Thanks to the explosion of interest in ChatGPT, AI is probably the hottest topic in business today. There are a wealth of stories about the potentially transformative impact that AI – particularly generative AI – can have on different sectors. Theoretically, AI can take over a huge range of tasks previously undertaken by humans – from data entry, scheduling meetings and handling customer enquiries through to writing speeches, providing tax advice and investing in private equity funds. In fact, there seems very little that AI cannot actually do.
At the same time, however, AI presents some major risks to businesses. AI models are only as good as the data they’re trained on – so if that data is biased, inaccurate or incomplete, they will not produce reliable output. Even worse, they could exacerbate existing social inequalities. AI also presents significant copyright, cybersecurity and privacy risks. What’s more, given AI’s ability to take on human tasks, it poses an obvious threat to people’s jobs and livelihoods, which could have far-reaching ramifications.
Given the amount of positive and negative hyperbole associated with AI, it’s hard to know whether it’s fundamentally a goldmine or a minefield for leaders. So, where does the truth lie?
AI as a goldmine
AI is positively a goldmine, according to Steve Andriole, professor of business technology at Villanova University in Pennsylvania and author of The Digital Playbook: How to Win the Strategic Technology Game. He argues that executives who fail to treat AI, machine learning and generative AI as operational and strategic assets will suffer significant competitive disadvantage. Why? “Because in spite of silly calls for ‘pauses’, the competition is doubling down on technology that can save them enormous amounts of time and money and help increase market share,” he explains.
Andriole acknowledges that AI comes with risks, but says the same kinds of risks appear every time a powerful new technology matures. “The advantages outweigh the disadvantages,” he says. “But even if they didn’t, executives will almost always carefully step around minefields to get to profitability.”
AI as a minefield
AI is a great means of boosting productivity, suggests Mohan Subramaniam, professor of strategy and digital transformation at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland and author of The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems. “Industries such as manufacturing benefit from AI-driven automation and robotics, leading to revolutionary improvements in operational efficiency,” he points out. “In healthcare, AI enables more precise diagnoses, accelerated drug discoveries and enhanced clinical decision-making. In these cases, AI complements human ingenuity and propels human achievements forward.”
Nevertheless, where AI replaces human tasks, it can cause widespread disruption. “Certain professions and businesses may become redundant as AI encroaches upon areas such as music composition, creative writing, data entry and analysis, and customer support,” Subramaniam observes.
He adds that not all business and sectors will be affected in the same way, saying: “Corporate leaders face the challenge of assessing and predicting how AI will specifically impact their business models.”
AI is also a minefield from a communication perspective, according to Sara Hope, co-author of Conversational Wisdom and co-founder of consultancy The Conversation Space. “As social animals, we humans are hardwired to connect with other humans,” she says. “This connection is one of our core needs and is what brings us joy and meaning in life and work. It is through our conversations that we most easily connect and AI will inevitably further diminish our opportunities to do this. This poses a real minefield for leaders, risking a crisis in how we build relationships and deepen our human connections in the pursuit of meaningful and joyful work lives.”
Proceed with caution
Atif Sheikh, founder of consultancy Businessfourzero and co-author of Every Team Actually Doing Business Better, believes that AI is both a goldmine and a minefield. “As leaders,” he says, “we are together going to have to figure out how to recover as much of the gold as possible, without all getting blown till kingdom come in the process.”
Sheikh points out that any tool that drives efficiency and productivity at the same time – and that is only going to become exponentially more powerful – will inevitably make a dramatic difference to the performance of many businesses. But he offers a practical warning for leaders looking to exploit the potential of AI: “When you’re confronted with a goldmine, but you know it’s littered with landmines, the only way forward is to use a big stick and carefully test each step before you take it.”
He adds: “Leaders don’t need to have all the answers or land a grand AI strategy. They just need to admit they don’t understand it. And get deliberate about learning more every day. And set their teams up to do the same.”
Whether AI is a goldmine or a minefield will depend on leaders’ ability to ask more powerful questions, says Laura Ashley-Timms, co-creator of the STAR Manager program and co-author of The Answer is a Question.
“Learning to ask powerful questions can make us masters of AI,” Ashley-Timms explains. “The benefits we might generate from the awesome potential offered by this new technology are only limited by our ability to formulate the most powerful questions to ask of it. The more powerful the questions, the more powerful the answers we’ll generate, and the faster organizations will gain commercial advantage from opening up this goldmine.”
Ashley-Timms emphasizes the importance of caution. “We must be wary of an overreliance on what AI tells us,” she maintains. “Failure to continually question and critically evaluate the responses we’re given by our AI tools poses real risks that could open up whole new minefields.” She points out that retail giant Amazon had to stop development of its AI recruitment tool after it discovered an inbuilt bias against female hires for technology roles.
Final thoughts
At present, adoption of AI is only in its infancy and no one knows exactly how the future will pan out and what the implications of the technology will be for both individuals and their organizations. Nevertheless, it’s already clear that workers will need to be urgently upskilled, says Richard Hargreaves, managing director at Corporate Research Forum.
He says: “The transition to an AI-enabled workplace is unlikely to be a smooth one. Leaders will need to balance reskilling with job displacement and enhanced decision-making with an eye for misinformation.” He adds that a supportive, inclusive and collaborative environment is required to deliver a human-centred AI workplace.
“At this relatively early stage of AI evolution, it is hard to predict exactly how it will impact work and the workplace,” Hargreaves concludes, “but we can be certain the application and implications will be transformative, fast, and challenging for leaders.”
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