Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved far beyond experimentation. It is already reshaping how industries operate, how economies evolve, and how people experience work.

Recent McKinsey research shows that almost all organizations now use AI in some form, yet most are still at the beginning of scaling it responsibly and effectively. At the same time, there is no question that technological change continues to happen at a remarkable pace, and it demands careful guidance through constant organizational transformation, strong leadership, and the key ability to learn and unlearn.

I am convinced that the future will not be human versus AI, despite this still-dominant narrative. It will be determined by how effectively human insight, judgement, and expertise shape AI’s integration into work and society. The real opportunity lies in combining human and AI across creative and analytical domains, applying the right competencies in the right context.

Built on trust and ethical intent, AI can amplify human potential while inevitably transforming certain roles and tasks. The Intelligent Age is not about technological dominance, but about purposeful progress through human-AI collaboration.

The rise of human-AI power couples

Imagine working with a new colleague who has not been trained in a classroom but by algorithms processing vast datasets. Simply put, this AI teammate delivers speed, scale, and precision while you bring judgement, context, and creativity. Together, you achieve outcomes neither could deliver alone.

This is already happening across industries. The real differentiator is how well humans and intelligent systems complement each other’s strengths—mainly combining AI’s capacity for data-driven execution with human adaptability and vision. These human-AI power couples are becoming a new source of competitive advantage, able to solve problems faster, spot opportunities earlier, and innovate more boldly.

Yet this potential only materializes when people trust the AI tools they use: trust built not just on transparency, but on daily experience of systems that help them succeed.

Designing the new architecture of work

To set these human-AI power couples up for success, organizations must rethink the very architecture of work. Trust and collaboration are not enough if the underlying structures remain rigid. Traditional roles and hierarchies cannot keep pace with continuous technological change. Work will become increasingly fluid, shaped by skills, collaboration, and shared intelligence. Our time demands adaptive organizations that continuously learn and enable their teams to take on new challenges as they arise.

Consequently, this shift also places new expectations on leaders. As AI progresses, human leadership becomes increasingly important, not less. Leaders must design environments where human and artificial intelligence reinforce each other, and they must actively drive the effective use of AI to deliver business outcomes. This requires adopting a new model, in which leaders fluently manage integrated systems of people and AI agents. They are accountable not only for their human teams’ performance, but also for the limitations of the AI models they deploy. This means creating a working environment where experimentation is encouraged and where people feel supported as their roles evolve.

As shown in SAP’s own Future of Work research, employees express growing openness toward AI-enabled coaching and support. When AI takes on parts of the coaching role, leaders must focus on what only humans can provide: context, empathy, and the ability to inspire. AI can track progress, but it cannot build trust or shape culture.

The human skills that will shape the Intelligent Age

As humans and intelligent systems collaborate more closely, the skills people need will also continue to evolve. Research from the OECD and the World Economic Forum shows that skills have a shorter lifespan than ever before. Traditional job profiles no longer keep pace. The real differentiator is how quickly people can learn and keep up as technology advances.

A skills-led organization takes a holistic view of employees’ skills across the entire employee life cycle—from recruiting and learning to talent development and succession management. Its defining capability is the ability to adapt with speed to external changes and disruptions. A company can adjust required skills almost in real time. This is a prerequisite to staying competitive and responding quickly to customer and market needs.

AI is the catalyst for this adaptability: it identifies skill gaps in real time, personalizes learning journeys, and enables talent to move fluidly to where it is most needed. This turns skills management from a static process into a dynamic system, preparing a workforce that evolves alongside technology rather than being overtaken by it.

Culture as the true algorithm

At the same time, culture becomes equally decisive. Technology may accelerate change, but culture determines its impact. Responsible AI adoption depends on strong cultural foundations. A culture of trust enables people to take ownership and try new approaches without fear of failure. The goal is to have a workforce with a true growth mindset. A mindset that is defined by the inner drive to grow turns change from uncertainty into progress. It is the ability to learn and unlearn, to let go of outdated approaches and embrace new ones.

In fast-moving industries like technology, the pace of transformation is beyond any single person’s control; what can be shaped is how we respond to it. When curiosity and adaptation become a constant core element of organizational agility, change is met with confidence.

Building inclusive and forward-looking societies

When such strong organizational cultures guide responsible AI adoption, their influence naturally extends beyond the workplace, shaping how technology transforms societies, economies, labor markets, and education systems. Whether this shift leads to broader opportunity or deeper inequality depends on the decisions we make now.

AI is already widening access to learning, democratizing coaching, creating more opportunities, and enabling people to focus on meaningful, uniquely human work. The challenge now is to scale these gains, so the Intelligent Age drives shared progress—not deeper inequality—under a responsible, human-centric approach.

What matters now

In the Intelligent Age, technological progress will not wait—nor should it—but it does require leaders to redesign how work and organizations function so that human and artificial intelligence advance together.

This demands a radical rethinking of structures, skills, and leadership models to match the pace of innovation. Three imperatives stand out.

• Design for trust: Ensure transparent governance and explicit human accountability, embedded in every stage of AI design; this is essential to building trust in human-AI collaboration.
• Build human capability: Make continuous learning, upskilling, and mobility the default, powered by AI insights that connect talent to opportunity in real time.
• Lead with humanity: Anchor empathy, purpose, and ethical judgment in every decision.

