GrowthPath Partners LLC

Empowering Purpose-Driven Growth

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OpenAI’s 5 AI Levels: From Chatbots to Org Redesign

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Published on 2025-05-20 13:00

Your org chart isn’t broken. But it may be designed for a world that’s disappearing.

OpenAI has mapped out 5 levels of AI evolution, from chatbots to organizations.

Below is a comic strip explainer I built with AI, from chatbot to organization. Versions of AI are already working at Level 3. Many leaders haven’t grasped how close this is to redefining workflows.

Here are the five levels according to OpenAI:

  • ► Level 1 – Chatbot: Models like GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and GPT-4o that excel at real-time conversation, answering questions, summarizing text, and handling a wide range of everyday tasks across text, images, and audio.

  • ► Level 2 – Reasoner: Models such as o3 and o4-mini that go beyond chatting. They analyze, problem-solve, and provide expert advice, tackling complex math, coding, and reasoning tasks like a consultant.

  • ► Level 3 – Agent: Emerging tools like Operator and Deep Research that can autonomously plan, act, and complete tasks for you like booking travel or writing comprehensive reports.

  • ► Level 4 – Innovator: Not widely available yet, but these will be creative, proactive AI partners that help invent new ideas and solutions.

  • ► Level 5 – Organization: These future AI systems could help coordinate the operations of departments or businesses, working with people to streamline workflows, support decision-making, and improve productivity at scale.

I covered the implications of this shift in my latest newsletter: AI is Breaking Down Silos: Moving from Org Charts to Work Charts.

The capabilities are arriving faster than most orgs can respond. Don’t wait for Level 5 to rethink how work gets done. Begin with the basics:

  1. Map your key workflows across department lines

  2. Find your worst handoff points

  3. Create one cross-team test with shared AI support

Which level excites or concerns you most? How might it change your team’s structure? Share your thoughts below.

Comic strip explainer on AI evolution levels

AI-First or People-First? Defining Your AI Strategy

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Published on 2025-05-19 14:00

Are you leading with an AI-first approach? Are you and your teams using AI as a tool?

Or, is it people-first, AI-forward? Or are you guiding AI as teammates?

Words matter. Tom Winter and I will unpack this on Wed, May 21 at noon ET / 9 am PT. Come join us!

https://lnkd.in/gCP4Kfqq

AI Can’t Copy Love: My Daughter’s Box

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Published on 2025-05-18 13:04

By day, I advise on AI and GTM strategy. By night, I fought a box cutter, a glue gun… and proved a point AI still can’t touch.

This week, I ran a little experiment.

I designed a graduation box for my daughter and also asked AI to generate one too. Something beautiful. Something meaningful.

And honestly, AI did a solid job (right photo). Clean, polished, visually striking.

But here’s what it didn’t do:

  • Stay up late with a box cutter

  • Burn its finger on a hot glue gun

  • Get the warmest hug and biggest smile when my daughter saw it

  • Hear her friends say, “That’s the cutest graduation box I’ve ever seen”

  • Watch people pause to leave sweet, heartfelt notes inside

We wrapped it up with the most incredible graduation party at home with 120+ of our dearest family and friends came together to celebrate her.

And now, she’s counting down the days until she becomes a proud CU Buff at the University of Colorado Boulder.

This whole moment reminded me that marketing isn’t arts and crafts. But it lives at the intersection of strategy, creativity, and human connection.

AI can assist, accelerate, and even inspire. But it can’t copy love, laughter, or the pride in creating something with your own hands.

It can’t recreate something so imperfect but so perfect for the moment.

Will AI ever replace that?

Maybe it’ll match the look and feel. But the memory, the meaning, the human in it all?

That’s still ours.

Comparison image of a human-made graduation box and an AI-generated one.

AI Is Breaking Org Charts: Meet the Work Chart

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What if AI isn’t just changing how we work but quietly breaking the way we’ve organized companies for decades?

The walls between departments are blurring. Customers don’t care about your org chart. They expect seamless experiences, fast handoffs, and connected journeys.

That’s why a new operating model is emerging: work charts.

Where org charts define who knows what (departments + roles), work charts define what needs doing (jobs-to-be-done + workflows).

This shift is already happening faster than many leaders realize.

In this week’s newsletter, I share:

  • ► The AI Work Chart Maturity Model I use with clients to map their evolution (a model aligned with Microsoft’s Work Trend Index Report and Harvard + P&G study)

  • ► Real-world case studies from Dice and Cin7 showing early wins and lessons

  • ► Practical steps you can take right now to start breaking silos in your org

You can read the full issue below.

Prefer to listen instead? There’s also a 12-min podcast version with two AI hosts. Listen to it while having lunch, walking the dog, or driving. Link is in the comments, https://lnkd.in/gUysN2E6.

This is part of my biweekly Practical AI in GTM newsletter. I share real-world applications and strategic insights for forward-thinking teams. You can subscribe at the top of the page if you want these in your inbox every other week.

A huge thank you to Scott Braun (SimpliSafe), Carol-Lyn Jardine (Dice/DHI Group Inc), Sean McCaffrey (Cin7), and Jacob Warwick (ThinkWarwick Global). It’s been an absolute pleasure to go on this AI journey with you and your teams.

Here’s the 12-min AI podcast version of this newsletter. Listen to it during lunch, while driving, walking the dog 😉 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nw2RaTGn47ihf-2gl0Yqqb2r7C_BrZtp/view?usp=sharing

Once you hit play, give it just a few seconds then it will start.

Disclaimer: This podcast was generated by AI based on this written newsletter and reviewed by me to ensure ethical and responsible AI use. It’s designed to provide an efficient, more inclusive way to consume information.

The 4 Stages of AI Adoption at Work

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Published on 2025-05-14 12:54

AI is changing how work gets done and how teams are organized.

Over the past 18 months I’ve seen a pattern in companies adopting AI. It rarely happens all at once. Teams tend to move through stages:

  • ► At first, they experiment with individual tools.

  • ► Some advance to using AI as teammates within departments, like in this real-life case study, https://lnkd.in/gKVHapFX

  • ► A few push further, connecting AI across teams to drive outcomes faster.

  • ► Fewer still are starting to redesign work itself forming a “work chart” rather than an “org chart”

Most companies today are somewhere in the early stages. That feels like the norm. This shift takes time but most likely faster than most anticipate.

The orgs making the most progress are the ones rethinking workflows and how teams get work done.

In my newsletter tomorrow (May 15), I’ll explain the full progression shown in the sample chart below and share a simple framework you can use to start exploring this with your own team.

UPDATE (May 15): Here’s the newsletter, https://lnkd.in/gFfjeBTe