Last week, I had one of the most stressful travel experiences in a long time. My flight got cancelled just a night before the actual travel.

By the time I checked other flights the next morning, every seat was either gone or priced sky-high due to the sudden rush of passengers scrambling to rebook.

Standing in that moment — trying to make sense of the chaos — one thought kept circling in my mind:

How did such a predictable disruption catch a major airline unprepared?

As a Knowledge Manager, I couldn’t help but analyse the situation through a KM lens. What I experienced wasn’t just a cancelled flight — it was a direct outcome of missing KM structures, weak cross-functional alignment, and the absence of institutional learning.

1. Forecasting Failure: Where Was the Knowledge of Patterns?

Airlines operate with cycles, trends, and historical patterns. Crew-rest rule changes, seasonal peak loads, airport congestion — all of these are known well in advance.

Yet IndiGo ended up cancelling flights due to crew-rostering gaps that could have been predicted months, if not years, earlier.

A strong KM approach would have enabled:

• analysis of past disruptions
  
• modellng of “what-if” stress scenarios
  
• predictive rosters for new regulations
  
• early indicators for staffing gaps
  

All of which should have triggered corrective actions before passengers like me faced last-minute chaos.

2. Breakdown in Knowledge Sharing & Cross-Functional Awareness

The most visible failure wasn’t the cancellation — it was the confusion that followed. This is exactly what happens when operational intelligence is trapped in silos.

With a KM-driven cross-functional flow:

• Scheduling
  
• Crew Management
  
• Ground Operations
  
• Customer Service
  
• Airport Teams
  

...would all operate with real-time, shared visibility. Instead, the information trickled down in fragments — too late, too inconsistent, and too chaotic.

3. Missing Documentation & Regulatory Readiness

Crew-rest regulations didn’t appear overnight. Airlines had enough time to redesign rosters, plan hiring, and adjust schedules.

This requires:

• Documented compliance workflows
• Readiness checklists
  
• Workforce planning triggers
  
• Integrated planning reviews

The crisis revealed clear gaps in structured documentation and the absence of a centralised KM-led compliance calendar.

A strong KM system would have connected planning, rostering, hiring, and communication — all aligned with regulatory timelines.

4. Incident Response Without a Playbook

During the disruption, there was no cohesive plan or customer communication framework. No mention of how and when refund will be issued, no support calls of how they will assist in helping with alternate travel arrangements as their moral responsibility for leaving passengers stranded.

A mature KM-led Incident Response Playbook would define:

• proactive alerts
  
• rebooking protocols
  
• customer-handling guidance
  
• baggage coordination steps
  
• escalation workflows
  

This would have ensured passengers were supported with clarity and care — not left navigating the chaos alone.

How KM Can Transform Aviation Reliability

As I tried to cope with the inconvenience, the parallels became clear:
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This wasn’t just an operational failure — this was a Knowledge Management failure.

When KM is weak, even predictable events turn into crises. When KM is strong:

• Forecasting is accurate
  
• Communication is proactive
  
• Teams stay aligned
  
• Customers trust the system
  

Aviation is too complex to operate without a robust KM backbone.
And this experience reminded me why KM isn’t just an internal capability — it directly shapes customer journeys, brand perception, and organisational resilience.

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Corporate wind-downs are challenging for everyone. Teams disband, the old ways of doing things decay and the institutional memory fades. The greatest operational and legal pressure comes from the need to save the organization's knowledge before it is lost forever.

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For Knowledge Management (KM) professionals, the wind-down is not a retreat, but a final act of oversight and accountability. KMs must determine what to save, what to transfer and what to let go of when the doors close.

Why KM Matters During a Wind-Down

A corporate shutdown magnifies everything. In any closure, the life of records is shortened, job roles change quickly and employee-specific permissions are lost. Federal guidelines state that employers have multiple obligations when closing or restructuring operations. Some areas the KM team must consider include communication and documentation. These requirements rely on accurate and readily retrievable knowledge.

KM leaders are required not only to specify who will clean up after the business's operational phase ends, but also to capture knowledge to support compliance, continuity and post-business situations after the business is legally extinguished. The numerous moving parts of a shutdown require meticulous attention to detail.

