In light of the recent developments concerning artificial intelligence, leaders must rely less on intuition or past experience than ever before. AI has fundamentally changed how organisations approach planning, thinking & executing their strategies as well as how leaders interact with their staff. Using real-time information, AI enables organisations to identify potential risks sooner, allowing organisations to make better-informed decisions about how to prevent future problems from occurring. As a result, rather than having to wait until an issue arises before addressing it, leaders and organisations can prepare in advance with greater certainty.
AI provides leaders and organisations with a comprehensive overview of everything going on both within and outside of the organisation. In addition, AI assists in identifying patterns of customer behaviour, allowing the organisation to identify areas where there is room for improvement. AI allows leaders to dedicate their time & energy toward more value-added activities such as developing strategies and utilising creative talent.
Building AI Understanding in Teams
AI needs to be understood by many people in the organisation before AI will perform at its best. Leaders only need to ensure employees possess a basic awareness of AI, not a technical understanding. Employees will be much more comfortable using AI for their daily work if they know the types of things AI can do and cannot do. The combination of training sessions, hands-on experience with using AI tools, and having open conversations regarding AI will help diminish employees’ anxiety and uncertainty regarding using AI.
In addition to increasing the number of teams using AI, there will also be an increase in the quality of AI used by teams. As teams utilise AI, they will also enhance AI through continued use. Data used to train AI will improve, AI’s results will become more accurate, and the insights gained through AI will become stronger over time. This creates continually learning systems that will help organisations to make better decisions.
Knowing When to Use AI and When Not To
AI has tremendous capabilities; it will not, however, be able to solve all leadership problems. Certain decisions require human judgement that cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI); however, in addition to this, there will also likely be instances when an AI system can provide an advantage for decision-making. Leaders need to articulate what types of situations can be appropriately managed by using AI.
For example, conducting repetitive, simple tasks frequently means that using an AI system can increase efficiency through time savings and reduction of human error rates. However, when making complex/high-risk/complex decisions, AI will augment rather than replace human reasoning. Ultimately, leaders must establish explicit rules/guidelines that outline the intended purposes of the technology in order to prevent the misuse, abuse, emotional dependence, or blind faith in technology.
Encouraging Questions and Critical Thinking
Curiosity is the foundation for good AI leadership. There should always be a culture where teams can safely ask questions about the outcomes of their AI programmes and challenge underlying assumptions. To blindly accept the outcomes of AI simply because they’re generated by the technology can create severe problems for us. When we allow people to ask questions, we build better, stronger and more balanced decisions.
Companies that build an environment based on testing and learning are often more adaptable and able to act quickly and intelligently when faced with difficulties such as rapid shifts in the market.
Leading With Openness and Trust
Leaders create trust through transparency, and teams must understand how AI uses data and who makes decisions for it. When employees openly communicate about these matters, they will gain confidence about using AI as a tool and will feel empowered to raise questions if they see something that appears problematic.
The Future of Leadership
While AI is changing the way we lead in the future, there is no substitute for human accountability when leading.
Leaders should learn about how to leverage AI and utilise it as effectively as possible, inducing open-mindedness and consulting everyone in the decision-making process with honesty and integrity to achieve real results using this technology. AI is an effective tool but is only as good as those who lead with it.