New Friction

In the inaugural episode of New Friction, host Douglas Ferguson and Erik Skogsberg explore how AI has shifted organizational friction from execution to decision-making and alignment. While AI accelerates production, it magnifies existing dysfunctions when teams lack collaborative habits. They introduce the concept of "multiplayer AI"—moving beyond individual productivity gains toward team-level collaboration. The conversation emphasizes that facilitation, judgment, and organizational health are now the critical differentiators. Practical takeaways include assessing whether your organization operates in "single player" or "multiplayer" AI mode and intentionally slowing down at key decision points to maximize human impact.

New Friction is a podcast from Douglas Ferguson on the real organizational challenges of AI transformation. AI made execution almost free but most organizations are still stuck. Not because the technology doesn't work, but because the people problems got harder: decision-making, governance, and trust friction. Each episode features practitioners navigating AI change at ambitious organizations — what broke, what they tried, and what actually worked. We explore the shift from building to deciding, the 4x perception gap between leaders and the workforce, multiplayer AI organizations, and how the next generation learns judgment. Episode 1 drops May 26, 2026.