Identifying What to Keep

As a company nears its end, KM professionals should decide whether data is useful or critical. Deleting information that might be needed later can create problems for stakeholders in the years to come. Categories of high priority include:

●  Regulatory and compliance documentation

●  Contractual and financial obligations the company must meet

●  Intellectual property and proprietary materials

Operational workflows need to remain uninterrupted through the last day. Knowledge audits, interviews with leadership and reviews of repositories can help KM managers map existing assets. It’s critical to identify which elements are most likely to fragment later and slow the legal process of a closure or cause unnecessary disputes during a sale.

Capturing and Documenting Critical Processes

In a formal wind-down, timelines for knowledge capture are shortened since existing processes will be performed only a few more times before the employee responsible for the knowledge leaves. To address the lack of time to document, KM teams must record the processes step-by-step to capture all operational details.

Zeroing in on the specifics enhances legitimacy since the dissolution must adhere to specific reporting and procedural rules, resulting in a formal record of the actions taken. Several legal issues arise when closing a business, and organizations should plan for what happens when the company can no longer enter into contracts or other agreements and motions. At the same time, the business may have contracts left that it must fulfill. Documentation can help ensure the organization fulfills its obligations correctly.

Managers can use templates, process maps, annotated screenshots and short-form video walk-throughs to conserve time in a resource-limited environment. KM practitioners are likely to focus on support functions such as finance, compliance, IT and customer fulfillment, which may continue until late in the wind-down process.

Preserving Intellectual Property and Organizational Memory

Even as teams shrink and systems are retired, knowledge capture and intellectual property protection must continue through the last day. KM leaders partner with IT to safeguard repositories, review user permissions and embed record-keeping requirements, meeting legal retention obligations in those archives.

This knowledge must also be stored in a format that can still be used if there is a later investigation by external auditors, regulators or purchasers of the assets. KM should ensure that key documents and records are kept. In doing so, they protect themselves from legal liability and damage to their professional reputations.

Organization becomes especially important during a wind-down, when systems are sunsetting, and documentation is on its way to being archived or eventually destroyed. Improving the structure of the information helps KM professionals reach their own archiving and access goals and protects personal information.

KM leaders must determine whether to consolidate a repository or store knowledge in the long term. Storing only critical data is crucial to avoiding breaches that might harm individuals. In 2023, 3,205 reports of compromised systems occurred in the United States alone. Structural modifications can help prevent confusion and weaknesses during the transition period.

Transferring Knowledge to Essential Stakeholders

Wind-downs also require considerable information exchange among regulators, auditors, clients and counsel. Various parties need to be informed about what has happened and what documentation or obligations exist. KM makes this supply chain possible by organizing packets of information, repository indexes and access guides for specific stakeholders.

KM leaders expedite back-and-forth requests and provide the entity with an exit strategy to ensure that no issues at the organization will become problems months or years after the business's closure.

The Best KM Strategy Creates a Responsible Wind-Down

In a wind-down, KM's role becomes specialized information governance. It must provide the knowledge required for the company to comply with regulations, protect its intellectual property and ensure business continuity until the company’s last day. A disciplined strategy promotes an ethical and documented sunsetting process, enabling the organization to carry forward the knowledge and intellectual capital of the past as it concludes its operations.

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A digital knowledge base is a company’s main source of information and guidance. However, it can be challenging to integrate physical documents into it, impacting long-standing organizations with decades of files and historical records.

Paper records require specialized processes to ensure they are ready and helpful in a new electronic environment.

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Document Triage and Selection

Before any scanning or digitizing project begins, organizations first need to decide what they should include. In this step, known as document triage, knowledge management practitioners review information and assess its suitability for a specific purpose. In this case, it’s digitization.

Despite seeming simple, document triage can be complex, and any missteps can impact costs or disrupt the knowledge base.

When evaluating which physical documents are worth digitizing, teams can consider the following:

●  Regulatory and compliance requirements: Documents like tax records, contracts, financial statements and employment records often require verified digital versions for audits or legal purposes.

●  Business value and frequency of access: Frequently used documents, like operational procedures, can help streamline processes and contribute to the company’s ROI when digitized.

●  Historical significance vs. utility: Some materials hold memories but offer limited practical business value. While preservation is important, professionals need to weigh the costs vs. the benefits.

One example is the digital transformation of daily business mail. These correspondences are part of everyday operations. However, it can be challenging to manage and secure physical mail and documents on a larger scale, especially when companies transition to hybrid or remote working arrangements.

