Ruba Borno, worldwide vice president of Global Specialists and Partners at AWS, says the prevailing metaphor that treats artificial intelligence as a colleague or employee is misleading. She likens AI to the fiberglass pole that revolutionised pole vaulting in the 1960s, a technology that enabled athletes to break records, but never competed on its own.
The metaphor that misleads
Talk of AI as a "team member" or of humans as "managers" of digital agents suggests a direct substitution of people with machines. While the comparison can help frame governance of autonomous systems, it collapses when applied to workforce decisions. AI can generate code, synthesise research and orchestrate workflows faster than any human team, yet it does not replace the people who create value.
AI as a performance-enhancing technology
Historically, new materials have reshaped sport: the switch from metal to a fiberglass pole led to 19 world records in a decade, aerodynamic advances accounted for almost half of cycling performance gains, graphite rackets transformed tennis, and polyurethane swimsuits were so effective they were eventually banned. In each case the technology amplified human ability without becoming a competitor.
The same pattern is emerging in business. Within Borno's own engineering organisation, AI assistance lifted shipping throughput by 1.65 times year-over-year, cut time to production by 21 per cent, and saw more than 76 per cent of code changes made with AI help. The company's AI coding assistant, Kiro, lets any employee build workflows, sort data and automate routine tasks that previously took weeks.
Real-world examples
The World Surf League spent decades storing performance data in spreadsheets. Partnering with AllCloud, the league built a real-time AI platform that reduced broadcast preparation time by 80 per cent, allowing commentators to focus on storytelling rather than data mining.
United Airlines faces the challenge of informing half a million daily passengers about delays. Hand-crafted messages could not scale, so the airline now uses AI to draft more than half of those communications, delivering a consistent customer experience at a volume no human team could achieve.
What this means for companies
Businesses that view AI as a tool for raising the performance floor are outpacing those that treat it as a headcount reducer. The question shifts from "how many jobs can we replace" to "what new outcomes can our people achieve with this technology". As with the fiberglass pole, once the tool is adopted it becomes the new baseline, and the competitive edge belongs to those who set a higher bar.
Looking ahead
AI will continue to reshape expectations across industries. Companies that embed AI to automate processes while letting humans deliver the creative and strategic value will set the standards that others must chase. The lesson is clear: AI is not an employee; it is the modern equivalent of the graphite racket or the aerodynamic bike, a catalyst that lets the best talent reach heights previously unattainable.