Most books about artificial intelligence tend to overstate 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 tool that alters how industries operate, how actors collaborate, and how value is generated, captured, or redistributed.
It is a compelling premise that merits further scrutiny. But does the book deliver? And more crucially, does it advance the current debate on what AI truly does to our organisations, our workforces, and our socio-technical systems?
A Useful Reframing: Coordination over Automation
While many AI narratives focus on productivity improvements and clarifying human-machine roles, Reshuffle contends that the true disruption lies in how AI reorganises value chains. Instead of merely increasing worker efficiency, it transforms industries by enabling “coordination without consensus”—the capability to align participants even when standards, processes, or incentives are not entirely shared.
This is an accurate and much-needed shift. In manufacturing, supply chains, R&D ecosystems, and PLM-heavy environments, the coordination problem remains the core bottleneck. AI’s ability to structure unstructured data, model dependencies, and accelerate decision cycles genuinely changes how organisations operate.
Yet this raises a critical point.
Is AI Changing the System… or Revealing What the Data Already Knows?
Choudary centres his argument around the question:
How does AI change the system into which it is deployed?
It is a strong question, but risks missing the underlying lever.
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 behavioural patterns. The system reorganises itself in response.
A more precise framing may be:
How do data and insights—amplified by AI—reshape the decisions, behaviours, and governance that define the system?
This distinction matters. Technology does not reorganise value chains by itself. People and organisations do—once new information shifts the boundaries of what is possible.
Reshuffle succeeds where many AI books do not. It remains highly accessible for non-experts, avoids technical hype, and focuses on long-term patterns rather than fast-changing tools. Choudary simplifies without oversimplifying—offering a strategic framing that helps leaders navigate the noise. This accessibility is the book’s greatest strength, and a key reason why its ideas remain relevant despite the rapid pace of AI evolution.
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 applies as much to designers, analysts, and engineers as it does to gig workers.
For PLM, digital thread, product development and innovation leaders, this framing is particularly impactful: AI will not eliminate engineering; it will redistribute engineering value.
The focus shifts from skills to areas where human judgment is still vital—risk management, system design, trade-off interpretation, regulatory navigation, cross-functional coordination, and uncertainty management.
Opportunities to Deepen the Discussion
While the book provides a solid strategic foundation, there are several areas where added depth could further enhance the narrative and improve its relevance for transformation leaders.
- Limited examination of the underlying data architectures that genuinely influence system behaviour
- Inadequate coverage of governance, traceability, and trust requirements
- A missed chance to link coordination economics with digital thread realities
- Overemphasis on platforms at the cost of engineering and manufacturing contexts
This is where a coherent and continuous data stream becomes vital: without contextualised data, meaningful insights, and lifecycle traceability, AI has little to organise. The reshuffle only succeeds when the underlying data remains connected—when data coherence, rather than system ambition, guides transformation.
Overall, Reshuffle is a valuable and thought-provoking read for leaders aiming to understand AI beyond hype and productivity clichés. Its main strength is repositioning AI as a force that realigns ecosystems through coordination—avoiding the trap of techno-speculation and remaining relevant to non-experts.
The deeper truth is this: AI does not alter systems independently. It is the data, insights, and decisions that AI amplifies that reshape the enterprise. The reshuffle is underway—but not because the ecosystem is prepared for AI. It is happening because AI finally exposes the operating system for what it truly is. Is this the end of traditional organisational design? Or the start of a new era—where data, insight, and human judgment come together to redefine innovation and value creation? The debate remains far from settled.
What are your thoughts?
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