From Information Anxiety to Returning to Frontline Practice
Over the past two weeks, I’ve visited several enterprises intensely focused on implementing AI-powered office solutions. Honestly, after these conversations, I let out a long, deep sigh of relief.
Over the past year, we’ve all been bombarded daily with AI concepts—our social feeds overflow with terms like “disruption” and “transformation.” When information floods in, anxiety becomes standard workplace fare; everyone fears falling behind or missing the next big opportunity.
Yet I’m increasingly convinced that what’s abundant are concepts—what’s truly valuable is frontline practice.
The AI era has never lacked grand narratives; what it lacks are hard-won, hands-on experiences—and fresh ideas sparked through real-world friction. The companies I visited recently offered me tremendous inspiration. Rather than blindly chasing lofty, abstract theories, they kept their eyes firmly fixed on authentic business scenarios.
They avoided flashy gimmicks, instead treating Lark’s core capabilities—real-time messaging, documents, and multi-dimensional tables—as their most reliable collaborative foundation. By integrating third-party intelligent work agents, they empowered AI to tackle concrete, challenging business problems—not just for the sake of using AI. Most importantly, every time they deployed a tool, they treated it as an opportunity to re-examine and refine their underlying business logic.
I especially enjoy engaging with teams like this. In them, I see a rare kind of pragmatism: no empty conceptual talk—only problem solving. When tools genuinely serve business thinking, so-called “information anxiety” naturally dissipates.
Letting the Collaboration Foundation Carry Authentic Business Thinking
This is the insight that struck me most deeply during my recent visits.
Often, we complain that tools are difficult to use—but the root cause is usually that tools introduce friction into collaboration. In contrast, the practices I observed at these enterprises revealed an alternative approach: treating Lark purely as a collaborative foundation, leveraging its most fundamental, intuitive capabilities to support authentic business thinking.
For example: using instant messaging for rapid communication, channeling fragmented discussions toward clear, specific goals; recording decision-making processes in documents, making post-mortems traceable and actionable; building lightweight business dashboards with multi-dimensional tables, making progress instantly visible; and complementing all this with calendars and video conferencing to minimize cross-departmental communication overhead.
Individually, each of these capabilities is basic—even unremarkable—but together, they produce a remarkable synergistic effect.
A tool’s value has never been to replace human thinking, but rather to reduce friction. When time spent searching for information or aligning on progress is drastically reduced, people’s mental energy naturally shifts back to the business itself. That’s why, in the AI era, a robust collaboration foundation is more important than ever. Only when that foundation is solid can intelligent work agents—integrated via the ecosystem—truly embed themselves into workflows and tackle more complex pain points.
An Open Ecosystem Enables AI to Truly Integrate Into Workflows
AI should never be an isolated toy—operating alone in a standalone web interface, perpetually “going solo.” Instead, it must grow organically within real business workflows. This is precisely what fascinated me most while observing these enterprises’ practices: how they brought tools to life.
They directly integrated third-party intelligent work agents into the Lark ecosystem, applying them in highly specific contexts. For instance, during group chat discussions about project bottlenecks, team members simply invoked an AI office tool to quickly synthesize industry trends or perform data analysis. Once insights emerged and were deemed valuable, they’d immediately draft them into a Lark document—or add a follow-up task in a multi-dimensional table.
The entire process felt seamless, with no jarring context-switching between windows, and no tedious copy-pasting.
This ecosystem-level integration sparks scenario-based innovation, allowing intelligent analysis capabilities to flow naturally between messages and documents. Employees don’t need to learn new systems—they can invoke AI assistants directly within familiar interfaces. As a result, AI transforms from “a novelty to try” into “a trusted teammate who gets things done.”
Information overload defines our era—but authentic, grounded business experience remains a precious asset. When tools take over mechanical, desk-bound tasks, we gain the freedom to step outside routine and engage directly with real people—sparking the next breakthrough idea.
Step Outside Routine to Engage—and Discover the Next Insight
After all these conversations, my strongest takeaway is this: tools are always just the foundation. What truly propels business forward are the vibrant, human thoughts operating behind them.
The AI era abounds with information and tools. Integrating any third-party AI assistant—or pairing Lark’s documents, multi-dimensional tables, and video conferencing—can easily maximize everyday efficiency. But what comes *after* efficiency gains? What remains scarce is still frontline experience—and the novel ideas born from genuine human interaction.
I especially love talking with people who operate on the front lines. They don’t speak in abstractions; they’ll tell you exactly where a process stalled—and precisely how they solved it by combining foundational capabilities within the Lark ecosystem. This tangible, grounded business intuition cannot be auto-generated by any system.
We’re too accustomed to sitting at our desks, staring at screens. Occasionally stepping outside our familiar routines—to grab coffee with someone from another industry and discuss real pain points—can shatter that invisible barrier. Perhaps years later, when someone reflects on a newly operationalized business model, they’ll recall today’s seemingly casual conversation. It was that very exchange—the spark of collision—that inspired them to attempt something entirely new.
That’s why I remain committed to conducting these on-site visits and sharing insights—feeling honored to participate, and consistently gaining new knowledge along the way.
Same old rule applies: get out to the front lines more often—and talk more with real people. I hope these Lark-ecosystem-rooted practices inspire even more ideas for you.
Let’s meet in person.