What happened
Bausch & Lomb's CEO argues that corporate AI adoption follows a familiar historical pattern: companies rush to buy tools and deploy them, then discover that access spreads and capabilities become standard — making the real competitive difference organizational learning, not the technology itself.
Why it matters
While AI may be more powerful than past technologies, lasting advantage comes from building a workforce that learns faster than competitors, not from early adoption of platforms. The CEO warns that companies focused on vendor selection and deployment speed risk overlooking the more critical investment: a culture where people stay curious and adaptable as the technology evolves.
What to watch
Bausch & Lomb has made AI literacy mandatory for knowledge workers through a Coursera partnership, launched a company-wide VisionAI Challenge for practical improvement ideas, and created an AI in Action platform for employees to share solutions — signaling that the company is betting on distributed learning over top-down technology mandates.
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The CEO's argument rests on a historical observation: every generation of business technology — from manufacturing innovations to digital systems — has followed the same arc. Companies initially compete on speed of adoption and vendor selection, but once the technology becomes widely accessible, those early-mover advantages erode. What separates long-term winners from the rest is organizational capability: the ability to learn how to use tools effectively and adapt as they evolve. Bausch & Lomb's mandatory Coursera program and VisionAI Challenge represent a deliberate bet on this thesis. Rather than positioning AI as a specialized technical capability managed by a small group, the company is treating it as a core business skill and distributing problem-solving authority across the organization. The CEO frames this as a leadership shift: instead of having all the answers, leaders must create an environment where people ask better questions and feel empowered to experiment responsibly. This approach acknowledges that the people closest to specific business functions often see improvement opportunities that centralized decision-makers miss.
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