Welcome to Edition 20 of The ABM-er
This month I’m reflecting on the skills we’ll need as ABM-ers going forward as we increasingly collaborate with AI agents in our teams. I’m drawing on a recent meeting of the ABM Leadership Forum I run, during which we had a guest presentation from the excellent Jaspreet Bindra, co-founder of AI&Beyond and a champion of AI literacy for everyone. Jaspreet has some fascinating insights on how the world of work is evolving and what that means for us.
I’m also featuring something close to my heart. I have been sponsoring a remarkable young man, Jake Smith. Jake is a 26 year old GB Paralympic cyclist. At 19, he was playing rugby at county level when a spinal cord injury left him paralysed down his left side. Step by step, he has rebuilt his body, relearning how to stand, move, and walk again. He has found a new path in cycling. What started as simply getting on a bike has led to a place on the GB squad. I interviewed Jake to uncover his motivation, how he has dealt with uncertainty, adapted to his new reality, and maintained his resilience through the unbelievably hard work of training to be a Paralympian. The answers are surprisingly relevant – and inspirational – for us all.
Together, these two stories point to the same conclusion: as AI takes on more of the ‘how’, it’s the very human qualities – judgement, resilience, adaptability – that set us apart, whether we’re building an ABM career or rebuilding a body from scratch.
Keeping AI in the loop
Jaspreet writes extensively on AI and is passionate about building AI literacy for organisations and their people. Jaspreet’s recent writing has explored what happens to the value of human work once AI output becomes fluent, abundant and cheap, and the answer is fascinating. People and organisations start to pay a premium for the marks of genuine human effort – judgement, imperfection, lived experience – rather than for polish alone.
He shared his perspectives on being human in the age of AI at a recent meeting of my ABM Leadership Forum. I particularly liked the fact that he believes it’s time to flip the model from keeping the human in the loop to keeping AI in the loop. Humans remain the drivers while AI should be allowed to expand the possibilities in any task.
Other implications for ABM-ers included:
- Voice is the new user interface. This will profoundly impact how we collaborate with AI as typing becomes a bottleneck and microphones replace keyboards and apps. It levels the playing field and makes work more accessible for those who find keyboards a challenge, bringing new talent and perspectives into our teams.
- Agents are the new team members. We need to think of teams and collaboration in whole new ways. And IT will become the HR of AI agents, so we need to collaborate closely with IT to select and leverage the right agents for ABM.
- The ‘what’ is more important than the ‘how’. Answers have become commodities. When how to do something becomes easier, what to create becomes even more important, so we will spend more time planning and checking work than doing it.
- A-Commerce will become the new E-Commerce. Agentic commerce is where AI agents buy and sell autonomously, researching, comparing, negotiating, and completing online purchases. It’s early days but a shift worth planning for now, as agentic buyers start to influence how ABM buying committees research and shortlist.
- As agents become more powerful, we should become more human. Jaspreet talks about seven core human characteristics that will matter more than ever as we collaborate with AI: curiosity, creativity, compassion, collaboration, conscience (ethics), common sense and craft. All of these are super relevant for ABM-ers and increasingly important to look for alongside AI literacy in the people you hire.
Digging deep as your world changes
Jake Smith has a dream: to represent Great Britain at the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, chasing medals at the highest level.
On New Year’s Eve 2019, Jake underwent emergency surgery to remove a spinal cavernoma. The operation left him with a C3 to C7 spinal cord injury and Brown-Séquard syndrome: limited movement down his left side, no pain sensation on his right. It was a life-changing diagnosis.
What followed was a rapid and remarkable rebuild. Jake completed a swimless Ironman, summited Monte Rosa (4,215m) with the Millimetres2Mountains Development Programme, and began training seriously in para cycling. Within a few years he had broken into the world’s best. Jake is already winning medals at European and national level: bronze at the 2026 UEC Para-cycling Road European Championships in Maniago and silver at the 2026 British National TT Championships, on top of a top 5 finish at the 2025 Road World Championships and gold at the 2026 British Track Championships. He has already shown he can compete with, and beat, the best in the world.
I caught up with Jake this month to understand where his motivation comes from, how he dealt with uncertainty during his recovery, and how he keeps going through his punishing training programme. His answers are inspirational for anyone coping with significant change and uncertainty right now.
What motivates you to be a paralympian, Jake?
I always wanted to be a professional sportsman. But I thought that would be in rugby until my injury happened, but now it’s cycling. I want to be outdoors, training and pushing myself and my body while I can, to see what I’m now capable of. And I realised that we all take our health for granted, so now I want to do what I can, while I can. It’s wonderful to be doing things with an impaired body better than I ever could before.
How did you cope with the uncertainty of your situation after your injury?
Every time my mind started to spiral, I told myself not to worry, to stay with the programme of recovery and see what things are like in three weeks or three months. Not to get ahead of myself. I focused on the next goal, and then the process of reaching it.
How did you adapt to your new situation?
Once I realised my injuries were permanent, I focused on everything I could do to achieve the best outcome in that situation. Anything I knew I couldn’t change, I accepted. For example, I was doing five hours of rehab a day on my hand, but once I got to the ceiling of what I could achieve with it, I accepted that and worked on the next thing. I did anything I could to that would deliver the best outcome.
How do you maintain your resilience when things get tough?
It’s all about understanding the why. For me, that’s about understanding the principles of training. Why am I doing a five-hour training ride when I don’t want to? Because of the adaptations I know it will make in my body, and what that will do to my performance.
Jake’s answers are a reminder that focusing on what you can control, and understanding the why behind the effort, carries you through any period of radical change – in sport, or navigating disruption at work. LA28 is Jake’s target, and gold is the goal. This weekend marked the two-year countdown to the games. If you’d like to join the ride and follow Jake’s story, visit theroadtola28.com or watch his progress on instagram: jake.smith.32.
Read July’s ABM-er on ABM in APAC.
