14 M C K I N S EY Q UA RT E R LY Outlook - - - - - - - - - » 11. Agentic engineering becomes the next capability to master. Foundation models are now capable of sustained, autonomous work over long periods, making it pos sible to build complex agentic workflows. Nowhere is this more evident than in software development, where the productivity gains have been astonishing. Leading companies are moving quickly to master agentic engineering. They are ingesting unstruc tured data, extending their AI platforms with agentic capabilities, automating guardrails and controls, and rapidly experimenting to codify what works into a repeatable agentic playbook. Rewired leaders con sistently absorb new technologies faster because they’ve built the underlying capabilities to do so. Will agentic workflows be your next engineering advantage—or your next catch-up problem? 12. (Re)learn like your business depends on it. One reason we love working in this space is that it’s constantly changing. The half-life of skills is short ening as innovation accelerates. The organizations that learn, unlearn, and relearn the fastest have the advantage. Taking the leadership team on learning journeys is the most important thing a CEO can do to accelerate business transformation with AI. These journeys are crucial for the top team to reach the point of conviction when both the strategic oppor tunity and transformation pathway become clear. At that point, every C-suite leader understands their role and the transformation truly accelerates. Becoming the leader this era demands starts with committing to continuous learning; are you person- ally investing enough? Building the complete set of rewired capabilities is the cornerstone of every successful tech and AI transformation. Companies can accelerate their way through developing them, but they cannot skip the foundational work. This gets at the idea of compounding value as capabilities build off one another and competitive distance increases. That’s how leading companies consistently out perform, again and again. Alex Singla is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Chicago office; Alexander Sukharevsky and Kate Smaje are senior partners in the London office; and Eric Lamarre is a senior partner emeritus and special adviser in the Boston office, where Robert Levin is a senior partner. The AI Antidote AI is changing the workplace and placing new demands on leaders. Meditation can help them maintain perspective and manage the disruption. BY M A N I S H C H O P R A First thing in the morning, I’d check my email. After a shower and breakfast, I’d check it again and start tackling the many things on my to-do list. I multitasked all day: call clients, analyze information, catch up with texts and calls, meet a client, chisel out time with my family, and go to bed with a million things on my mind. It was a strain, it was a rush, and I thought I was the definition of productivity. Then I ran out of steam. I felt I was at an inflection point in my life and in my leadership journey. Some thing was off. So in 2010, I decided to try what my wife had been urging me to do for five years: start medi tating. Since then, nothing has been the same for me. In the age of ascendant AI, nothing seems the same for many companies, leaders, and workers. Consider this incomplete list of what leaders must face: instant outputs from black boxes processing all kinds of data; accelerated and altered workflows; agents, robots, and people working together; a new mode of decision- making; a whole new race to create value before other organizations. Companies need new kinds of talent and new ecosystems and partners. And then there’s the anxiety many people feel as they wonder what the workplace of the future will look like, whether they can keep up with the technology, and how to make themselves adaptable, if not indispensable. Let’s take a moment. Let’s catch our breath. And let’s consider how the practice that reset my life and work can lead to clear perspectives, resil ience, and judgment. This article explores how and why a consistent meditation practice may provide leaders with a healthy foundation for grappling with the frenetic age of AI.