The meeting’s over. You’re gathering your things.
Someone falls into step beside you on the way out. Waits until you’re past the door and into the corridor before they say it.
“Between us — how worried should I actually be about this?”
It’s a different voice than the one they used ten minutes ago. In the room they were measured. Had a view. Nodded in the right places. Out here, the performance drops and there’s just the question.
It happened all through my years running departments. Not because I knew the most about whatever the technology was that quarter. But somewhere along the way I became one of the people others say the real thing to. The one they check the quiet question with, once the room has thinned out.
I’ve come to think that corridor is where you actually learn what’s going on. Not the table. The thirty seconds after it, when someone decides they can stop performing for a moment.
It’s no different now, with AI. The question has changed. The corridor hasn’t.
