AI Gives You Superpowers, but it’s not Robin to Your Batman

AI can give you and your employees superpowers. However, AI is not (at least yet) a teammate. Set your expectations realistically, keep your options open, and think of AI as pieces of Iron Man’s armor or the tools on Batman’s utility belt. AI is not your sidekick, but it can be fantastic. 

Pitfalls of the Teammate Mindset 

Thinking of AI as a teammate is misleading and can foster unrealistic expectations. Any time we get the negative surprise that something, or someone, isn’t working with us toward the same goal, it’s disappointing. We grow up looking to be picked for a team. We look for synergies (and lunch companions) when we build a team at work. We see office wall posters noting there is no “I” in team. These team expectations focus on coming together to work toward a goal. AI can help us reach our goals, but it’s not yet ready for the “coming together” part. We don’t have joint accountability with AI. We choose to work with AI, the AI don’t choose us.  

AI as a Collection of Superpowers 

Instead of thinking of an AI as a teammate, see it as a suite of tools that give you various superpowers. For example, ChatGPT, CoPilot, and Claude can use natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to summarize reports or follow your request to adjust the wording of an email. DALL-E can create images like the one above. CoPilot within Excel can help you visualize your data. Many different tools can help you summarize calls with your human team members and even generate to-dos from the meeting notes. 

If you have a task to do, there is likely an AI that can supercharge your approach. Still, we are in the early stages of staffing our work with AI. Andrew Rabinovich, vice president and head of AI and machine learning at Upwork says, “In the future, you’ll just have one window on your screen where your AI companion — every person is going to have their own — is going to be hyper-personalized. It’ll understand everything that you do.”  https://sloanreview.mit.edu/audio/never-too-much-ai-upworks-andrew-rabinovich/  

But we’re not there yet.  

Harnessing AI's Superpowers 

To harness the power of AI for yourself or those you’re helping in your organization, adopt a mindset of augmentation rather than partnership. (Here are some steps from a prior post.) Think about your work in terms of tasks. Engage in an AI chat where you ask the AI how it might help you. Glance through websites cataloging different AI and their capabilities. 

Break the work down such that the AI does what it’s good at, and you keep those things where you’re better than any tool. Medical imaging has used AI for diagnosis for a while, but they are very careful to know the machine's capabilities and whether the people using the tools are novices or experts.  

Focusing on the tools we can all access for free or nominal charges right now, AI-driven automation handles repetitive and mundane tasks, freeing up your time for more creative and strategic pieces of the work. By thinking of AI as your supersuit, you amplify your productivity and innovation, achieving outcomes that you might not be able to do without them. Ironman can’t fly without his suit. Batman is just Bruce Wayne without his utility belt. 

The Importance of a Human-Centric Approach 

Many corporate AI designers and academic AI researchers focus on a human-centric approach. This involves acknowledging the unique strengths and limitations of both humans and AI and discovering ways to integrate them. Recall from my posts on Thinking in 5T: you can’t change just one thing. Leverage your skills, AI capabilities, and the organization’s processes and ability to get the value of AI in your work. Maintain a focus on the quality of the data you use with AI, your data security, and how you craft your work. 

Superpowers, yes. Teammate, no. AI can revolutionize your work. But remember that the true power lies in YOU.