though most of these disruptions arrive without a playbook, the good news is that the one thing leaders can always control is their mindset. And it is mindset that drives meaningful change in the absence of use cases and playbooks.
But how you see the world, how you interpret change, and how you respond, that’s entirely within your control. That’s why this book means so much to me.
The book is an invitation to replace fear with curiosity, to replace finite outcomes with infinite possibilities, and to encourage leaders, no matter where they sit in the organization, to step forward and help us break new ground, to inspire a new way forward, and to bring others with them.
In Mindshift, I share practical steps for cultivating this open, creative, and curious mindset:
- Be open to challenging assumptions. Just because something worked yesterday doesn’t mean it will tomorrow. And that’s okay!
- Create psychological safety. Teams must feel safe to experiment, fail, and learn; otherwise, innovation dies.
- Lead with vision, not just metrics. Though companies rally around quarterly targets, growth is rooted in purpose. People want to see a better future, believe they play a role in it, and rally around that shared vision and dream.
At its core, the book is about awakening the leader within each of us. Real possibility and innovation begin with how we think and how we choose to act.
Is technology transformation just the enablement layer? And are we ready for what it entails?
Brian Solis: Technology is the spark, but transformation is human. And the future is augmented, a balance between human and machine potential.
Every major innovation in history, from electricity to the internet to smartphones, has only delivered value when people and organizations changed their behaviors, structures, and cultures to match its potential.
Right now, most companies are in the early stages of this journey with AI. They’re experimenting, piloting, even celebrating small wins. Some are also raising their hands in frustration, unable to document meaningful ROI. But the deeper question is: Are we ready to reimagine work itself?
We have to rethink everything, from how we measure success to how we design jobs, teams, and even leadership roles. The future of work isn’t just about humans doing tasks faster; it’s about humans and AI creating entirely new categories of value together. That requires reskilling at scale, a new social contract between employers and employees, and a commitment to ethics and trust at every level.
So yes, technology is the enabler. But readiness isn’t measured by how many AI tools you’ve purchased; it’s measured by how willing you are to let go of the past and design for the future.
What else should the CoreX audience know?
Brian Solis: The companies that will define the next decade won’t be the ones with the most AI pilots or the safest use cases. They’ll be the ones who choose reinvention over optimization.
Too many organizations are using AI to make yesterday’s processes a little faster or a little cheaper. That’s not transformation, it’s iteration. And that’s ok, but it needs to be balanced with augmentation and innovation, otherwise it’s just a modern version of survival mode.
Ask yourself: Are we using AI to improve the past or invent the future?
The real opportunity is to create entirely new flywheels of growth, where every interaction generates data, every insight fuels smarter action, and the system continuously improves itself.
We’re at a point in history where each of us, as leaders, innovators, colleagues, and humans, has a choice. We can be passive participants in someone else’s future, or we can be active architects of our own while empowering those around us. AI gives us the tools to imagine what’s possible. Mindshift gives us the mindset to make it real, beyond what we thought was possible.
That’s why we need a new genre of leader. We need people who are willing to learn, unlearn, and surround themselves with people and technology that push the boundaries of what is possible, not what was possible or expected.
Closing Thoughts
As Solis reminds us, AI’s greatest disruption is philosophical. The winners of this new era will be those who have the courage to rethink what work means, who it serves, and how it evolves.
Because, in the end, transformation isn’t just about implementing a tool or following a roadmap. It’s about leading with vision when the map has yet to be created. Because in a world defined by intelligence, the real differentiator is mindset.
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Brian obviously has a lot to share. Don’t miss the chance to follow him on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram. Also, be sure to check out his website, which contains a treasure trove of insights on business innovation.
