Disrupted in Madrid: Questions That Changed Me

IE BUSINESS SCHOOL, MADRID - DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION MODULE REFLECTION

Lesson from Academics

Figure 1: Disrupted in Madrid 

AI can kill, but only you can save.

That thought hit me during deep learning session at IE Business School, taught by Professor Konstantina. We explored how AI transformed industries. One breakthrough caught my attention: AI models can predict cancer five to six years before symptoms appear (Thomas, 2024). While such tools can save lives, they can also be dangerous. I posed a scenario to Konstantina (Figure 2):

“What if a cancer-detecting AI-model misses a diagnosis? If a patient has cancer but the model says otherwise, the consequences could be fatal. Society often forgives human error, but we hold machines to a higher standard (Thomson, 2018).” 

Figure 2: AI-Output v/s Real Case 

Konstantina’s response reframed everything for me.

“At the end, humans are the final decision-makers. If the patient undergoes treatment will be a human-decision. AI can make us more effective and efficient. The difference will be ‘humans’ and ‘humans with AI’. The latter will thrive in the coming years.”

I realised AI can inform decisions, but never make them. Responsibility remains human and that is both empowering and necessary. This holds true across industries, healthcare or finance. In a world increasingly shaped by intelligent systems, it’s the human-AI partnership that will define success, not AI alone.

On-going buzz in business world, that is not the case

AI Will not Steal Your Job, But Someone Using It Might.

The business world loves bold claims. One such claim is: “AI will replace your job.” AI will affect almost 40% of jobs around the world (Georgieva, 2024).

What my learning in Spain clarified is: AI is not a job thief but a job-transformer. The true disruptor is not algorithms, but our failure to adapt to it. A study shows that the most effective outcomes do not come from AI or humans alone, but from their collaboration (Cremer and Kasparov, 2021). A chess experiment revealed, even a weaker human with a machine can outperform the strongest solo player or standalone AI (Cremer and Kasparov, 2021).

It can be thought of this way, calculator never eliminated accountants, but it made those stuck with pen and paper obsolete. In management, AI is not replacing leadership, it is amplifying those who know how to use it wisely.

The real risk is leaders expecting AI to do their thinking. AI can predict, and optimise, but it cannot empathise, challenge the status quo, or take ethical responsibility. That is still on us.

So do not fear AI. Fear being unprepared for a world where professionals are not replaced by technologies, but redefined by their ability to use them wisely.

Applying the insights

As I aspire become a leader in the tech industry, Madrid reshaped how I view value creation. AI is raising the bar for what effective decision-making looks like. I aim to lead organisations where AI augments strategy and be the bridge between technical complexity and strategic clarity, interrogating algorithms, asking questions, and framing outputs in context.

Paella and Beer After Dark: A Cultural Wake-Up Call in Madrid

Ever wandered the streets at 10 PM and felt like the day was just getting started? That was Madrid for me. I found night streets buzzing with life and laughter. After 9 months in the UK, this felt like a different universe. In the UK, most shops close by 6 PM, and cities wind down into quiet. But in Madrid, shops stay open late, with crowds strolling the lively streets, the atmosphere felt vibrant and safe at night.

Another thing that struck me in Madrid was the way people talk. I do not speak Spanish, but I did not need to. Their hands, eyes, and gestures did most of the talking. They are expressive, animated, and passionately present in conversations, unlike the UK’s more reserved, formal tone.

Then there is the food culture. Spaniards do not just eat, they share. I observed plates were passed around freely, sparking connection. In contrast, meals in the UK feel more personal and private. Additionally, while British food plays it safe, Spanish cuisine bursts with spice, not as fiery as Indian food, but more adventurous than British plates.

How Culture Shapes Business in Spain

In Spain, business does not clock out, it blends into life.

When I noticed shops operating late into the night, it reflected a society in which social life and leisure blend seamlessly with business. This encourages economic activity beyond rigid work hours, creating more touchpoints for customer engagement. Furthermore, it challenges the notion that productivity must follow a linear 9-to-5 path and stretches economic participation into the lived rhythm of the people.

Equally striking was the communication style, I sensed the intent behind the locals’ interactions: animated gestures and engaged eye-contact. It highlighted how communication is not only verbal, but also visceral. In businesses, this can cultivate faster rapport, intuitive collaboration, negotiation, and decision-making (Peleckis, et al., 2015; Hwang, 2024).

Finally, the emphasis on shared experiences also spills into business, team lunches, informal meetings over food, and after-work gatherings can be a powerful driver of innovation, collaboration, and loyalty in an increasingly globalised world (Ricketts, 2023).

