We Stand at the Precipice

We stand at the precipice, where human-centred solutions must rise to meet human-centred needs. Is AI our friend in a brave new world, or our foe in a darker one?

In the world of work, the answer will depend not on algorithms but on leadership.

AI won't build trust, but HR leaders can.

The bio-social model of inclusion asks us to move beyond medical or deficit-based ways of understanding difference. It recognises that people's experiences are shaped not only by biology, identity, or neurotype but by the social systems, expectations, and barriers they navigate daily.

It is not the "disability", "condition", or "label" that limits participation; it is the environment's failure to adapt. True inclusion begins when leaders design for healthy participation, not when they try to "fix" individuals.

This model invites leaders to see the workplace as a living ecosystem where belonging grows not from compliance, but from curiosity, empathy, and shared accountability.

Leaders cannot be psychic, but they can learn to anticipate. They can recognise that for many with intersectional lives—people balancing neurodiversity, race, gender, class, queerness, or caring roles—speaking up about their needs comes with a higher risk.

These are often the same colleagues who work harder just to be there yet are wired by experience to share less. Leadership, therefore, must become anticipatory: grateful for insight, open to shared realities, and grounded in social connectedness.

Good leadership isn't about predicting people; it's about preparing space for their participation.

At Calling All Minds, we've built the AXS Passport, a digital tool that redefines how meaningful data about workplace inclusion can be understood, shared, and acted upon.

AXS allows individuals to articulate their access needs, communication preferences, and support requirements safely, without fear, stigma, or the burden of constant self-explanation. It empowers self-agency, particularly for those whose identities or lived experiences have historically placed them at greater risk when they speak up.

But AXS goes further. It helps organisations understand inclusion not as a static policy, but as a living pattern of human behaviour. By using AI ethically and responsibly, AXS can identify themes, barriers, and unseen intersections within workplace data without reducing people to categories or labels.

AI in AXS doesn't replace human empathy; it strengthens it. It helps leaders see what's missing, anticipate where participation falters, and respond with design that's informed by lived experience. It's inclusion with insight, turning data into understanding, and understanding into belonging.

AXS is not just an adjustment tool; it's a cultural technology, a bridge between the bio-social model and the next generation of healthy participation.

Alongside the bio-social model, AI presents an opportunity to reimagine participation itself. When used ethically and equitably, AI can help dismantle barriers rather than reinforce them, giving voice to those previously excluded from decision-making.

As a dyslexic founder, a person of colour, and someone who began life in foster-care environments, I've seen how technology, when guided by inclusion, can amplify agency and belonging.

The AXS Passport and its AI feature, ROSA, don't just collect data; they help stories be heard, patterns be recognised, and action be taken. They create a new ecosystem where participation is no longer conditional on privilege, confidence, or social fluency, but is built on the right to be understood and supported.

This is the birth of next-generation inclusion, where AI learns from humanity, not the other way around. It is a redefinition of what it means to belong—a model where participation itself becomes a measure of organisational health.

Inclusion was never meant to be managed through shame, deficit, or disorder, but through healthy participation that identifies and removes barriers collectively. This truth isn't new. History has shown us that when one group rises, society as a whole breathes freer.

When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, her act of quiet defiance didn't just liberate Black passengers; it began to free white America from the confines of its own segregation—from laws that stopped neighbours from sharing a meal, from classrooms and swimming pools that forbade children from learning side by side.

Collective liberation means understanding that no one thrives in systems built on exclusion. The same fear that kept Rosa Parks standing also kept others from sitting beside her.

When we talk about inclusion today, whether through the lens of race, disability, neurodiversity, or gender, we are talking about the same principle: participation heals societies. True leadership is recognising that equity isn't charity; it's shared freedom.

This is the promise of the 2010 Equality Act, which deliberately moved away from the medical model of the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act. The Act's anticipatory duty calls on leaders not just to respond to barriers, but to predict and prevent them.

Whether they realise it or not, all leaders are measured by this duty. AXS helps them meet it—not as a compliance task, but as a practice of empathy, equity, and shared leadership.

When Gutenberg's press began to print, ideas escaped their gatekeepers. Those pages sparked the Bill of Rights, the French Revolution, and the Emancipation Act, proof that technology, in human hands, can birth equality. The railways connected nations; the internet connected minds. Now AI connects meanings, holding the power to deepen or divide our shared humanity.

Today, we stand once again at that precipice: will we turn technology toward freedom, or toward fear?

If your organisation wants to move beyond awareness and into anticipation, now is the moment. Join Calling All Minds and explore how AXS Passport and ROSA can help your teams design inclusion by intent, building systems that recognise every voice, predict barriers before they rise, and make healthy participation the measure of success.

Collective liberation isn't abstract; it's designed, one conversation, one conviction and one connection at a time. Let's shape that future together.

AI changes work. Leaders change culture. Calling All Minds helps you design both with trust, equity, and belonging at the core.

"Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has." — Margaret Mead

We stand at the precipice. The question isn't whether change will come—it's whether we'll lead it with intention, empathy, and equity at the centre.

The future of work isn't just about technology. It's about the leaders who choose to wield that technology in service of human flourishing.

The precipice awaits. The choice is ours.