Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence. Some of it is pretty mixed up. What exactly are we talking about?
AI is an old hat. Research into it has been going on for 70 years. Since the launch of ChatGPT, the topic has become more visible to the general public. This has made AI accessible to everyone. Anyone who knows how to use WhatsApp can also use this new type of AI. ChatGPT represents an entire genre of new AI, namely generative AI, i.e. technology that creates something for humans. Be it texts, images, or videos. This has caused a great deal of unrest, both positive and negative in some respects.
Now the tech scene is regularly driving a new idea through the roost. Who is still talking about the metaverse today? Nvidia and other tech shares have just plummeted. Could it be that the initial euphoria surrounding the topic of AI is now waning again?
You are right; it has been all over the press in recent months. An author friend of mine has just received a rejection from his publisher for a new AI book. They want to put it on hold for a while to see if AI really catches on. I think we have conditioned ourselves a bit in the last 18 months, in which one AI tool after another has come out. In 2023 alone, there were over 4,000. Even we experts are not able to keep track of everything. And to be honest, it must be said that AI is also being sold by many as a magic pill. That is a big problem, because it is by no means the case that you click two or three times and then you suddenly have a 25 per cent increase in productivity. But with this expectation, companies try out use cases and are then very quickly disappointed. We see things a little differently because we see how companies are already using AI effectively on a daily base. And as far as the metaverse is concerned: the biggest difference to the metaverse is that students will no longer give up ChatGPT because it does their homework so fantastically well.
There is a theory that people tend to overestimate the impact of a technology at the beginning, but underestimate it in the long term. Do all companies have to get to grips with AI?
There is simply a huge competitive advantage. Companies that do not utilise these tools will no longer be competitive in the long term. Finally, AI can be a solution to the shortage of skilled labour or at least help to mitigate it to some extent.
We are at the beginning of an incredible change process. The challenge for managers now is to take employees by the hand and give them guidance on AI.
We want to talk specifically about AI in management. Because that is a topic, we both share. What role does artificial intelligence already play there today?
To put it bluntly, we see board members who say: ‘watch out, I read in the FAZ, we do not need marketing any more, AI does everything, we are throwing people out. And on the other hand, there are those who say, I have survived the internet, I do not need to put up with AI any more, I will manage until I retire. And in between there is a huge spectrum of opinions and attitudes. We are at the beginning of an incredible change process. The challenge for managers now is to take employees by the hand and give them guidance on AI.
What are the future application possibilities and potentials?
Generative AIs such as ChatGPT and other tools are like an intern. They are fresh out of university, bring methodological knowledge with them, but do not know the company that well yet and perhaps do not yet have the idea we have for certain tasks. They need to be guided and taken by the hand. Just as we delegate tasks to a person, we also need to train the ‘trainee’ AI. For example, it is able to collate and utilise large amounts of data that we have in the company. You know the saying: ‘If we knew what we know in the company, we could be three times more successful.’ We also talk about chatbots that support us with everyday tasks. These can be things like meetings that are recorded by the AI and automatically sent to the participants as minutes.
By the way, just like our interview which I’m recording and transcribing with Fireflies. What used to take me four or five hours will hopefully be done in one or two.
Exactly. In our company, for example, we have completely automated all our social media activities – i.e. all posts on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and even the newsletter. This is produced by the AI and our Head of Marketing only looks at it at the end.
That means someone still must check it.
Of course. An intern must also be guided. Nobody would hand over a press release formulated by a newcomer to the dpa without reading it. Accordingly, managers and leadership skills are more in demand than ever.
How is AI changing the way managers lead their teams?
Once you understand the intern metaphor, not so much. We will gradually move more and more into a hybrid organisation, into a coexistence of humans and artificial intelligence. You probably know the four Ds of automation. They stand for ‘dangerous’, ‘dear’, ‘dull’ and ‘dirty’. These are tasks that are dangerous, that are too expensive if done by a human, that are dirty in some way or that are simply totally boring and routine tasks. This is what AI interns will be used for in the future.
