AI: the magnifying glass highlighting weaknesses and opportunities

AI is the magnifying glass that exposes weaknesses and opportunities in people, processes, and operations that have long been ignored. Previously, organisations have operated in the dark, struggling to identify broken processes, who owns what, where duplicated effort lies, and where capability gaps are. Now, AI shines a light on the challenges and opportunities, helping leaders devise and implement new strategies and processes for improvement. 

 

 

The perfect blend

Organisations that will be successful with AI are those that seamlessly blend humans and technology together.  Having the right leadership and culture is critical to AI’s success. RAND research revealed that 84% of failures are driven by leadership. It is also fundamental to create a culture of learning and development that is innovative and flexible, enabling people to thrive and grow. Giving them the bandwidth to make mistakes, encouraging people to use AI to support critical thinking and problem solving, and creating an environment where people feel trusted, challenged and empowered to improve.

 

 

Be human

AI has made everyone an expert by democratising instant access to information and analysis. Tasks that previously required significant time and expertise can now be completed in seconds, but the true competitive advantage lies not in the latest technology that organisations have in place, but in how they use AI.

 

AI has been criticised for eroding our critical thinking and effort, and it will if used incorrectly. Organisations must ensure this doesn’t happen, as it will jeopardise their reputation; they should educate employees on how and where to use AI, implement quality control processes and guardrails to ensure accuracy, non-bias and on-brand material.

 

AI should be used to enhance critical thinking rather than replace it. Encourage people not to use AI as an automatic reflex before they use their own judgement, and not to trust its output without questioning, challenging and verifying it.

 

Guide people to speak to AI as if it were a director, teacher or philosopher, stating their ideas, asking what it thinks, and then challenging it to produce multiple viewpoints that make them think harder. This will enable them to create work in a more human way that is nuanced, has been critiqued and is based on experience, all of which AI does not have. 

 

‘Soft skills’ are our superpowers, and we must develop and maintain them. The World Economic Forum states that human-centric skills are still viewed as critical, including motivation and self-awareness (52%), empathy and active listening (50%), and curiosity and lifelong learning (50%).

 

 

Training and development

Organisations still need people who can ask questions, challenge one another, understand context, apply judgement, build and maintain relationships and take ownership. They need to ensure that these skills are not lost or neglected, but are developed - and that people are not reliant on AI.

 

Some daily tasks will be automated by AI, and people will have less work to do and will need to focus on other areas. It is here that AI may magnify the need for training and development.

 

For example, someone who previously spent significant time manually analysing information may now have more opportunities to engage with customers, solve problems, develop relationships or contribute ideas. Organisations must invest in providing support, training and development to ensure their employees are skilled in key competencies such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking and management.

 

A future competitive advantage will not come from people who know how to use AI, but from those who use it to think critically and to question, and who collaborate with it.

 

 

Robot work, not teamwork

Organisations should encourage employees to use their judgement before turning to AI, or to discuss a challenge with a colleague rather than with an AI bot. We must not lose the skills that make us human, such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, empathy and critical thinking. If we succumb to the easy, instant option of using AI every time, we risk losing the ability to grow, develop and innovate. After all, ideas are born of teamwork, discussion, brainstorming and challenging one another. 

 

For organisations that are too reliant on AI-generated answers, you will lose nuance, emotional intelligence, judgement, context and experience. AI cannot produce these qualities, and they are skills that make us human, not robots. So, let’s not lose them.

 

The key is to work with AI after you have worked together first, so you are blending the speed, scale and intelligence of AI with the judgment, emotional intelligence and experience of humans. 

 

 

Instant output - no effort

Today we live in a society of instant gratification with everything on demand and everything now. However, we all need to slow down and take time to think. If you don’t have time, then schedule it. Quiet time is almost forgotten in today’s fast and busy world. When we slow down and stop, we gather our thoughts, gain perspective, and think things through. It also helps us connect and brainstorm with colleagues, and this is how ideas are born, problems are solved, and clarity is achieved. Make time to make the effort.

 

AI can provide answers, but it cannot replace our thinking, so take time for a considered approach and decision. This is important to remember when using AI for content: quality is better than quantity.

 

 

Fail to grow

If AI performs more and more tasks for us, how will we grow and improve? Growth does not come from the right answer but from the effort required to get there, including exploring ideas, working with each other, making decisions, taking risks, and learning from mistakes and experience.

 

The organisations that will be successful using AI are those that encourage, cultivate and nurture a learning, innovative and transparent culture. Leaders embrace discovering new ways of working and collaborating with AI, empowering employees with trust and the flexibility to achieve and grow.  

 

 

Stay human

Leaders must set a culture in which humans and AI can work together seamlessly and remember that it is people who direct and manage AI, not the other way round. Trust your brain, your instincts, and your experience before you use AI, because we create ideas, empathise, and communicate with nuance and experience.

 

Trust that it is not AI that is changing the workplace, but people, leadership, and the discovery of new ways of working. This is where we grow, develop, innovate, and improve - with the help of AI, not because of it.

 

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Jonathan Sharp is CEO at Britannic

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and MF3d