Leaders should ask themselves, “What impossible thing can my people achieve with AI now?”
After making 700 employees redundant, Klarna, the leader in the ‘buy now, pay later’ market, has revealed that artificial intelligence has taken over their work. Klarna now joins the growing ranks of outsourcers seeking efficiency and reaping its benefits. How are they achieving this?
Their answer is corporate Ozympic. Also known as artificial intelligence.
Just as diabetes treatment has rapidly evolved into an effective weight-loss aid, AI has imbued leaders with the ability to perform sophisticated tasks at scale, and at a speed that is impossible for us mere mortals. is impossible for Although many are still reluctant to admit it, AI is the latest drug of choice for organizations looking to become leaner.
People and technology have a complex relationship. Transformative technologies provide immediate solutions to our problems but we rarely understand their long-term consequences. Facebook’s mission was not to spread misinformation. Airbnb did not intend to reduce supply in the housing market, disenfranchising the most vulnerable. No one predicted that Uber would spawn a new sector of shared services in the gig economy. The promise of AI is clear – achieving more in less time with fewer resources. However, leaders must resist the AI hype cycle and proactively assess the broader implications of AI on their organization’s culture, innovation capacity, and broader ability to execute effective strategy.
So if AI is to businesses what Ozempic is to people who want to lose a few pounds quickly, what are the side effects?
The first is the flattening of workplace culture. An organization’s culture is a reflection of its capacity for growth. Many scientific studies have empirically proven that strong cultures result in teams that are more committed, more entrepreneurial, and more resilient. If machines quickly replace our colleagues, we will also lose the cognitive diversity that improves the way people invest the discretionary effort needed to create and beat the competition. Ultimately, when AI is used to reduce the human element of organizational life, so will the motivation and drive needed to move organizations forward.
Another side effect is the weakening of human intelligence. Curiosity forces us to ask questions that really matter and fuel organizational innovation. In pursuit of efficiency, leaders risk automating their firm’s ability to ask new questions and generate new solutions—activities that are critical to staying ahead of the competition. There could be a future where an emotional AI is scanning the business horizon and generating truly business ideas. However, the AI we know today cannot do any of these things. After all, even companies like OpenAI are using humans, not AI, to build some of the most advanced tools we’ve seen this century. To develop the next generation of innovation, leaders must use AI to enhance, not detract from, their employees’ ability to innovate. By combining human intelligence and inquisitive minds with creative AI skills to reintegrate existing information, leaders can significantly increase the entrepreneurial and creative potential of their teams.
A final side effect is the draining of teamwork. Despite what news headlines might suggest, the human ability to collaborate is one of our greatest strengths. As AI mechanizes our intellectual capital, it’s tempting to think that teams can be eliminated and the messiness of interpersonal dynamics will become a thing of the past. AI is, after all, a model team member; It won’t bring its childhood into team dynamics, nor will it be dismayed by the whimsical nature of its human teammates. However, I would argue that it is our uniquely human ability to engage in integrative relationships that will become even more important as we move away from functioning, and toward harmony. The social capital of teams will determine both the success of an organization’s AI strategy, and whether its people can stay motivated around the organization’s mission.
Using AI to reduce headcount is inevitable. Throughout history, technology has served as a vehicle for both job destruction and job creation. While the obvious application of AI is downsizing, the real potential lies in its ability to create value. The more we can use AI to enhance our teams’ curious, driven, and collaborative tendencies, the more optimistic we can be about their ability to create new, unimaginable innovations. Which opens up new streams of income. Organizations that leverage AI in this way will certainly have a competitive advantage over those that take weight-cutting shortcuts. In the race to adopt AI, we must not lose sight of the competitive edge that people bring, not technology.
The question every leader should ask themselves is “What impossible thing can my people now achieve with AI?”