Artificial Intelligence, Innovation & Organisational Agility: Thomas Ableman Returns

In this return episode of Lunch with Leon, Thomas Ableman, founder of transport consultancy Freewheeling, makes an appearance after debuting at the lunch table in 2021. Following his role as Director of Strategy and Innovation at Transport for London, Thomas shares candid insights about organisational transformation and the approaching AI revolution in transport.

Inside TfL: The Innovation Challenge

Thomas's reflection on his time at Transport for London comes with both admiration and insights into the challenges that face large organisations.

"It was the most wonderful organisation with the most fantastic people I've ever worked with," he shares, particularly highlighting the "incredible group of people with stunning strategic focus" at the senior middle management level. However, bureaucracy was a stumbling block, describing TfL's evolution from a collection of discrete organisations in the 2000s to today's "hyper integrated" transport authority.

Through a telling example from his time at Chiltern Railways, Thomas reveals how leadership behaviour can dramatically impact organisational agility. He recounts designing new stations where, thanks to his MD Rob Brighouse's trust and hands-off approach, decisions could be made instantly with all stakeholders in the room.

"If Rob had said, 'Oh Thomas, can you after the meeting just give me a readout so I can check everything?' – very common – immediately the decision-making authority of that group would have drained away," Thomas explains, highlighting how small leadership behaviours can make the difference between a drawn out process and an immediate decision.

The AI Revolution in Transport

The conversation takes a turn toward artificial intelligence, with Thomas and Leon going back and forth about their pictures of the future.

Thomas describes a scenario where "communicating with organisations will just be instant and effortless," with AI systems automatically handling everything from delay detection to compensation claims. As he warns, transport organisations need to prepare for "a tsunami of people coming and talking to us, and they won't be people, they'll be AIs acting as agents of our customers."

The discussion extends to autonomous vehicles, where Thomas challenges conventional thinking about their implementation. Rather than focusing solely on replacing traditional buses or cars, he suggests a more nuanced approach: "If you've got something that's electric and driverless, it suddenly becomes very cheap to deploy." This could enable what he describes as a "reverse Beeching cuts," where increased connectivity through autonomous vehicles could transform the economics of public transport networks.

As organisations grapple with these rapid changes, Thomas draws an interesting parallel with Amazon, now "the biggest transport operator on Earth" in terms of drivers, depots, and vehicles. He emphasises how they've maintained agility despite their size through deliberate processes and decision-making approaches that other organisations can learn from.

This thought-provoking discussion offers listeners a unique perspective on how transport organisations can prepare for and thrive in an AI-enhanced future, while maintaining the agility needed to adapt to rapid change.

To listen to the full episode of this Lunch with Leon, click here.