Building Bridges to AI Opportunities

Every day I see another carefully considered report or thought piece about AI and work. I share my favorites here, on X (Twitter) and LinkedIn. However, I also worry every day that the people who most need to take action from these ideas and data are missing out. 

For example, I went through IBM’s Augmented work for an automated, AI-driven world report today. The authors, Jill Goldstein, Bill Lobig, Cathy Fillare, and Christopher Nowak note, “A recent IBM Institute for Business Value (IBM IBV) survey found that 4 in 5 executives say generative AI will change employee roles and skills. But only 28% of CEOs in our 2023 CEO Study have assessed the potential impact of generative AI on their current workforce” [emphasis added].

We Need to Help

Don’t let your friends be left behind. Help them make good decisions about how to bring AI into their work and organizations.

In March, a colleague asked me if AI would be another case of the rich getting richer. I came to see her point, but now I’m equally worried that it’s a situation where not being early in adoption with AI is a bigger risk than with other new technologies. People who have been successful as late adopters may not fare as well with a wait-and-see strategy regarding AI and their jobs or AI and their business models. 

As an educator, it’s my job to help people decide what to pay attention to. You may also be inclined to help others make these assessments.

Two Calls to Action

1. As you see helpful ideas and examples, share them with your network. That’s the easy one. Your ecosystem is likely already sharing and using one another as backboards for your thinking. 

2. More importantly: Share with at least one person you believe is a step behind your own thinking. This could be a friend, a relative with a small business, or someone with a successful middle or executive management role. You may have heard them acknowledge AI but say they haven’t had time to try. Or maybe they tried a tool like ChatGPT in the new year but didn’t see the connection to their work. Have a stop-look-listen AI moment with this friend, relative, or colleague. 

Resources for Your Lucky Friend and You

Overview

While the IBM report I mentioned earlier is primarily survey-based, the breadth and depth give us much to consider. (I’m always searching for assessments with objective processes and performance data -- thank you for sharing examples in the comments below.) The authors highlight three priorities for augmenting work:

– Transform traditional processes, job roles, and organizational structures to boost productivity and enable new business and operating models.

– Build human-machine partnerships that enhance value creation and employee engagement.

– Invest in technology that lets people focus on higher value tasks and drives revenue growth.

Broad-ranging reports like this IBM one can be great motivators. Then we need action. More from the IBM report:

The human-machine partnerships that will drive advantage tomorrow are being developed today. That means workers need to be willing to experiment with new approaches to understand what works—and tech-savvy enough to troubleshoot along the way.

Work Crafting

My colleagues and I have done some deep dives on how we can leverage AI as we craft/recraft our work. The quote above points to experimentation. IBM and recent books by Prof. Amy Edmondson, and Profs. Michael Luca and Max Bazerman highlight that experiments don’t always work -- failure is part of the learning. Manage the process with lightweight experiments such that the risks are appropriate for the gains. What’s important is that we look for new approaches to our work, given the pace of change across our tools and environments.

The Stop-Look-Listen Process 

Drawing from my 2012 book, The Plugged-In Manager:

• Stop to see how things are going.

• Look to see what opportunities you have. Span the 5Ts of Talent, Technology, Technique, aligned to your Target and Times. Track sites and newsletters highlighting and reviewing new tools and approaches appropriate for your work. Make a change, and…

• Listen to the result both in your area of influence and beyond. Return to the first step, Stop. 

Depending on your goals, the pace of change in your organization, and the pace of technological evolution in your work, this process could be something you do every Tuesday or every second Tuesday (for example). Given the pace of AI today, I feel like I need to do a stop-look-listen every morning.

A Bridge to Opportunities

Whether you’re championing your own projects, extending a hand to a friend, colleague, or relative, or steering your entire organization through these tumultuous times, embrace adaptability. Think of it as building bridges to keep your paths open and be willing to reinforce and reconstruct your bridges as conditions change.

Friends of mine have recently formed a new consulting venture, Pontem Advisors. They chose “Pontem” (Latin for bridge) because they assist organizations in "bridging the gap between company business understanding, goals, and behaviors….” I see the significance of their methodology across organizations at every phase of digital transformation.

We must stop-look-listen at each step and cross bridges to new opportunities. Help yourself, and a colleague, take the time to test a new direction with AI and their work.