A human-centric AI strategy is the CEO’s path to inspiring customers and team members

At a recent conference with fellow CEOs, I expressed my frustration with some Silicon Valley leaders and the misleading narratives they’re pushing about AI. For example, take Jack Dorsey and Marc Benioff, attributing layoffs to artificial intelligence. In reality, those cuts are the result of poor hiring decisions and a failure to rightsize fast enough after the pandemic. Framing them otherwise creates unrealistic expectations for boards and investors and puts undue pressure on CEOs and leadership teams to deliver immediate results from AI. Even more damaging, these narratives are creating a culture of fear within companies. Mark Zuckerberg’s recent moves at Meta to extensively track employee activity in the name of AI are a clear example of leaders’ using AI to mask tough management choices. These are organizations filled with talented, capable people—they recognize the disconnect between what is being said and what is actually happening. When leaders are not honest about intent and trade‑offs, fear takes hold. And fear is a terrible foundation for transformation. Here is where these leaders are getting it wrong. I deliberately frame AI as a tool. Not because AI is ordinary—it is the most extraordinary technology any of us will see in our lifetimes—but because it forces leaders and teams back to foundational basics. Technology alone does not drive outcomes. People do. People are how Salesforce transformed CRM and sales, how DocuSign transformed contracts, and how Henry Ford transformed manufacturing. Regardless of the technology, the pattern is the same. Technology reshapes work at scale, eliminates some roles, creates others, and ultimately puts the responsibility on leaders to manage the transition, not blame the tool. Even with as powerful a tool as AI, the foundational principles of disruption and change apply. That is the mindset we bring to AI at Calix, grounded in more than $2 billion invested over 15 years evolving a single platform that is central to