AI transformation is no longer a distant promise. It’s here, embedded in our tools, workflows, and increasingly our decisions. Yet for many organisations, progress remains cautious. We see small wins, a task automated here, a report generated there - when what’s truly possible is nothing short of transformative.
In a recent conversation with Tamar Yehoshua, a leading voice in AI strategy, one truth stood out: the greatest barrier to unleashing AI potential is not the technology itself, but our imagination. Our willingness to change.
This blog post is a roadmap for leaders, boards, and the emerging AI-native workforce to shape the future of work with purpose and ambition. Let’s dive in!
Boards as Catalysts for AI Transformation
The role of a board is to guide, to challenge, and to safeguard an organisation’s future. In the age of AI, that means moving the conversation beyond the IT department and embedding it firmly into the heart of business strategy.
As Tamar emphasises, AI literacy across the entire board isn’t essential. It’s strategic awareness that truly makes a difference. She explains,
“I absolutely wouldn't say that everyone needs to be AI literate on a board, but what they have to do is they have to be aware of the industry and where it's going, whatever your industry is in, and they have to be educated about that industry. [...] And then I would say every board should at least have one board member who's AI knowledgeable and who can talk to the trends and who can know what the latest is, to be asking how they're dealing with the latest.”
The presence of even one AI-savvy board member can shift the tone of discussions from passive updates to informed challenges and ensure AI is not a side project but a strategic lever for long-term growth.
Closing the Imagination Gap
When asked what holds companies back from AI transformation, Tamar didn’t cite budgets or technical complexity. Instead, her answer was simple but much more human: people’s imagination.
Technology is already capable of more than what most companies are using it for. It’s the mindset shift that’s hard.
History tells this story well. Tamar drew a parallel to the adoption of workplace messaging:
“Getting behaviour change in organisations takes a lot of time. And because people are used to working in a certain way, and part of it is a new generation comes in. A new generation came in and was used to messaging in their personal life and then wanted messaging at work. And the generation that was used to email and wasn't used to messaging was slow, and it was really difficult to bring them along. But when a critical mass came and said, ‘We want to use messaging at work,’ then they all had to come along. So it's going to be the same thing with AI.”
Today, we stand at a similar tipping point where AI-native graduates are entering the workforce with the fluency, curiosity, and confidence to reimagine new ways of working. The question for leaders is whether their organisations will be ready to harness that energy.
From Small Wins to Radical Reimagination
Incremental AI adoption (like automating reports and streamlining workflows) has value. But true AI transformation doesn’t happen like that.
The organisations that will define the next decade will go further: they will redesign their workflows and customer experiences from the ground up, with AI at the heart of design.
Making this leap requires three things:
- Leadership commitment to AI as a driver of both value and innovation.
- Governance discipline to measure, report, and challenge AI outcomes.
- A confident, AI-literate workforce ready to experiment, adapt, and imagine new ways of working.
Without these, AI risks becoming a scattered set of local successes rather than a unifying force for transformation.
Final Thoughts
AI’s potential is vast, but its limits today are more human than technical. To realise this potential, we need leaders who lead by example, boards that challenge and measure progress, and teams that are confident enough to imagine differently.
At Cambridge Spark, our mission has always been to equip the workforce for the realities of an AI-powered world. Tamar’s perspective reinforces that this is not just about technical upskilling. It’s about mindset. This is why our programmes combine technical learning with hands-on application and cross-functional collaboration. Because when skill meets imagination, AI transformation follows.