We still must know for ourselves where we want to go. Uniqueness and the extraordinary are still being sought in vain in AI.
How can AI promote or inhibit the creative aspect of management?
As a manager, you must understand that AI does not do the thinking for you, but that the technology can be an exciting sparring partner. I often sit there in the evening when we’re working on strategies or developing new concepts and, after I’ve had a rough idea, I go into dialogue with AI to question my ideas and approaches. But the basic ideas should come from humans. We still must know for ourselves where we want to go. Uniqueness and the extraordinary are still being sought in vain in AI.
What skills should managers develop to be successful in a future characterised by AI?
We have been training managers in the use of AI since February last year. And we have realised that those who are very good managers are also particularly good at using the tools. Because what makes a good manager? Firstly, clear communication. They are very good at describing requirements, delegating tasks, and giving feedback. And they are very good at developing people, just as AI needs to be developed. AI doesn’t do everything perfectly in the first step. At the same time, there are still managers who sometimes forget that they are also part of the change process and don’t just control it from above. Of course, they also need to familiarise themselves with AI to develop a feeling for the possibilities.
It is funny that we are now talking about artificial intelligence in the context of management skills, when we have recently been talking about the increasing importance of emotional intelligence, isn’t it?
Yes, and that remains important. In the age of AI, collaboration is even more important than before. The K in AI also stands for this. The studies also prove us right in our emotional approach to AI. If you explain things emotionally to the AI trainee and say, for example, that it is incredibly important for the success of our department or for my job, or that it is important that we keep the order, then the AI will also produce better results. Emotionality is the skill of our time.
What challenges, not to say problems, does the use of AI entail?
The most obvious thing that has always played a major role in Germany is legal issues: Data protection and copyright or the handling of trade secrets. There must be very clear rules in the company on how these issues are handled. AI also touches on ethical issues. Not everything that is technologically possible should be done. How transparently do I handle the use of AI, for example in advertising campaigns? And of course, AI also makes mistakes, just like an intern makes mistakes. We must not have blind faith that the technology is always right.
We will have a different distribution of tasks and roles.
Are we not delegating decisions to technology, which could tempt us not to think about things ourselves beforehand? And don’t we run the risk of unlearning how to think?
Of course we do. It takes discipline to first think about a topic ourselves and then use the AI as a sparring partner and tool to work something out. I am sure that this will work itself out. If we leave all the thinking to AI, then we will remain stuck in mediocracy. Those who utilise the best of humans and combine it with the best of AI will prevail. If my marketing strategies are developed exclusively by AI, then I will not come up with an innovative stroke of genius, I will stick with what has already been there. So, I think the market will regulate that.
Do you understand when employees are afraid of being replaced by AI? How can managers minimise the fear of job losses due to AI?
This fear is very pronounced and I can totally understand it. I think it’s very important as a manager to take your people by the hand, provide information, do further training to build up a certain level of expertise. And once this upskilling has taken place, to test the tools and play around with them.
What about the managers themselves? Couldn’t the expensive middle-level manager be replaced at some point?
I think we need to think about what added value we want to deliver as humans and what added value AI delivers for us. We need to have this discussion and we need to differentiate between the various roles in the organisation. We will have a different distribution of tasks and roles. This will affect all knowledge workers, regardless of their hierarchical level. If history has shown one thing, it is that every form of labour revolution – be it the industrial revolution or digitalisation – has never actually led to less work.
A nice closing. I don’t know if you’ve noticed. But I had ChatGPT develop the questions for this interview. Except for the really intelligent questions, of course.
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Dominic von Proeck is co-founder of ‘Leaders of AI’. The company trains managers in ChatGPT & Co and prepares them for the changes brought about by AI. Von Proeck has already founded and sold an AI start-up in the educational sector. He teaches at Leuphana University and Fresenius University of Applied Sciences and is involved in the German Senate of Economy in commissions for Education, Research and Digital Future.
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