Technology can amplify performance and even inspire to think out of the box, but only when guided by clear intent and values. The future will favor organizations that reimagine work at the speed of technology—and keep humanity at its core.

AI will accelerate our potential, and while technology’s advance is largely unstoppable, it is our values and leadership that will determine how we respond to and guide its impact. AI without humanity is simply incomplete.

Gina Vargiu-Breuer is chief people officer, labor director, and a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.

This piece originally appeared on the World Economic Forum website.

In a world where technology moves at lightning speed, I am fortunate to have a vantage point and a unique opportunity to see the connections business leaders make and the possibilities they create in defining moments for their industry.

“Beyond Tech – Expanding Perspectives” is about their stories. With this series, I hope to provide a glimpse into the inspiring minds I encounter, capturing their ideas to spark insight and innovation.

For the first episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Nisha Bakker, director of Partnerships at The Ocean Cleanup, an organization proving that, with the right vision, evidence, and engineering, we can solve global challenges at scale.

Plastic is one of humanity’s greatest inventions and one of its most persistent problems. Durable, cheap, and versatile, it has transformed food security, medicine, logistics, and manufacturing. But that same durability means most of the plastic ever produced still exists today. And much of it has ended up where it shouldn’t: in our rivers, our oceans, our ecosystems—even our bodies.

Today, the world produces more than 430 million tons of plastic annually. Production is still rising, projected to grow 66 percent by 2040, even as waste management systems are overwhelmed. Only nine percent of plastic is recycled globally. A third is mismanaged, left to leak into the environment through open dumping, unregulated landfills, and littering. As a result, more than 109 million tons of plastic have accumulated in rivers and lakes, far more than the 30 million tons in the oceans themselves.

Rivers are the main conveyor belt carrying waste to the sea. In 2020 alone, 1.4 million tons of plastic flowed from rivers into the ocean. Without intervention, this will more than double by 2060. Just a thousand rivers account for 80 percent of this flow, largely in rapidly developing economies where growth, urbanization, and weak waste systems collide.

This is where The Ocean Cleanup has focused its mission. The organization aims to rid the world’s oceans of plastic through a comprehensive strategy that includes removing legacy plastic accumulated in the ocean and along coastlines while also stopping new plastic pollution from entering the marine environment. Their ambition is bold and unambiguous: to put themselves out of business by 2040.

Data, vision the difference in cleanup efforts

During our conversation, Nisha explained how the work is driven not only by passion, but by evidence. “You could look at a river, see the problem, and start removing plastic immediately,” she said. “But we first determine the best place to remove it, and then build the entire value chain around it—including recycling, operators, permits, and long-term partners. Data is what sets us apart.”

Behind every cleanup is an enormous amount of engineering and analysis. The Ocean Cleanup’s teams map political, economic, and social dynamics in each country with an affected river system. They deploy trackers to understand how fast plastic moves, where it gets stuck, and how seasonal changes from monsoons to dry months affect pollution flows. Cameras equipped with detection algorithms help quantify volumes and patterns. Modelling and simulations guide where to deploy Interceptor systems and how to scale them.

This foundation of data explains their success: more than 46 million kilograms of waste intercepted and removed from marine and freshwater environments, thanks to System 03, their towed ocean technology spanning over 2.2 kilometers, which can clean an area the size of a football field in five seconds; and over 20 Interceptor systems deployed across the world’s most polluted rivers. The organization recently unveiled plans to tackle up to a third of all plastic emissions from rivers through its 30 Cities Program, targeting urban centers with important waterways and major pollution problems.

But as Nisha stressed, cleanup is only one part of the solution. “We’re buying time for systemic change,” she told me. “Ultimately you need governments, producers, recyclers, and communities working together.”

There are signs of progress: more than 90 countries now have plastic bag bans; extended producer responsibility regulations are expanding; and negotiations toward a global plastics treaty have brought unprecedented international attention to the issue despite agreement remaining elusive.

The importance of systems

What struck me most in our discussion was the philosophy that drives The Ocean Cleanup. With employees from 40 nationalities, they are building bridges across sectors, disciplines, and geographies. They are proving what is possible when a global movement is anchored in evidence-based design and relentless experimentation.

At SAP, we recognize this mindset. Helping the world run better and improving people’s lives requires more than intention; it requires agile systems capable of putting insights at the fingertips of business. That’s why The Ocean Cleanup relies on SAP to deliver on its mission. Every hour they spend building business systems is an hour not spent developing ocean systems, river systems, or new engineering solutions. Our role is to provide a stable, integrated digital foundation so they can focus on innovation, not administration. Technology should accelerate impact and enable scale, not get in the way of it.

The same is true for every organization. Whether fighting pollution, reimagining supply chains, or transforming business models, the biggest breakthroughs happen when you combine purpose with technology that can support it. Clean, connected data, intelligent processes, and applications that automate what can be automated so people can focus on what matters most: This is why SAP is more relevant than ever.

The Ocean Cleanup shows what is possible when bold ideas meet the right technology and the right partnerships. This is exactly the type of conversation I look forward to bringing you through Beyond Tech – Expanding Perspectives, stories of inspiring minds that demonstrate that the future is not something we predict, but something we build together.

Manos Raptopoulos is global president of Customer Success, Europe, APAC, Middle East & Africa, and a member of the Extended Board at SAP.