Business mail checks most of the major criteria for document triage. It’s essential in compliance and operations and gets used regularly, making it a key focus area for an organization’s digitization efforts.

Technical Hurdles in the Digitization Process

Once the team selects and categorizes their documents, they undergo the technical digitization process. Scanning is one part of it. However, some organizations may run into these issues.

Ensuring High-Fidelity Scanning and OCR Accuracy

Physical documents sometimes come with flaws, such as faded ink, stains, creases or other damage from age or storage. These issues can impact the effectiveness of optical character recognition (OCR) software when scanning and detecting text, even when using AI enhancement tools.

OCR accuracy is essential for the knowledge base to receive the right information and context from each document. Errors in capturing text and symbols can affect search functionality and other workflows that rely on the digitized data.

Poor source quality is a significant barrier to accuracy, requiring companies to rely on advanced scanning equipment and manual quality control to ensure information fidelity.

The Complexity of Metadata and Indexing

Metadata is foundational to a functional digital knowledge base. However, the process of adding it to digitized documents can be highly meticulous.

Some documents may automatically include basic metadata, such as creation date, author or document type. However, knowledge bases need rich and searchable metadata, like project codes or subject matter tags, for them to be functional in everyday operations

Several challenges can complicate this process. Physical documents rarely contain clear and standardized metadata, and legacy filing systems may have inconsistent or outdated categorization. Organizations themselves may also lack a shared metadata schema across departments.

Digitization teams must interpret the document, assign relevant metadata points, and apply a uniform system that matches how the knowledge base organizes files and information. This step ensures that scanned files are useful and accessible to anyone who needs them.

Overcoming Integration and Governance Challenges

After digitizing paper documents, knowledge base specialists will need to ensure that the digital versions function properly inside the system.

Creating a Unified Digitization Workflow

An effective workflow ensures that each document moves through the same controlled process and comes out with similar levels of quality as the others. A systematic workflow usually includes:

1. Preparation (e.g., removing staples, sorting)
2. Scanning and quality control
3. Metadata association
4. Ingestion into the knowledge management system
5. Physical document storage or destruction

Selecting the Right Technology Stack

Assembling the right tech stack can improve a project’s chances of success. Aside from scanners and OCR, teams need a software ecosystem that can effectively support the rigors of document digitization and integration.

Knowledge management professionals may want to consider intelligent document processing (IDP) software, which uses AI and machine learning to classify documents and improve accuracy beyond basic OCR functionality. IDP still uses OCR to recognize text and symbols in the document, then takes it a step further by interpreting the document and gleaning relevant insights from it.

Ensuring Long-Term Governance and Maintenance

Knowledge management requires long-term commitment. After digitization, teams must plan for long-term governance and maintenance.

A comprehensive governance plan should include data retention policies, access control reviews, and periodic audits to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the digitized information.

Setting these systems up preserves all the hard work involved in the digitization process and ensures the utility and longevity of the entire knowledge base.

From Physical Archive to Actionable Knowledge

Integrating physical documents into a digital knowledge base comes with significant challenges that require meticulous processes and advanced technology to overcome. Creating a knowledge base is a long-term organizational commitment.

However, these efforts are often worthwhile, transforming physical documents into searchable and accessible digital libraries that support informed decision-making.

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Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and Replit CEO Amjad Masad just dropped a partnership that changes everything about who gets to build software in your organization.

The goal? "Make enterprise vibe-coding a thing” says Masad. And the implications are massive.

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The New Reality

"Instead of people working in silos, designers only doing design, product managers only write...now anyone in the company can be entrepreneurial “ Masad explains.

Translation: Your HR team can build their own tools. Your salespeople can create custom dashboards. Your marketing folks can prototype their own automation.

No tickets. No backlogs. No "waiting for dev."

Why This Matters for KM

This is where knowledge management meets its inflection point. When vibe coding democratises software creation, you're not just automating tasks—you're enabling people to externalise their tacit knowledge directly into functioning systems.

Think about the SECI model. The salesperson who knows the perfect qualification workflow can now build it themselves. The customer service rep with deep process knowledge can create the tool that captures it.

Knowledge doesn't get stuck in someone's head or lost in a ticket queue. It becomes software.

The AI Centre of Excellence Play

But here's the critical piece most organisations will miss -  Democratisation without Orchestration is chaos.

