Last year, the world took a quantum leap in sector-wide applications of AI. In retail, in healthcare, in consumer tech, in marketing experiences, people really started to feel the transformation for the first time.
That’s in part because organizations are beginning to master a new set of skills and processes that frame artificial intelligence as an exponentiating force for their core activities.
" No longer purely an efficiency play, or a set of disparate tools layered haphazardly onto existing workflows, AI has become the substrate of how organizations think, decide what’s next, build it, and grow. "
We have entered an era where systems of human and machine intelligence move together with a shared purpose. At Left Field Labs, we call this collective intelligence.
Put simply, collective intelligence refers to a systemic approach of choreographing sources of human intelligence (creativity, insight, for example) with sources of machine intelligence to drive ever-more powerful outcomes. It asks leaders to move beyond a mindset focused on individual components of intelligence and consider the choreography that links them.
Human intuition, cultural understanding, ethical judgement, and imagination form one system. Machine speed, pattern recognition, and scale form another. When these systems are converged intentionally in sequence, leaders gain a new capacity to solve problems and generate opportunity. Importantly, they’re able to move beyond just driving efficiencies with AI and begin to build what's next.
Signals across industries show organizations that are ready to apply AI at this scale stand to generate meaningful value in product development, customer experience, and long-horizon innovation. BCG estimates that an additional $200MM in value could be unlocked for enterprises who advance on this front.
The pattern is already visible across industries. In financial services, applied AI for business has reduced days-long compliance cycles to minutes — not by removing humans from the equation, but by directing their intelligence where it matters most. This is AI product development at its most intentional: systems designed so that human judgment and machine capability each do what they do best, moving together with shared purpose.
Yet, many teams remain unsure when and where to aim these capabilities. Collective intelligence provides that direction. It’s a framework for designing purposeful interaction between people and technology — interaction that supports better decisions, empowers teams, and expands the impact an organization can have on its customers and communities.
It’s no mistake that this framework emerges in a moment of deeply-felt disruption. Acknowledging that poorly designed AI systems can propagate new degrees of harm, and that technology innovation has often advanced with uneven impacts on equity, sustainability, and community outcomes, collective intelligence shapes a new brief for pioneering organizations. It asks leaders to build systems grounded in mutualistic benefit — driving what our founder and CEO Sarah Mehler calls “win-win-win-win” outcomes for businesses that rise alongside outcomes for consumers, communities, and the planet. It is an approach rooted in reciprocity and regenerative thinking, with technology serving as an amplifier of human potential rather than a mechanism for further commoditization.
Over the next few weeks, we will run a series around Collective Intelligence that offers a practical path into that future, rooted in the real ways we’ve helped organizations “Build What’s Next" through emerging technology. We’ll begin with a look at What the Data Say about how consumers and decision-makers view AI’s next chapter and where expectations around applied AI for business are converging. From there, we’ll examine how to choreograph the new systems of intelligence, exploring where collective intelligence is already reshaping sectors like sports, finance, marketing, and healthcare. We’ll close with a view of how leaders create value through collective intelligence.
Ready for the journey? You can subscribe to notifications about our new releases by filling out this form. And if you’re an organization beginning to wonder how AI can power more meaningful outcomes for your organization, please reach out.
It’s time to enter the era of collective intelligence.