Most books about artificial intelligence tend to exaggerate the hype, promoting ideas of machine intelligence, task automation, and job loss. Reshuffle offers a different perspective. Sangeet Paul Choudary presents AI not as a replacement for human thinking, but as a coordination technology—a capability that reshapes how industries operate, how actors collaborate, and how value is created, captured, or redistributed. Central to the book is the idea of AI enabling “coordination without consensus.”
It is a compelling premise that merits further scrutiny. But does the book deliver? And more importantly, does it advance the debate on what AI is actually doing to organizations, workforces, and socio-technical systems?
A Useful Reframing: Coordination over Automation
While many AI narratives focus on productivity gains and clarifying human–machine roles, Reshuffle contends that the real disruption is in how AI reshuffles value chains. Instead of just enhancing task efficiency, AI fosters new ways of coordinating among fragmented actors—demonstrating “coordination without consensus,” a core idea emphasized throughout the book.
This is an important and much-needed change. In manufacturing, supply chains, R&D ecosystems, and PLM-heavy environments, coordination often becomes the main bottleneck. AI’s ability to organize unstructured data, create unified representations, and support decisions across distributed teams truly transforms how organizations operate.
Yet this raises a critical point.
Is AI Changing the System… or Revealing What the Data Already Knows?
To put it simply, Choudary centers his argument around the question: How does AI change the system into which it is deployed?
It is a strong question, but it risks missing the underlying mechanism.
Systems do not change because AI appears. They change because data structures, flows, and insights reveal new constraints and enable new decisions. AI accelerates this by exposing long-hidden dependencies, inefficiencies, and behavioral patterns. The system reorganizes itself in response.
A more precise framing may be: How do data and insights—amplified by AI—reshape the decisions, behaviors, and governance that define the system?
This distinction is important. Technology alone does not reorganize value chains; people and organizations do—once new information shifts what is possible.
Importantly, Reshuffle succeeds where many AI books fall short. It is accessible to non-experts, avoids hype about technology, and emphasizes lasting patterns rather than quickly changing tools. Choudary makes complex ideas simple without oversimplifying, providing decision-makers with a mental model that stays relevant as technology advances. This goal is clearly outlined in the book’s introduction: the author states that the aim is to offer “a framework for thinking about those changes… regardless of how technology evolves.”
Above-the-Algorithm and Below-the-Algorithm: A Relevant Warning
One of the book’s strongest contributions is its definition of the emerging divide between:
- Those who orchestrate ecosystems (above the algorithm), and
- Those whose work becomes standardized or commoditised (below the algorithm).
This distinction applies to designers, analysts, and engineers just as much as to gig workers. For leaders across PLM, digital thread, product development, and innovation, this framing is particularly relevant. AI will not eliminate engineering; it will redistribute engineering value, depending on how roles align with new coordination logic.
The focus shifts from skills to where human judgment remains essential: risk management, systems design, trade-off interpretation, regulatory navigation, cross-functional orchestration, and uncertainty management.
Opportunities to Deepen the Discussion
While the book provides a strong strategic foundation, several areas could benefit from deeper exploration to expand its relevance for transformation leaders:
- Limited examination of data architectures that materially shape system behavior
- Minimal coverage of governance, traceability, and trust requirements
- A missed opportunity to connect coordination economics with digital thread realities
- Greater emphasis on platforms than on engineering and manufacturing contexts
This is where a coherent and continuous data stream becomes essential: without contextualized data, meaningful insights, and lifecycle traceability, AI has little to coordinate. The reshuffle works only when underlying data remains connected—when data coherence, rather than system ambition, guides transformation.
Reshuffle is a valuable and thought-provoking read for leaders and non-experts looking to understand AI beyond hype and productivity clichés. Its main strength is in repositioning AI as a force that reshapes ecosystems through coordination, not cognition—avoiding the trap of techno-speculation while staying relevant to a broad audience.
The deeper truth is this: AI does not change systems on its own. It is the data, insights, and decisions that AI amplifies that transform the enterprise. The reshuffle is happening—but not because the ecosystem is ready for AI. It occurs because AI finally reveals the operating system for what it truly is. Is this the end of traditional organizational design? Or the beginning of a new era—where data, insight, and human judgment come together to redefine innovation and value creation? The debate is still far from settled.
What are your thoughts?
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