2.1 Artificial intelligence (AI)
In a recent guidance document produced by the Information Commissioner’s Office and The Alan Turing Institute (2022), AI is defined as follows:
AI is an umbrella term for a range of technologies and approaches that often attempt to mimic human thought to solve complex tasks. Things that humans have traditionally done by thinking and reasoning are increasingly being done by, or with the help of, AI.
The document goes on to provide some examples, explaining that in healthcare ‘AI can be used to spot early signs of illness and diagnose disease’, in policing it can ‘identify potential offenders’ and, perhaps more familiar to most of us, in marketing ‘AI can be used to target products and services to customers.’
With such wide ranging uses, it is clear that AI is likely to have a significant impact on the work lives of many leaders and followers.
Activity 1 The impact of artificial intelligence
Consider what you know about AI and, in the box below, summarise how you think it might impact on leadership in the future. This could be within your own organisation or more broadly.
Discussion
While it is relatively easy to think of the possible negative impact of AI, Khatri (2023) describes several ways in which artificial intelligence might positively influence leadership in the future, including:
- accelerated decision making
- better predictions of future patterns and consequences
- more streamlined operations
- enhanced collaboration
- development of technical knowledge and skills.
As the impact of AI grows, there will be certain decisions, methods of working etc. that are different and, as a leader, you’ll need to be prepared for any changes and able to facilitate their introduction.
The management of innovation is a complex field. If this is a topic you’d like to explore further, Nieminen (2023) has created ‘Innovation Management - The Ultimate Guide’ [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
When disruptive technologies are transforming your operating and business models, and your customer experience, there will be an inevitable impact on the staff experience too. Your role as leader is to embrace, support, promote and deploy innovation, while facilitating the potentially rapid change that your team will be experiencing. Refer back to Week 6 to revisit leading change.
While many are concerned about the impact of AI on numerous jobs, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (Milanez, 2023) has collected almost 100 case studies from across eight countries and concludes that the situation is more positive than might have been anticipated:
- To date, the case studies suggest that employment levels have remained steady in the face of AI adoption, though there is evidence of slowed job growth.
- Robust demand for specialised AI skills is driving growth in AI-related occupations.
- Job reorganisation is more prevalent than job displacement, with tasks shifting towards those in which human workers have a comparative advantage.
- Job quality improvements associated with AI – reductions in tedium, greater worker engagement, and improved physical safety – may be its strongest endorsement from a worker perspective.
One of the many things that AI can do in the business environment is drive tools that support more effective virtual collaboration, including project management or content analysis tools. In the next section you’ll look at collaboration in more detail.