This is where an AI Centre of Excellence becomes essential. You need a hub that:

•Curates the best vibe-coded solutions across the organization

•Shares proven patterns and successful apps

•Ensures governance without killing innovation

•Transforms individual experiments into organizational assets

•Replit grew from $2.8 million to $150 million in revenue in under a year. The enterprise is ready. But without a CoE, you'll have 1,000 isolated solutions instead of 10 transformative ones.

NB: We’re currently seeing AI COE’s running at 20% of our CAIM students to date. I predict that number will easily go north of 50% this time next year.  (see: sample job examples below) 

The Certified AI Manager Connection

This is exactly what we demonstrate in the Certified AI Manager Course —using Claude to vibe code business solutions with human centric KM at the centre.

P.S. or Footnote:  When you start to realize that this phase of AI actually eats software, the $3 billion valuation of Replit and Cursor's $29.3 billion valuation don't seem so crazy after all. And when you consider Anthropic's Claude Code hit $1 billion in run-rate revenue —the very tool powering much of this vibe coding revolution—you start to see we're not just witnessing a shift in how software gets built. We're watching software consumption replace software purchase. They're not just selling tools—they're selling the dissolution of the software industry as we knew it.

Knowledge Management Roles within AI Centre of Excellence Contexts

Knowledge Management & Leadership Roles in the AI Centre of Excellence

As we step into 2026, one thing is clear: Knowledge Management needs a reset — not because the current framework is failing, but because the way people work, connect, and learn has completely transformed.

KM thrives when systems, people, and intelligence flow together. And that flow cannot exist without technology and the human component through communities, networks, experts, mentors, and everyday contributors.
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1. Reshaping Systems: From Repositories to Living Ecosystems

KM systems must evolve into living, breathing ecosystems that adapt as fast as work does.

In 2026, the shift will be toward making knowledge and the people behind it — easy to find.

• Designing human-cantered KM experiences
• Moving from “store & search” to “sense & respond” knowledge journeys with the AI integration
• Simplifying interfaces so knowledge feels intuitive
• Letting systems adapt based on real user behavior
• Building pathways where people and expertise are just as discoverable as content
  

2. AI as a Partner, Not a Tool

2025 opened the AI door for KM. 2026 is when AI becomes a true co-pilot in how we curate, manage, and deliver knowledge.

AI will enable KM teams to:

• Automate tagging and metadata
• Identify content gaps before users feel them
• Personalize knowledge flows to roles and contexts
• Transform search into a conversation, not a query
• Generate content drafts, summaries, and reusable assets
  

Bottom line is that AI will amplify human expertise — not replace it. It will free experts from repetitive work so they can focus on guiding, mentoring, and enabling.

3. Redesigning the Way We Operate KM

KM isn’t evolving only through systems — it’s evolving through people who learn, unlearn, and adapt together.

Operational priorities for 2026 include:

→ From custodians to orchestrators

KM teams will be designers of experiences, not just managers of content.

→ From repositories to networks

Knowledge must flow through people, not just documents.

→ From governance to enablement

Creating a culture where contributing is natural, not burdensome.

→ From one-time training to continuous capability building

AI nudges, micro-learning, and role-based learning journeys.

4. Strengthening People Networks & Centers of Expertise

In 2026, the most successful KM programs will invest in people networks as much as they invest in tools.

This means building:

Centers of Expertise (CoE)

Where experts are visible, accessible, and equipped to guide teams with clarity and consistency.

Mentorship Networks

Connecting experts with learners to accelerate role readiness, confidence, and knowledge absorption.

Buddy Programs for Upskilling

Creating a safe, informal pathway for people to ask questions, learn workflows, and build skills quickly.

Communities of Practice

Where people solve problems together, share patterns, and convert tacit knowledge into reusable assets.

These networks will turn KM from a content-driven function into a people-driven capability engine — making expertise findable, approachable, and scalable.

In short, KM becomes a shared responsibility, not a siloed function.

5. 2026: Smarter Flows, Stronger Connections, Human Intelligence at the Core

2026 will not be about adding more technology; it will be about connecting what already exists — people, processes, expertise, and intelligence.

KM will thrive when:

• Systems feel intuitive
• AI lightens the cognitive load
• Experts are visible and empowered
• Peer networks support upskilling
• People feel connected through purpose, flow, and community
  

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