AI is making teams more productive. The natural instinct is to cut headcount. But that instinct may be costing leaders the bigger opportunity.

Adam Brotman and Andy Sack frame AI productivity as a two-sided decision: the denominator (cost reduction) and the numerator (revenue growth, customer experience, innovation). Most executives default to the denominator without asking whether to pursue both, and in what order. They introduce the "exoskeleton" concept, a framework for mapping exactly where AI is improving workflows and capabilities across an organization before making structural changes. Companies like Klarna that moved too fast on cuts had to retrace their steps.

This is practical advice for any executive facing the AI productivity question right now: understand the lift before you reorganize around it.