Leadership in the Age of AI: Opportunities and Risks

In 2016, advertising agency McCann Japan appointed a logic-based system called AI-CD ß as creative director: the first AI to hold an executive position. Year after year, artificial intelligence tools continue to gain traction in the corporate sector. Today, around 37% of companies worldwide use AI.

This technology's benefits include greater efficiency of processes and data management. However, there are still concerns about its impact on employment. A new research paper from OpenAI sought to identify the potential effects of large language models, such as GPT, on the labor market in the US. “Our findings indicate that approximately 80% of the U.S. workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by the introduction of GPTs, while around 19% of workers may see at least 50% of their tasks impacted,” the article states. 

It also identifies the professions at greater risk of being disrupted or disappearing due to GPT-4. In this list, we find interpreters and translators, survey researchers, writers and authors, mathematicians, tax professionals, web and digital interface engineers, blockchain engineers, accountants and auditors, journalists, proofreaders and copy markers, legal secretaries and administrative assistants, public relationship specialists, and poets, lyricists and creative writers. 

Many people could be afraid of this data, but the exciting question is: What could we do if we had 10%, 30%, or 50% more time? According to a report from the World Economic Forum, while AI will destroy 85 million jobs, it will create 97 million new ones, increasing the GDP of local economies by 2030. New technologies will indeed slow down the development of some professions. Still, they will also open up new opportunities, which is why today's educational institutions must start preparing their curricula and, more importantly, their mindset for the future. 

A great start is understanding the technology and its implications for your organization, keeping in mind that there are not hard and fast rules, and that knowledge is just being built, so the constant exchange of opinions and perspectives will be key to learning environments.

How to Lead the Future?

What is our role as leaders amid this panorama? How will we face the organizational changes that accompany technological developments? How will we successfully lead many people whose tasks and goals will change?

We don't have all the answers. Still, we can start preparing today to integrate AI into our businesses and realize its potential as we recognize the impact of language models on our workforce.

Gerd Gigerenzer is a German psychologist who specializes in bounded rationality and heuristics. He recently published a book titled How to Stay Smart in a Smart World: Why Human Intelligence Beats Algorithms, in which he explores the changes we need to make to live and thrive in a world populated by algorithms.

Gigerenzer remains optimistic about AI as a tool to improve our performance in some work areas and daily tasks characterized by a controlled environment. Therefore, he explains, AI is a great help when it comes to managing data, but it also brings challenges, such as recognizing a trustworthy person — something most of us can do with our common sense.

One of the biggest challenges in the age of AI is that we tend to overestimate new technologies, and we expect them to do everything for us, so we do not have to put in any extra effort. But, on the contrary, we must become smarter to live in a smart world.

It is dangerous to rely solely on technology because by doing so, we stop training professionals. History has proven that slowing down learning processes harms human development.

Today, for example, companies are using algorithms more than ever in the pre-selection and selection of personnel. "There is no proof that an expert can be beaten by an algorithm. The more we rely on the algorithm, the less we train experts to look at a person's face or how to interpret a person from eye contact," Gigerenzer explained in an interview for the Thinkers and Ideas Podcast.

As leaders, on the one hand, we have to evolve ourselves: envision a different future, build a culture of innovation, and engage with key stakeholders. On the other hand, we need to develop our team members and ensure they don't lose their human skills, such as developing intuition through experience, using common sense to communicate with others, establishing perceptions, and giving and receiving feedback. 

We are living in interesting and exciting times, and for the time being, we still get to ask critical questions, despite who (or what algorithm) will give us the answers.