Kiran Kodithala is the founder and CEO of N2N Services, Inc.
Some time ago, I started using AI agents to code software. I’d give them a prompt for a task. Then I’d wait. As one agent processed the code, I’d spin off another task with another agent. And while I waited for that AI agent to work, I’d spin off another. Prompt, wait, spin. Prompt, wait, spin. That was the loop.
After years away from coding, I’d started again—with AI by my side.
I’ve never been diagnosed, but I think I have ADHD. I’m always jumping from idea to idea, and I sometimes struggle to keep track of details. As a leader, I reached a point years ago when I questioned whether I should continue handling software development myself or delegate it to team members who were more detail-oriented and focused. As the company grew, I shifted my focus to strategy, customers and my other responsibilities as CEO. I stopped writing code and let my team take over software development.
Thanks to my son Varoon’s encouragement, I started leveraging AI to dive back into coding. Since then, I built an AI-powered software-building platform for my company’s customers, and it took only six months. My company’s output of production code has surged. We developed and launched the first version of our fraud detection software in mere months. And while all of that movement was happening at my company, I was undergoing major changes in my life. I got engaged to my fiancée, Jin. I traveled. I lost my beloved dog, Goldie. AI has helped me continue building professionally while making room for the important moments in my personal life.
AI: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
When discussing AI, many people focus on what it can take away from us. Those questions and concerns are valid; we need to critically examine this technology and think about its potential consequences, such as job loss and environmental damage.
But I think the idiom “the good, the bad and the ugly” applies here. AI has its share of the bad and the ugly. It also has its good. When people use AI well, they can expand their capabilities and reclaim time at work and at home.
When To Work And When To Step Away
My experience with AI has fundamentally changed how I see it. I don’t see AI as just a supplemental or complementary tool. I see it as a development tool that can support multiple functions and, in turn, fundamentally change workflows, helping people generate outcomes faster and free up their time and mental and emotional energy.
AI helps me work more productively so I can step away when I need and want to. I reviewed metrics on how often I used AI to code and noticed ebbs and flows in my activity. There were a few days when I didn’t use AI. I didn’t code. The ebbs and flows of my AI usage matched the ebbs and flows of my life. My birthday, the week I got engaged. The week I had to put down my dog, Goldie, after her battle with cancer.
There were days when my AI use was silent, so to speak, but AI has had another connection to silence in my life: It’s enabled me to be more productive, which in turn has helped me accomplish more at work so I can step back when I need to and step into silence in my mind about work. For example, before hiking the Great Wall of China, I told the AI tool I was using that I’d be offline for eight hours and instructed it to complete certain tasks while I was away. That helped me be present in the moment without losing momentum at work. When AI carries the noise, it gives me room to be present in my personal life. When I celebrated my birthday, when I got engaged, when I said goodbye to Goldie—I lived in those moments, sometimes happy, sometimes sad.
Best Practices For Approaching AI As A Leader
In my view, as leaders, we should always be honest with ourselves and with our team members about AI and its consequences, good and bad. AI can help us be more productive, but that increased productivity can also lead to job losses. AI can free up time for our personal lives, but it can also add more work to our plates. AI can expand our capabilities, but it can also hinder our skill development.
Leaders interested in using AI should identify a higher purpose rather than adopting it for its own sake. From there, instead of immediately asking employees to embrace AI, leaders should first explore whether AI can help them. To experiment, leaders should start small. I recommend choosing one manageable, concrete outcome and using AI to complete the tasks needed to achieve it within a day to a week. If leaders decide to move forward with AI adoption, they should gradually adapt their approach across the rest of their teams. Along the way, they should consider whether AI is giving them more time to focus on their employees, customers, family members and friends. We should ask ourselves, “Am I using AI to become more human or less human?”
Exercising Agency In AI Use
To an extent, we have agency over how we use AI and other tools, even if we can’t control things like how these technologies reshape the workforce. We can use AI to move our work forward, then close our laptops and turn our attention to the people and experiences that make our lives meaningful outside of work.
If we use it right, AI can give us back time and mental and emotional energy, so we can choose to live more in the moment. That’s how I believe we should lead and live in the age of AI.
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