Reading this interesting article about AI and the recent mass layoff in Amazon resonates the innvoator’s dilemma by Professor Christensen. While senior managers see the long-term strategic value of integrating AI in day-to-day workflow, employees heavily against it. The issue is exactly the misalignment in objectives.
Employees in Amazon are likely to be blamed if errors, such as the 13-hour service outage in December 2025 casused by Kiro, occurs. When employers see the upside of swiftly adopting a new technology, employees need to bear the downside costs of failures led by the new technology. As the person who uses this technology in their actual production process, they naturally averse to this change. This is exactly the conflict delineated in the Innovator’s Dilemma and this will eventual lead to technology and knowledge obsolescence. The leader in the yesterday is no longer the leader tomorrow.
Will there be a solution? Yes, split your organization and create a new working environemnt which provide enough tolerance to failure in adopting the new technology. Spin-off will be the solution here!