indigo insights

Your team is already AI superhuman

What if your team was secretly hiding extraordinary superpowers—and you just hadn’t noticed yet?

By David Bates, Senior Creative Director of Brand

Between meetings and email threads, imagine something remarkable unfolding—where they’re stealthily plugging into powerful AI tools to amplify their capabilities, make smarter decisions faster, and push the intellectual and creative boundaries of what’s possible.

And the kicker? They already are. And the clues are all over the internet.

Recently, there’s a viral trend where people are turning themselves into Gen AI-powered action figures.

Not just as a joke—but as a vision. A mirror of what they feel like inside, projected into a stylized, heroic, ultra-capable and empowered person. It’s wildly aspirational. And weirdly accurate.

Because it turns out…We’re not just using AI. We’re upgrading ourselves with it.

The “AI Action Figure” trend isn’t just a meme—it’s a metaphor. A subtle signal that we’re not merely playing with Gen AI, we’re starting to harness it for what it really is: a tool for empowerment. A way to unlock and wield entirely new levels of potential.

That same shift is already underway in the workplace. People are using AI to enhance their thinking, expand their creative reach, and accelerate their value. Silently. Invisibly. And far faster than most leaders realize.

Workers are quietly becoming AI-augmented versions of themselves—more efficient, more creative, and more capable.

But here’s the twist: many feel like imposters for it.

They’re getting more done than ever, thanks to Gen AI. But they’re not talking about it. Why? Because there’s still a stigma around using AI. A fear that it’s cheating. A sense that they’re not doing “real work.”

This isn’t a minor culture glitch. It’s a massive leadership blind spot. And if we don’t address it now, we risk missing the most important workplace transformation of our time.

The Secret is Out: Your Team is Already Using AI—A Lot

According to a recent Mckinsey report, three times as many employees are using Gen AI for a third or more of their work than leaders realize. That’s not adoption. That’s acceleration.

This is shadow work in the truest sense—off the books, beyond the radar, happening between the keystrokes and calendar invites. It's AI not as a program, but as a reflex.

At Indigo Slate, we see and live it firsthand through our value of Tenacious Optimism. Our designers aren’t waiting for AI protocols—they’re already building image prompts into their ideation process. Writers are shaping content with AI as an ever-present co-editor. Creative directors are challenging first-thought brainstorms by feeding outputs into both visual and verbal Gen AI tools, accelerating, and augmenting the potential of concepts. Strategists are speed-running audience models, scenario testing, and deck content. PM’s writing project outline drafts, to save precious time and upleveling email drafts to be more pointed and empathetic.

This isn’t a defiant rebellion. It’s intelligence at readiness. But it’s not being met with the cultural safety to thrive.

Augmented but Anxious: The New Face of Imposter Syndrome

Here’s where it gets tricky. Even as productivity soars, so does a quiet sense of guilt.

Employees feel like they’re “faking it” when AI assists them. They don’t know whether to disclose how fast that concept was mocked up. They hesitate to admit the copy draft came from Claude or Copilot.

This is a new kind of imposter syndrome—not from a lack of competence, but from a misalignment between evolving workflows and outdated expectations. The emotional toll is real. And it's creating an innovation bottleneck right where we need momentum.

AI Use Is Personal, Not Political

Too often, leaders approach AI with one question: “What’s our official stance?”

But AI isn’t waiting for official. It’s already embedded into how people survive the day, meet impossible deadlines, and keep up with cross-functional expectations. It’s adaptive, not bureaucratic.

We need to move from thinking of AI as a tool to thinking of it as a culture. A shared language of efficiency, experimentation, and empowerment.

And like any culture, it needs leaders who are willing to listen, learn, and lead by example.

Five Ways to Lead Without Getting Left Behind

Create AI fluency spaces – where it’s safe for teams to openly share how they’re using generative AI. Host 'show-and-share' sessions or team post-mortems using a WIN-LEARN-CHANGE evaluation format to reflect on workflows and outcomes.
Reward augmented outcomes – Celebrate clever use of AI that leads to bold creative thinking or efficient business results.
Design for human + machine collaboration – In creative services especially, make space for both spark and structure. Think “co-creation,” not “replacement.”
Reframe the narrative – Let your teams know: using AI isn’t cheating. It’s evolving. It’s what high performers do, and you as the human are the maestro conducting the instrument.
Champion the new hybrid professional – Elevate the ones who are balancing taste, ethics, and speed through AI—not just those following the legacy processes.

From Action Figure to Actual Force

The action figure trend? It’s not just about cool art. It’s about an alter-ego identity. It’s proof that people see themselves as something more in creative partnership with AI.

Your team is already there. They’re showing up faster, sharper, and more evolved—because they’ve quietly brought AI into their workflow.

You can ignore it and let it happen in the shadows. Or you can recognize it, celebrate it, and lead the cultural shift your team is waiting for.

Because the future of work isn’t human versus machine. It’s human with machine—fully empowered, fully expressed.

And that’s the version of your team worth turning into super-human action figures.