Through no fault of digital leaders or the pioneers of AI, this major change in societal, business, and technology systems has come at a troubling time.<\/p>\n
The current decade has been one of the most disruptive in recent history. It began with a global pandemic that killed millions, which was swiftly followed by supply chain issues. Fierce and bloody war is once again ravaging Europe and the Middle East, and its spectre hangs over parts of Asia. This concoction has led to and been created by the rise of far-right populist politics, which now has council seats in Germany and the UK, parliamentary privilege in European nations as well as Australia, and is in the highest positions of power in other nations. The climate emergency has been all too apparent across Europe too, as fires destroy crops and communities. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Being a CIO in such a world requires not only every facet of leadership, but every sinuous muscle of humanity, because only through humanity will the right result be delivered.<\/p>\n
The right result is one where all benefit. Businesses need to make a profit, but not at the cost of the unwritten contract they have with society: that they respect the people, environment, and communities of the world.<\/p>\n
AI impact<\/p>\n
AI is currently discussed as a technology disruption to society. Clearly, technology plays a major role in AI, but its impact on the economy is about more than technology; it is a change in the system of our society and economy. Just as the Internet did before it, AI will change how we work, communicate, discover information, and create. Therefore, the disruption and managing that disruption is not the sole responsibility of technology leaders. However, technology leaders will be the initial focus of attention.<\/p>\n
CIOs need to be aware of and consider the impact of AI on people and communities. The history of automation, one of the key business benefits AI is said to offer, is how it reshapes the world of work.<\/p>\n
AI-driven automation will have a profound impact on communities in a similar way to previous major shifts. The demise of large-scale industrial jobs in the North of the UK and Wales has arguably never been reconciled. This then becomes the ideal feeding ground for fear. Over the last two years, headline after headline has indicated that thousands of jobs will be replaced by AI and its agents. Leaders need to be acutely aware of this fear, understand where it comes from, and help everyone in their organizations. As\u00a0Abigail Marks, Professor of the Future of Work at Newcastle University, wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n Fear changes how people behave and how they relate to society.<\/p>\n This will also change how they relate to leaders and their plans. She goes on to add that anxiety about AI is not evenly distributed. The fans of AI are billionaires or business leaders on six-figure salaries that include stock options, bonuses, and therefore a very secure safety net should things go wrong.<\/p>\n Who gets hurt<\/p>\n It is those on five-figure salaries that make up the Just About Managing (JAM) sector of society that will see their worst fears visited upon them. The events of this decade have meant a major rise in the cost of living. That means those on five-figure salaries have little or nothing left from their earnings as they struggle with energy costs, food price inflation, elderly parents with care needs, and having to fund the further education of their children. There are no stock options from this or any previous job, while pension contributions are kept to a minimum. These are the mass ranks that live in semi-detached houses and are the mainstay of the national economy.<\/p>\n Leaders can espouse the benefits of automation to strip away the repetitive tasks within their jobs, but for most, this rhetoric is threatening. Take away a repetitive task, and what else will you take away? As Marks wrote:<\/p>\n For these people, the AI revolution does not feel like an upgrade; it feels like a countdown to unemployment.<\/p>\n As a CIO, you lose too<\/p>\n This then feeds into the wider economy and therefore impacts leaders. Those worried about the future are known to become more risk-averse both at work and at large, so they spend less and perpetuate the sluggish economy. Fear kills curiosity, so the failure of AI to create productivity benefits remains steadfast.<\/p>\n The workforce will disengage as it assumes its efforts and loyalty are under-appreciated. Morale can fall easily, and when morale falls, as every leader knows, the most talented and able are the first to leave the business. What is left is a demoralized sea of mediocrity, this at a time when businesses need their best people doing their best work. If AI is to deliver benefits, then leaders need their best thinkers, but if they leave, then the ideas will not flourish.<\/p>\n Leaders, therefore, have a responsibility in this new era of technology-led change to not only meet the needs of their organization, but also society. A cynical society will not create an economy for growth and, in its worst cases, will empower the populist billionaires who play at politics and often create negative economic outcomes.<\/p>\n Humanity in leadership can counter this, but not if AI reduces fairness in society (which is already out of balance as the gap between the security of those on a six-figure salary and five-figure salaries increases).<\/p>\n If we educate and skill our people to navigate and benefit from the rise of AI, that is the greatest form of leading with humanity. Leaving people better equipped is one of the primary goals of leadership. It will benefit the organization and society more widely. Academic Marks writes:<\/p>\n Because while AI will reshape work, the future should not be predetermined by the technology itself. And the greatest risk may not be that AI replaces everyone overnight, but that the fear of replacement becomes widespread and corrosive \u2013 damaging wellbeing, undermining dignity and building resentment.<\/p>\n AI has arrived, through no fault of its own making, at a time of massive social and economic disruption. Leaders could just focus on how this technology-led change in the systems of our society will impact their business or business lines, but to do so would be a failure in leadership.<\/p>\n The sheer power of AI requires leaders to be their best, the best human, the best leader, and to ensure the benefit is equitable. If leaders cannot be human at this juncture in time, then how long before AI simply replaces leaders?<\/p>\n The book Leading with Humanity in an AI World<\/a>, which\u00a0Avril Chester<\/a>\u00a0led, serves as a warning; it is also full of ways to be a leader, to be human, and to combine the two. Leading with humanity is the only way for all to succeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Through no fault of digital leaders or the pioneers of AI, this major change in societal, business, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,521,25,7073,68511],"class_list":["post-147113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-ai-adoption","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-audio","tag-skills-and-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}