There’s a new mantra echoing through corporate boardrooms today, and it’s not about cloud, DevOps, or even digital transformation. It’s this:

“AI or you’re fired.”

Now, you might think I’m exaggerating. Being provocative. Trying to get clicks. But I’m not. This is happening. Right now. In companies you’ve heard of. In ways you wouldn’t believe if they weren’t printed in black and white.

Let me introduce you to Eric Vaughan, CEO of IgniteTech, and Luis von Ahn, CEO of Duolingo. Two leaders. Two radically different approaches to AI transformation. One of them cleaned house. The other clarified a memo. Both are shaping the future of work in real time.

The Reset at IgniteTech

Vaughan’s story, first reported in Fortune, is what you might call a corporate thunderclap. Once he decided AI wasn’t just the future, but the immediate present, he looked around and didn’t like what he saw.

Too much resistance. Too many skeptics. Too many employees clinging to the way things had always been.

So he didn’t coax or coach them. He fired them.

Let me say that again. Vaughan laid off up to 80% of his workforce. Not because AI was replacing them directly. Not because ChatGPT took their jobs. But because they wouldn’t embrace the future fast enough. Then he replaced them with new hires who were “all in” on AI.

It wasn’t about automation. It was about attitude. He wanted a company culture built for the AI age — and if that meant losing institutional knowledge, experience, and team cohesion, so be it.

Now, is that leadership or lunacy? Depends on who you ask. Vaughan would tell you it’s survival. A bold bet on the future. But it’s one hell of a gamble.

The AI Memo Heard Round the Internet

Now swing the pendulum the other way and you’ll find Luis von Ahn at Duolingo. A few months ago, he sent an internal memo declaring Duolingo an “AI-first” company. The internet didn’t take it well.

Within days, he was in damage control mode.

No, full-time employees weren’t being laid off. No, the company wasn’t replacing humans with machines. Yes, some contractors had rolled off, but that’s normal in project-based work. The goal, von Ahn said, was never to gut the workforce — it was to amplify them.

He pointed to Duolingo’s success: 148 new language courses created using generative AI. More than ever before. And much faster. But the humans? Still there. Still part of the plan. Just working smarter.

To reinforce this, Duolingo launched something called “frAI-days,” weekly internal experiments where employees could test AI tools, learn, and innovate without pressure. The message: Explore, don’t fear. AI is your co-pilot, not your competition.

A Tale of Two Transformations

What fascinates me here isn’t just the contrast in tactics — it’s the mindset.

Vaughan looked at resistance and saw sabotage. He didn’t try to change minds — he changed people. That’s not subtle. It’s a thermonuclear form of leadership.

Von Ahn, on the other hand, faced a backlash from a memo. Not even a layoff — just a statement of direction. And instead of doubling down, he softened the tone, clarified the facts and recalibrated the company’s messaging. He even admitted he “learned a lesson” about how AI talk lands with internal teams and the public.

These are two very different styles. One is brute-force realignment. The other is cultural calibration.

But both are telling us the same thing: AI is non-negotiable. If you’re not talking about it, using it, experimenting with it — you’re behind. The only real debate left is how you bring it into your organization.

Do you lead with empathy, transparency, and patience?

Or do you lead with urgency, absolutes and consequences?

The Resistance Paradox

There’s one detail that haunts me in the IgniteTech story. According to Vaughan, it wasn’t the salespeople or marketers who resisted AI — it was the technical teams.

Read that again.

It wasn’t the “non-technical folks” we so often assume will be afraid of change. It was the engineers. The builders. The architects.

That’s counterintuitive. But I’ve seen it elsewhere, too.

Technical folks pride themselves on precision, reliability, control. AI can feel like the Wild West — non-deterministic, unpredictable, too opaque. For them, it’s not always a tool. Sometimes it’s a threat to the craft.

Sales and marketing teams, meanwhile, see it as leverage. Faster pitches. Better targeting. Less grunt work. What’s not to like?

This is the paradox digital leaders must confront. The people we assume will lead the charge may be the ones digging in their heels. And the ones we thought would resist might just be running ahead.

So, Who Got It Right?

Is Vaughan a visionary or a villain? Was von Ahn bold or just cleaning up a PR mess?

The truth is, they both reflect the spectrum of leadership we’re going to see as AI continues its march.

Some companies will take the IgniteTech path: Burn the boats, go all in and build from scratch.

Others will take the Duolingo approach: Experiment, communicate and bring people along at a sustainable pace.

There’s no one-size-fits-all playbook here. But doing nothing? Pretending this is hype? That’s the fastest way to get left behind.

Final Thought: AI is Coming for Complacency

If you’re leading a company today and you’re not thinking seriously about AI — not just what tools you’ll use, but what culture you need to support it — you’re already behind.

That doesn’t mean you need to fire 80% of your staff. But it does mean you can’t afford to let complacency linger.

The brave will find a way to lead through this. The cautious will find themselves explaining why someone else got there first.

So I’ll say it again, without apology:

AI or you’re fired.