The Career Rope Ladder.
Exploring how AI shakes the org chart, shortens the climb, and redefines what it means to rise at work.
We humans like structures. The social ones, like family. The abstract ones, like the Fibonacci sequence. The concrete ones, quite literally, like roads and buildings.
One of these structures is being restructured. Or deconstructed, rather: the corporate ladder. AI is turning it into a rope ladder.
What are the implications for the world of work?
From boxes to rungs
The good news first. There is still a ladder in the corporate world. AI is just blowing on it. The phenomenon is not a tornado yet, but we can already feel the nascent breeze. For now, by seeing AI as yet another cost-optimisation lever, the org chart stays put. It will just contain fewer boxes. Coldly logical to please shareholders, but rudimentary. And stubbornly inward-looking.
Another acceleration on the tech front -probably before AGI- and the breeze will get gusty. The org chart will shake.
Better or worse? In my view, a moot point:
Even the traditional career ladder has its quirks, with a fair share of political promotions and tactical stagnations.
Job instability is the only survivor to the rise of AI; the cogs we all are have a limited shelf life.
Companies embracing AI in a serious manner (i.e. not just for an FTE gain) will see the implications ripple through their org chart. The latter won’t disappear -a chain of command is still necessary- but growth paths within it will become more fluid.
And guess what: fluidity typically comes with instability. This is where the solid wooden corporate ladder will turn into a wobbly rope ladder.
Rest assured. You won’t need to be an Olympic gymnast to hang on to it. You won’t need to straight up become the AI transformer I described in a previous newsletter. The updated ladder presents opportunities if you understand how it works and evolves.
Let’s be real. If you were thinking of going the extra mile in your work, think again. AI is about to make this extra mile much shorter…and if the extra mile is no longer a mile:
How do you rise and shine?
How do you show your dependability?
How do you amplify your impact?
How do you thrive outside the organisational box you’ve been put in?
You radiate above the box. Beside the box. Beyond the box.
Above, beside and beyond
With AI accelerating routine work, going the extra mile becomes going the extra inch.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. AI augmentation works in multiple directions.
Vertically, AI is accelerating the pace of scientific discovery. Protein folding, drug design, and climate modelling are no longer inching forward. They’re leaping. Of course, this is not AI alone but the combination of algorithms with unprecedented compute power. When DeepMind’s AlphaFold predicted the structure of nearly every known protein, it wasn’t just a win for AI; it was a signal of how vertical leaps will become the new normal.
Horizontally, for any one of us. Enterprise-level, highly contextualised AI tools are no longer science fiction. They’re already in pilot mode across industries. Think of an AI teammate that knows your company’s data, jargon, and workflows better than you do. Microsoft’s Copilot for Office or SAP’s Joule are early signs. Soon, AI will act less like a generic assistant and more like an embedded colleague, tuned to your organisation’s DNA.
For any company designing its AI-infused target operating model, this means:
No more silos. Riddled with conflicting agendas and misaligned timelines, cross-functional collaboration will give way to… collaboration.
More lateral moves. Once assembled on a project basis, tribes and squads will be the natural way of working.
More informal leadership. Varying business priorities will call for varying leadership styles to best respond to the situation.
The new org chart is designed for those who show:
The motivation to connect the dots.
The willingness to pivot when the environment shifts.
The ability to convey multifaceted messages clearly.
Simply put, agility is morphing from a company behaviour into an individual trait. And therefore, a variable you can tune up over time.
Gone with the (AI) wind
I’m not sure if there are still companies measuring performance in hours logged and tasks ticked off, but I am sure AI is a new dealer reshuffling performance cards. We’ve already seen three of these cards: listening, open-mindedness, and clarity. They provide the foundations for an AI-augmented worker looking to be visible and dependable.
The career rope ladder is less about vertical ascent and more about mastering the climb itself.
The better you understand the rhythm of the rope, the stronger your foothold, and the smarter your adjustments, the higher you can rise.
The rope may sway, the rungs may loosen, but careers won’t vanish: they’ll reshape. Success won’t come from climbing the fastest, but from adapting the smoothest. In this new world of work, stability is not given; it’s practised.