Are You Prepared for The Future? Part 2: What Leaders Get Wrong About AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been here and will continue to be here. If you are reading this, AI will impact you. It’s not a fad or trend that will go away soon. We are in a technological advancement wave that will continue to progress – at an accelerated speed. Unfortunately, some of us approach AI with too much anxiety, while others desire to leverage its capabilities indiscriminately. In this gold rush to take advantage of this technology, there are a few points leaders get wrong about AI that you need to avoid.
I covered six things you need to know about AI in Part 1 of this series. Here, we’ll look into five areas leaders get wrong about Artificial Intelligence.
Basic Understanding of Artificial Intelligence
In simple terms, AI is the science of making machines smart with the ability to think like humans. They perform complex tasks that used to require human input. However, humans still have ultimate accountability for the decisions made. Not a machine.
Today, AI can be seen in every part of our lives at work, home, and play. It’s virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa that make our lives easier. It’s in our navigation apps optimizing traffic flow, and it is fraud detection in our banking systems that protect our financial assets.
While AI can crunch a massive amount of data at lightning speed, it cannot replace the creativity and intelligence of humans.
What Leaders Get Wrong about AI
We must understand AI to be able to unlock its full potential. Before jumping on the bandwagon, though, or getting too far down the road, there are a few AI traps leaders must avoid.
- Failing to get educated on AI. Leaders need to not only be aware of AI but get educated as well. We should realize that while AI is a great decision-making tool, leaders still have accountability to make the right decisions. AI does not deal with intuition or morality. AI does not have a soul. AI does not know that while it may not be wrong to do something, does it mean it is the right thing to do at that time. Sometimes, the best decision is to accept wrong even if we are right. Sometimes, it’s best to save the fight for another day. Leaders must educate themselves enough to be able to strategically lead this technology.
- Having a laser-focus on cost savings. There is a concern that ultimately, AI will replace humans by delivering cost savings. So, some leaders are laser-focused on the savings AI can generate. The reality is humans who embrace and leverage AI to augment their work will replace humans who don’t. The most effective leaders will learn how to integrate AI into daily efforts and use AI to complement resources, including employees, and enhance their efforts. Leaders should focus on AI as a tool to drive efficiency, decision-making, and innovation. Cost savings will most likely be a byproduct of the implementation of AI technology.
- Misunderstanding the impact of AI. Many leaders rush to leverage AI in hopes of getting a competitive edge. They fail to understand how AI is impacting their lives, which tools are right for them, and how to harness the technology. AI is broad and includes machine learning (like search engines) and natural language processing (aka Siri). AI will inevitably impact all of us. It’s prudent to understand how, and how to leverage it to our benefit. We had to adapt to a world with smartphones. The sooner we embrace this new normal, the more control we have over how it will impact us.
- Failing to consider data quality. A model is only as good as the data used. If the data being used or the algorithms being programmed are biased, the results and decisions will be biased. Or as is often said, “garbage in, garbage out.” We should test the integrity of our models and data before assuming the output is valid. Consider this basic situation. You ask an AI application to generate a report on vaccines. The report is in your hands within five seconds. Mission accomplished. Really? Do you know the sources of the information? Your AI app simply goes out and harvests information from different sources on the internet. How do you know what it shared is valid? Was the source of this information a non-medically trained blogger or a reputable medical institution like the Mayo Clinic? Leaders need to be aware of the high potential of making wrong decisions using poor quality data with AI.
- Trivializing the risks of AI Technology. Most of the fears and concerns we hear about AI are just fear-mongering and dramatization for increased journalism ratings. But some of it is real and should not be underestimated. AI brings increased data security risks just as the Internet did, and just as the Smartphone did. The best antidote for fear is knowledge. The more we understand AI, the less our anxiety will spike, and the better equipped we will be to make smart decisions to protect our data and privacy.
As Christ-centered leaders, we should view AI as the application of the talent and skills we have been blessed with to advance humanity. As with everything else, it can be used irresponsibly and unethically. Our job as leaders and followers of Christ is to be on the front lines as a guide to leveraging AI with wisdom, and dare I say, Intelligence. We can start guarding against the AI application traps by internalizing and avoiding the five things leaders get wrong about AI.
Empowered Leader Reflection
What other traps do you see leaders fall into when navigating the application of Artificial Intelligence?
We would love to hear your input. How did this article resonate with you? Would you add your response in the Reply section below?
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