Want to excel at AI? Get serious about play
Play: The Most Serious Work of All
When we think of play, we often imagine childhood: a child building castles in the sand, pretending to be a doctor, or chasing friends across a field. But play is not simply a pastime. Philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists have long argued that play is foundational to human development. Johan Huizinga, in Homo Ludens (1944), claimed that play is older than culture itself, suggesting that play creates meaning before structured culture emerges. Jean Piaget (1962) saw play as a cornerstone of cognitive growth, where children practice and assimilate new knowledge. Lev Vygotsky (1978) argued that play creates a “zone of proximal development,” allowing children to operate at levels just beyond their current capabilities.
Play is how we first learn to solve problems, negotiate rules, and adapt to change. Neuroscience reinforces this: Jaak Panksepp (2007) showed that play stimulates the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for executive functions like decision-making and self-regulation. Stuart Brown (2009), founder of the National Institute for Play, goes further, describing play as biologically programmed — a survival strategy that fosters creativity, resilience, and social bonding. In short, play is not frivolous; it is practice for life.
Work as Play
If we shift focus to work, something interesting happens. At the beginning of a career, work resembles play. We explore, try on different roles, make mistakes, and learn. An internship feels like an extended experiment. Early projects give us permission to improvise. In these moments, work is play in disguise — a low-risk environment where we learn the rules of the game.
But over time, the boundaries tighten. Processes harden, roles become fixed, and performance is measured against narrow outputs. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow (1990) explains the tension well: when work is structured in ways that stifle exploration, the potential for deep engagement disappears. Instead of the excitement of discovery, we get routine, predictability, and often, disengagement. Gallup’s global research on employee engagement (2022) shows that only 21% of employees are engaged at work, underscoring how rare it is for work to retain its playful qualities over time.
The Return of Play through AI
The acceleration of AI tools has reopened the playground for adults. AI creates safe, abundant “sandbox” environments where the cost of experimentation is near zero. A marketer can test creative concepts in hours rather than weeks. A designer can generate prototypes on the fly. A writer can draft, redraft, and stretch their thinking in directions that were previously impractical.
This is not unlike the childhood playground, where rules are tested, adapted, and often rewritten. With AI, adults can once again play — testing ideas, shifting roles, and experimenting without the heavy consequences that usually weigh down workplace trial-and-error. Teresa Amabile’s research on organisational creativity (1996) shows that environments which lower the cost of experimentation and encourage risk-taking are those that produce the highest levels of innovation. AI effectively industrialises this environment, giving every knowledge worker access to a creative partner.
Examples are already emerging: advertising agencies now run AI-driven creative sprints to test multiple campaign directions in parallel, while software developers use AI assistants like GitHub Copilot to rapidly prototype and discard ideas before committing resources. These practices mirror the exploratory, low-stakes nature of childhood play — and they are fast becoming competitive necessities.
Why Play Matters More Now
In a world shaped by AI, productivity is becoming commoditised. What differentiates people — and organisations — is not efficiency, but imagination. Play trains us to adapt when rules change, a vital skill in an economy where rules are constantly rewritten by technology. Play also allows us to reconfigure our professional identities, preventing the stagnation that comes with rigid career paths.
Equally important is the social dimension. Play has always had a communal role, from children’s games to sports. Collective play builds trust and shared meaning. In the AI context, this is echoed in hackathons, open-source projects, and collaborative experimentation across teams. These playful environments help groups generate solutions that no individual could achieve alone (Sawyer, 2012).
A Call to Action: Building Play into the AI Workplace
If play is as essential to adults as it is to children, then the challenge is clear: how do we bring play back into our working lives, especially in an AI-driven world? Businesses can start with three shifts:
Create AI Sandboxes – Provide spaces and time for employees to experiment with AI tools without immediate performance pressure. Think of these as digital playgrounds where the goal is learning, not output. Google’s famous “20% time” policy — which gave birth to products like Gmail and AdSense — is one example of institutionalised play that produced massive business returns.
Reward Experimentation, Not Just Results – Shift incentives so that curiosity and creative risk-taking are valued alongside productivity. Celebrating failed experiments that yield insights is as important as celebrating successes. Companies like 3M, which encourage experimentation, attribute many of their breakthrough products (including the Post-it Note) to playful exploration.
Model Playful Leadership – Leaders should demonstrate their own willingness to play with AI tools, admit what they don’t know, and invite co-creation. This sets a cultural tone where exploration feels safe and valued. As Brown (2009) notes, when leaders model playfulness, they unlock higher levels of trust and engagement across teams.
Conclusion
Play has always been the most serious work we do. It is how children become adults, and how adults remain adaptable in the face of change. In the age of AI, play is not a luxury; it is a necessity. The businesses that understand this will not just survive the technological shifts ahead — they will thrive because they’ve embraced the one thing AI cannot replicate: the human ability to play.
References
Amabile, T. (1996). Creativity in Context. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Bateson, G. (2015). Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Brown, S. (2009). Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. New York: Avery.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper & Row.
Gallup. (2022). State of the Global Workplace 2022 Report. Gallup, Inc.
Huizinga, J. (1944). Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. London: Routledge.
Panksepp, J. (2007). Play and the development of social engagement: A comparative perspective. Developmental Review, 27(1), 1–19.
Pellegrini, A. D. (2009). The Role of Play in Human Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Piaget, J. (1962). Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood. New York: Norton.
Sawyer, R. K. (2012). Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.