We’re officially in a two-speed world of work.

• On one side: people who have embraced AI. Curious, experimental, constantly looking for ways to move faster and smarter.
  
  
• On the other side: people still doing things the old way—slow, manual, siloed.
  
  

The gap between these two groups is widening fast. And it’s already reshaping performance, career trajectory, and company outcomes.

The Curious Are Winning

Every organization has a few of them:

• The SDR (Sales Development Representative) who figured out how to write 5x more emails with better conversion
  
  
• The recruiter who uses AI to screen, summarize, and schedule faster than anyone
  
  
• The marketer who drafts five campaigns before you’ve even opened Figma
  
  

These people are outperforming—not because they’re smarter, but because they’re more curious.

They’re not afraid of AI. They’re playing with it. Testing. Tinkering. Learning how it fits their work.

The Resistant Are Falling Behind

Then there are the others.

• “I don’t have time to learn that.”
  
  
• “I’d rather do it manually.”
  
  
• “It’s not accurate enough.”
  
  
• “I’m waiting until the company tells me what to use.”
  
  

These aren’t bad people. But they’re opting out of relevance.

And in a few quarters, the delta in performance will be so wide that it can’t be ignored.

Leaders: Encourage Curiosity, Not Perfection

The best thing you can do as a leader is to reward experimentation.

Give people time to explore tools. Celebrate small wins. Don’t wait for a perfect enterprise rollout.

Because the people figuring it out on their own are the ones you’ll build your future team around.

The Future Belongs to the Fast Learners

AI is the biggest productivity unlock in a generation. But the benefit doesn’t go to the smartest. It goes to the most adaptable.

The curious. The bold. The ones who see opportunity where others see discomfort.

Your job is to build a company where those people thrive.

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