AI and the disappearing pause

Business Times

6 hours ago

'IT'S interesting to see progress through the arc of time,' Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai said recently on Lex Fridman's podcast. It aptly describes a huge shift happening in business right now; a change in how we even think about something as basic as time.
Time used to be one of the few constants in global business. We had clear deadlines, synchronised news cycles, 'follow-the-sun' business models. New York would open for business as Singapore was winding down. The world had a predictable beat, even if not perfectly aligned.
But something has shifted.
We no longer share time. We consume it. And as we do, something else has stepped in to seemingly unify us: artificial intelligence (AI).
Released recently, Apple's latest white paper, The Illusion of Thinking: Understanding the Strengths and Limitations of Reasoning Models via the Lens of Problem Complexity, offered a timely warning about the limits of what we perceive as AI's true 'reasoning' capabilities, particularly when faced with increasing complexity.
This research could not be more relevant, as we navigate a world where time itself feels fractured. Not just by time zone, but by our very experience of it. Our screens update instantly, yet our minds need more time to catch up. Trends explode in minutes, but decisions stretch across weeks. Some teams are 'on' 24/7, while others are experimenting with four-day weeks, all creating a fragmented sense of pace.
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The clock is dead; long live the code
AI has replaced traditional time as the driver of business speed. It works across time zones, never sleeps and always responds. AI is becoming the first thing everyone relies on. It is global, immediate and relentlessly consistent.
Feed a business challenge into an AI tool and in less than a minute, a well-structured response will appear. Discuss it with the team and I assure you that someone will say, 'That's actually good enough to run with.'
But that is precisely the problem.
Not because it is inaccurate, because it probably is not. But because it is almost always predictably coherent. It offers no friction, no doubt. There would not be a spark of tension.
This is where the real shift is happening. AI is collapsing time while expanding output. We get more done in less time. But in doing so, it threatens to erase something businesses have not yet learnt how to measure – the value of shared deliberation.
Even Bill Gates, during a recent visit to Singapore, admitted, 'If I had a switch to slow down AI, I might use it.' It was a rare concession from one of technology's most persistent optimists, and a reminder that just because something moves fast, does not mean we are ready to move with it at the same pace.
The disappearance of productive discomfort
When humans worked to the same clock, decisions took time. But that time created space for discussion, disagreement or even deep reflection. Not all of it was efficient, but much of it was productive discomfort. Productive discomfort is that critical pause before commitment; the challenge before reaching consensus.
AI, by contrast, skips the pause. It generates answers before humans even begin to ask follow-up questions. I am not saying it is wrong, but it removes resistance – which is the very thing that often leads to better insight.
With less shared time and more AI, companies might move quickly but without much deep thought.
This is not an argument against AI. It is an argument for reasserting intentional rhythm in a world where machines are increasingly dictating the pace at which we need to move.
If AI is the new constant, then leaders must become designers of pace, friction and flow. That begins with reintroducing cadence. For example, how does one create deliberate moments where teams step back from tools and re-engage with deeper thought. Not all tasks require instant answers. We know this from years of human experience and insight.
Next, we need to embrace useful pauses. Taking a bit more time should not be seen as a weakness. This strategic lag can bring back important context, deeper understanding and clearer thinking into our decisions.
Finally, we need to tell the difference between 'fast' and 'finished'. Just because AI gives an instant answer does not mean the discussion is over. Often, that is where the real thinking should just begin.
In short, we need to create thoughtful counterbalances to the hyper-efficiency AI enables. Do not get me wrong. This is not to slow progress, but to ensure we still know what progress means.
The new role of leadership
In the past, when everyone largely shared the same work hours, great leaders were like timekeepers. They set the pace, coordinated schedules and organised how work flowed. Today, their role has changed. Leaders must now become guardians of how we use time. They need to decide not only what tasks are completed, but also when they are done, how quickly and how much thought goes into them.
We used to organise business around time. Now, increasingly, we organise it around AI. Leadership today should not be about rejecting the technology. It is about knowing when to slow it down. Deliberately, and for the right reasons.
Because AI moves in seconds, but strategy and orchestration still takes time.
The writer is head of Singapore at Sling & Stone