Some people watch AI happen. The smartest ones shape it

Ayesha Khanna, CEO of Addo AI, compares people watching a film to how most people approach AI. Knowing how to use AI, in her view, starts with refusing to watch from the sidelines. 

"Many people when they see what's happening in AI, they feel like they're in a movie where they're passively watching," she says. "My mission in life is to make people feel like they're in the driver's seat. That they can take AI and make it work for them. That's incredibly empowering and opens our mind to infinite possibilities about what we can do with AI." 

Ayesha says the real risk with AI isn't the technology itself. It's the passive stance many people take toward it.

A relationship that can be shaped

Neri Oxman, founder and CEO of OXMAN, frames it differently but arrives at the same place.

"There's a lot of fear about AI taking over humans," she says. "However I think of the relationship between AI and humanity similarly to how I think about the relationship between nature and humanity. This is a relationship that can be shaped."

The point is straightforward: our relationship with AI isn't fixed or predetermined. It responds to how we engage with it.

Staying accountable

Steve Hasker, CEO of Thomson Reuters, has been watching the AI conversation for decades – his company has applied machine learning to legal and financial content for over 30 years. His view on responsible AI comes down to accountability.

"Ultimately the core principle is a human being needs to be accountable for the results," he says. "Use technology as much as you like, but ultimately as a practising professional – whether you're a journalist or an editor, a lawyer or an accountant – you have to be accountable for what comes out of those results."

This isn't about being suspicious of AI. It's about staying engaged with it. Steve has seen professionals using AI in the workplace make mistakes in both directions – over-trusting outputs, or refusing to use the tools at all. "All of us have made the mistake of using a piece of technology and relying on it only to find that its output was flawed," he says. "So I think as long as professionals stay engaged and apply critical thinking, those risks can be managed."

The choice is ours

Chris Green, CEO of GreenPoint Partners, is direct about what's at stake. When asked whether the future of AI-enabled transport is utopian or dystopian, he doesn't pick a side.

"The honest answer is: it's up to us," he says. "The technology doesn't decide. We do."

That's the consistent view across all the speakers in the Reality/Redefined Goodman Thought Starters series. The people closest to AI – building with it, governing it, designing with it – aren't waiting to see what it does to them. They understood early that the right question isn't what AI will do to us. It's what we choose to do with it.

Agency is the differentiator

Ayesha has seen this play out across boardrooms, government briefings and classrooms around the world. The gap between those who thrive in the AI era and those who don't rarely comes down to access to the technology. It comes down to agency. For anyone quietly asking will AI take my job, her answer reframes the question.

"The purpose of AI is to amplify human potential," she says. "When you see AI automating some of the tasks in your job, you shouldn't be afraid of it. You should see it as an opportunity to redefine your role."

Neri has a similar view. She says: “AI is here to stay. We may as well work with it and shape it to benefit humanity and nature at large.” 

Four thought leaders share the same conclusion – the people who use AI to shape it to their benefit, are the ones who best unlock their human potential.