The Horizontal Race: Creating Space for Humanity (Ep.2 blog)
Organizations today are inundated with generative AI tools. Yet they often lack the strategy, capability, or speed necessary to integrate them meaningfully or understand what they are truly for. This significant challenge is exactly what Andus Labs, a generative AI strategy and leadership advisory firm, was purpose-built to address. The firm's mission is rooted in the belief that in the midst of the current "gold rush" of AI development, we must focus on "finding the humanity in what's happening".
Co-founder Chris speaks from formative experience, having witnessed a family business automate and fail due to technological change (desktop publishing). This history fuels a commitment to helping leaders proactively see changes coming and prepare thoughtfully. Likewise, co-founder Jennifer McTinan notes that AI is not just a technological shift, but one that is "emotionally and psychologically difficult," creating unease when machines can demonstrate proficiency in traditionally human domain expertise, such as passing the multiple-choice section of the California Bar exam.
What’s in a Name: Andus and the Power of the Lab
The name Andus Labs reflects their core philosophy. "Andus" stands for "and us", representing the belief that the future should be driven by people, not just by machines.
The "Labs" component is the strategic solution for bridging the gap between organizational speed and technological speed. Established businesses, especially Fortune 500 firms, cannot easily unwind their existing processes. Therefore, Andus Labs creates managed, accountable spaces - literal labs - where clients can move rapidly and prove new concepts without disrupting daily business operations. These labs function as "silo busters" and safe spaces to model how work can be done, providing leaders with the evidence and confidence needed to activate new strategies.
The overall mission is focused on helping clients understand AI, think with AI, and build new things with AI.
Andus Labs’ approach involves consultation, convening diverse thinkers, and co-creating solutions with clients, rather than acting as a traditional consultancy that does the thinking for the organization.
Generative Thinking: Amplifying Human Potential
Andus Labs champions a post-AI design ethos called generative thinking (or Type G). While traditional design thinking focused on new products and services, generative thinking is required because AI demands that we redesign everything, including core workflows.
The goal is to move beyond the narrow objective of efficiency, which often translates to automation and job cuts. Instead, the ideal situation is one where we amplify human potential, magnify human creativity, and honor and preserve exquisite human intelligence.
Generative thinking requires a fundamental shift in mindset:
1. Embracing Generative Flow: This approach moves away from Type A mastery (control and deployment). When machines are generating ideas and content, leaders need to embrace a temporary relinquishing of control in the middle ground, while still applying mastery, taste, and judgment at the bookends of the process.
2. Focusing on Breaks: The method involves exploring organizational and process "breaks" in an expansive and opportunistic way, and then hypothesizing what could be versus what has been, allowing for rapid testing and iteration.
The Mandate for Proactive Leadership
The most critical factor in successful AI integration is people leadership, making this a change management movement. Leaders must listen intently to address the psychological and emotional elements of AI adoption.
For HR and people operations, this transformation requires moving from AI literacy to AI acculturation. Acculturation involves being in the work and sorting out challenges together through actual team effort, rather than relying on rote individual training.This entire movement can be viewed as a contest between two critical "races," as quoted from Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang:
• The Vertical Race: The high-stakes pursuit of the most powerful AI, dominated by a few major tech companies.
• The Horizontal Race: The critical effort designed for collective intelligence and expanding use cases, ensuring AI amplifies human agency.
Currently, the discourse is reactive- a technology story. Not a human story. Andus Labs contends that to preserve human agency and build a better future, leaders must become proactive rather than reactive, making sure that the human element is an advocate at the table and an agent of acculturation
Check out the full discussion with Jennifer and Chris here.