In modern life and business, we’re all convinced that we’re all captains (or leaders). Ever since Madonna asked us all to “strike a pose,” we’ve been conditioned over the last 30 years to picture ourselves steady at the helm — confident hands on the wheel, charting the course. We’ve got it all figured out and cannot admit to any doubt. Then along comes AI: maybe a lighthouse in the fog?
AI shines a light on everything — the rocks, the routes, and the shortcuts. The recent MIT research, Economist article and observations on “dirty data”, serve to shine their own lights on existing (and sometimes perpetual) problems – illusions of competence, status quo bias, and old baggage (which as U2 point out – “we can’t leave behind.”). These have inherently little to do with AI, but suddenly, the sea feels different. The question is: does the light of AI make us better navigators… or just more aware of how lost we really are?
Two Views of the Same Horizon
When it comes to AI’s impact on performance, two competing schools of thought have emerged.
One view, championed by Ethan Mollick, author of Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, argues that AI acts as a great equalizer, a democratizer of knowledge - the light that helps the average navigator find their bearings. Mollick argues that AI gives the biggest boost to mid/lower-level performers, helping them think and problem-solve with more structure and insight. In his words (not mine), “it turns poor performers into good performers.”
The other view, recently published in The Wall Street Journal by Matthew Call of Texas A&M, suggests that the opposite is true — that AI widens the gap between top performers and everyone else. A bit like the way the “asset appreciating” economy of the last 15 years has favored those who already have/had assets to appreciate, opening up a bigger gap between the “haves and the have nots.” Call’s research finds that high performers are the ones who adapt first, learn faster, and use their expertise to ask more nuanced questions — seeing the increasingly important details that others miss.
So which is it? Is AI the lighthouse that helps everyone steer straight — or a beam that blinds the unprepared?
When Confidence Becomes Complacency
The answer, as it turns out, depends less on who’s holding the wheel, and more on what you want the wheel to do! . How so?
Top performers — the experienced captains — tend to embrace AI with curiosity and intent. They experiment, and use the light to read the waves ahead. They know when to trust their instruments and when to trust their instincts. They might also suffer from the complacent reaction of “I already knew that.”
Meanwhile, many others — often just as capable but less sure — either wait for “official guidance” or assume the light will do the steering for them. In other words, they confuse illumination with navigation.
This is where the modern workplace illusion creeps in: most people think they’re already captains. We’ve been conditioned to believe we’re all high performers. But AI doesn’t reward self-belief — it rewards skill, adaptability, and humility. It doesn’t care who you think you are. It cares how you think about using it.
The Lighthouse Exposes the Rocks — It Doesn’t Move Them
AI reveals more than it replaces. In sales and marketing, for example, AI can cut through the bias and drudgery of account planning. It gathers data, surfaces insights, and highlights connections that human teams miss. Tools like Shadow act as specialized co-pilots, giving teams greater “intellectual horsepower” by quickly doing some heavy lifting on research, analysis and suggesting obscure but powerful approaches.
But that same light can also expose weaknesses. AI doesn’t fix a poor strategy — it just makes it more visible. It doesn’t stop a team from being biased — it simply shows the bias in higher resolution and draws our attention to it. And if people overestimate their own capability, they’ll still end up sailing toward the rocks, they’ll just do it faster. The equalizer and the divider, as it turns out, are the same beam of light.
How Leaders Keep the Fleet Afloat
So how do you make sure your people don’t get dazzled — or shipwrecked — by the glow of AI? Call’s research offers three good navigational principles:
Create safe harbors for experimentation. Give teams time and space to explore AI tools without fear of getting it wrong. You can’t learn to navigate by staring at a manual, as sailors know, you have to get wet.
Share the maps. Capture and circulate effective learnings so one person’s discovery becomes everyone’s advantage.
Redefine what “good” looks like. Update evaluation systems so AI-assisted work is recognized fairly, not dismissed as “cheating” or credited only to the usual stars.
In short, AI is less of a compass, and more of an environmental shift — one that requires new habits, new metrics, and a new humility about what it means to be “good” at your job.
Conclusion: The Light Shows What Was Always There
In this regard AI is no different from other technology waves. It’s not THAT you use it, it’s HOW you use. It’s application over availability.
For some, that’s liberating — the light helps them see paths they never knew existed. For others, it’s unsettling — the fog was hiding more than just the shore.
The truth is, AI isn’t inherently an equalizer or a divider. It’s a mirror held up to how your organization learns, shares, and adapts. Lighthouses don’t steer ships. People do. And AI won’t futureproof or propel your organization in and of itself. By applying it courageously and thoughtfully, you will.