From Tapas to Teamwork: What 5 Days in Madrid Taught Me About Culture

Five days is not long, but in Madrid, it was enough to feel the rhythm of a different culture. I learned something very valuable, the importance of staying fluid in how you connect with people. Not everyone communicates the same way, some lead with words, others with tone or expression. In management, where influence depends on connection, this agility is essential. I learned that being effective globally is not about mastering every culture, it is about staying open, observant, agile, and adaptable.

Ultimately, Madrid did not give me answers, it gave me better questions.

• How do I lead across cultures?

• How do I build influence in systems shaped by people and technology?

Personal Reflection

This trip forced a confrontation not only with digital transformations, but also with myself. Coming from a tech background, I had always prided myself on my technical fluency, now I see how narrow that fluency can be. The real leadership challenge is not making smarter systems; it is carrying the weight of decisions they cannot make for us.

After the trip, I stopped thinking of AI as a tool and started seeing it as a mirror. It reflects our priorities, prejudices, and blind spots. It not only executes logic, but also amplifies values. That is where leadership begins. Not at the cutting edge of tech, but in the messy, human work of asking: What kind of world will this system reinforce? Whose voice is encoded into the algorithm, and whose is left out?

Think Outside the Box, But Don’t Forget the Box Exists

During an entrepreneurship session, Professor Pistrui presented a blackboard with a simple equation (Figure 3). The simplest logical response is obvious: 1+1=2. But he challenged us to see beyond logic, asserting that “? can be anything.” His aim was to expand our imagination, highlighting that infinite combinations can yield the same result 

Figure 3: 1+1=?

Although, it was a provocative exercise, what struck me was not the endless possibilities, it was the stark contrast with real-world constraints. In business, we rarely deal with pure abstraction. Our choices are shaped by limitations such as budgets, regulations, cultural norms, market, and politics.

While imagination is a critical leadership skill, unbounded thinking without regard for constraints risks becoming irrelevant. For instance, designing a flying car sounds ground-breaking, but not if you are a student with £500. This made me realise creativity lies not in imagining anything, but in imagining within constraints, bending the box without pretending it does not exist.

Although, I did not fully agree with the professor, this disagreement sharpened my understanding of what it really means to be “creative” in business world. Creativity isn’t escaping the box; it’s working cleverly within it.

Conclusion: The Unexpected Lessons That Redefined Me

I came to Madrid chasing insights on digital disruption. I left disrupted.  Not by technology alone, but by people, paradoxes, and the power of not having all the answers.

That was the twist I did not see coming.

This journey taught me that real transformation, whether digital or personal, comes from sitting with complexity. I arrived thinking in systems and strategies; I left thinking in stories, and contradictions.

Additionally, I learned AI is only a catalyst that forces us to ask harder, better questions, culture is not a barrier, but a lens for richer connection, and leadership is not about control or vision statements, but the quiet confidence to navigate ambiguity with empathy, curiosity, and intent.

On an ending note, the final reflection that I left Madrid with, and want to share the most, is we have spent years teaching machines to understand us. Maybe it is time we relearn how to understand ourselves.

References:

1. Thomas, L. (2024). News-Medical. [online] News-Medical. Available at: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20241008/AI-detects-breast-cancer-years-before-diagnosis-from-mammograms.aspx 

2. Thomson, M. (2018). Why do we tolerate human over machine error? [online] blog.rmresults.com. Available at: https://blog.rmresults.com/why-do-we-tolerate-human-over-machine-error.

3. Georgieva, K. (2024). AI will transform the global economy. let’s make sure it benefits humanity. [online] International Monetary Fund. Available at: https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2024/01/14/ai-will-transform-the-global-economy-lets-make-sure-it-benefits-humanity 

4. Cremer, D. and Kasparov, G. (2021) AI should augment human intelligence, not replace it. https://www.daviddecremer.com/wp-content/uploads/HBR2021_AI-Should-Augment-Human-Intelligence-Not-Replace-It.pdf 

5. Peleckis, K., Peleckienė, V., Peleckis, K. (2015). (PDF) Nonverbal Communication in Business Negotiations and Business Meetings. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283783711_Nonverbal_Communication_in_Business_Negotiations_and_Business_Meetings 

6. Hwang, N.J. (2024). The role of emotional intelligence in team dynamics. International Journal of Science and Research Archive, [online] 13(2), pp.1396–1406. doi:https://doi.org/10.30574/ijsra.2024.13.2.1875

7. Ricketts, J. (2023). Catering For Culture: How Food Can Transform and Reconnect Our Workspaces | Fooditude. [online] Available at: https://www.fooditude.com/blog/catering-for-culture-with-food