TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
What does moving from AI as a passive tool to a true teammate actually look like in practice for the everyday enterprise employee?
Rakshit: I think it looks less dramatic than people expect. For the employee, an AI teammate isn’ t another bot they have to remember to open. It’ s more like ambient intelligence: something that sits in the flow of work, understanding context and helping before the employee has to go looking for support.
That might mean summarising actions after a meeting so teams can move faster, pulling context from different systems to reduce time spent searching for information, flagging device issues before they impact productivity, or helping new employees become productive sooner. The goal isn’ t to add more AI to the workplace. It’ s to remove friction that slows employees down.
The bigger shift is that AI stops being a destination and becomes part of the operating fabric of the organisation. In a Cognitive Enterprise, AI works across devices, workflows, support systems and collaboration tools to reduce operational complexity, improve employee productivity and help organisations make better decisions.
Damian: AI becomes a true teammate when it stops just answering questions and starts helping work get done. Employees should be able to say, in plain English, what they need, and AI should understand the task, pull in the right enterprise context and move the work on.
So much work is still admin-heavy: chasing approvals, updating records, triaging requests or jumping between systems. AI can take on more of that load, so people spend more time on judgement, service quality, customer outcomes and the exceptions that genuinely need human experience.
Louise: For most people, the biggest shift will be that AI transitions from a separate tool you consciously use to a seamless part of your daily workflow.
A passive tool simply summarises documents on demand. A true AI teammate, however, takes a proactive approach. It prepares agendas based on previous conversations, captures key meeting points, suggests follow-up actions, converts notes into tasks, and helps people quickly find information – eliminating the need to search through chat threads, recordings or inboxes. In essence, it transforms insights into action. This capability is crucial because much of the modern workday is consumed by administrative tasks, rather than the value of the work itself.
This becomes especially valuable in meetings. Rather than worrying about note-taking, tracking action items, or ensuring nothing gets missed, people can focus on what matters most: listening actively, contributing meaningfully and building genuine connections.
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