Choose to enhance humans with AI

With the hype around AI taking jobs and every big company blaming AI for layoffs whether true or not, we need to have a real conversation about what we can do to mitigate job risk and maximize human potential.

The problem here is not the technology. AI is not inherently bad or inherently good like fire isn’t inherently bad or good. It is all about the way the it is used. While for some of you this is a “no duh Josh” moment, I find it to be essential to say so we all start the conversation in the same place.

In my line of work I am finding more and more often that people inside organizations already have strong opinions of AI on both sides. This strong opinion on whether it is the greatest thing since sliced bread or it is the anti-christ hurts strategy meetings and implementation strategies.

I am not here to say whether it is good or bad, I am here to say the we can chose whether we want it to be good or bad for us via our governance choices.

Today, and every day we need to make a pivotal choice to not choose greed. Ironically, not choosing greed will result in more for the organization not choosing greed. Here are a few examples of what I mean.

What the future of AI is in the workplace is changing rapidly. The money spent on AI projects vs rate of return has not been what was hoped for. Most people are still using AI as just a chat bot. Large agentic builds have security risks that weren’t known about. The government can now just shut off a model that may have been the backbone for your AI Strategy, apparently.

Not to mention the cost is rising. Agentic AI where it could possibly replace workers, has an incredibly high token cost. This cost has been subsidized up until now but that era is over. So you could have built with one company under one pay scale and now have to continue under a different pay scale. Almost a bait and switch.

Let me circle back to the original point. Being greedy now and letting go of employees in favor of AI doesn’t make a lot of strategic sense. Those with flourishing AI programs are actually hiring a lot of people. Those people are bolstered by the technology, not replaced by it.

Here is how to be the most greedy while still being human. Create a Human First narrative in your organization. Keep beating that drum and be congruent with it. Then, invest in people that know AI and how to strategically implement it to bolster your human work. Start small as the pace of change makes it prohibitive to build big and then have to make a pivot. Upskill your employees and hire employees that are AI friendly. Start to build your team of technology with employees. You will have the speed of tech at the wisdom of humans. If you have questions, we are here. Have a great day!