Photo by Justin Sullivan
Getty Images
AI has been on everyone's radar since ChatGPT emerged in fall 2022. But it's only in 2024 that enterprises will begin to truly harness the potential of generative AI and reap the benefits. According to a new McKinsey survey, the percentage of organizations adopting generative AI has nearly doubled, jumping from 33% to 65% in just 10 months. And expectations remain high, with three-quarters of survey respondents predicting that generative AI will bring about “significant or disruptive” changes in the coming years.
Forbes Why We Need a Second Brain Now (and How AI Can Help Us Build It) by Aytekin Tank
For leaders, the time to embrace AI is now. Here's why.
AI is more than just hype
As leaders, it's important to distinguish between a passing fad and a major innovation that will fundamentally change the way we live and work. Ten years ago, Snapchat looked set to change the face of social media by making snaps visible for a short time before disappearing forever. Many companies paused before jumping on board, waiting to see if the model would actually stick. It eventually did, but the hesitation to jump on the bandwagon made sense.
That “wait and see” model may have been wise for social media platforms, but not for AI. Like the Internet before it, AI is completely changing the way we work. The AI market is projected to reach a value of more than $500 billion in 2024, and leaders who aren't proactively integrating AI services into their business are at significant risk of falling behind. If you're waiting for new developments or the ideal time to start, consider Google, which already had more than 2,700 AI projects underway by 2015. There's no reason to wait until the technology is more advanced before making the leap.
ForbesAre there any jobs that AI can't replace? by Aytekin Tank
Adopting AI takes time
Adopting AI across an enterprise is not something that can be achieved with a few training sessions. In reality, building an entirely new system from the top down requires significant time and resources. As Vikram Mahidhar and Thomas H. Davenport point out in Harvard Business Review, companies need to configure their AI systems in a way that actually adds value, which can take months. Once the systems are built, they need to be integrated into the organization, which requires planning and adaptation. Finally, the majority of AI systems are not fully autonomous. They require human input to be effective, which requires hiring and retraining employees.
“Like any tool, it's not valuable unless it's used properly,” explains Barbara H. Wixom, principal research scientist at the MIT Center for Information Systems Research. “AI is sophisticated data science, and you need the right capabilities to operate it and govern it properly.” Building these capabilities isn't an overnight project; it requires organization-wide transformation.
The Price of Hurrying
The hasty adoption of AI can have disastrous consequences, not just a lack of added value. You may have heard of the eating disorder hotline that was forced to close after its chatbot gave questionable advice to callers, or the lawyer who was sanctioned for filing a legal brief that included six fictitious citations generated by the hallucinogenic ChatGPT.
This doesn't mean AI isn't useful; it clearly is. Already, AI is regularly used to help humans complete tedious tasks, like writing emails, managing workflows, and analyzing data. For example, at Jotform, we receive thousands of customer support requests and use AI to detect anomalies. If a certain type of issue occurs repeatedly, our AI tool sends an email to report the problem, so it can be recognized and resolved more quickly.
But what we didn’t do was automate every aspect of our customer service framework. As the unfortunate hotline incident made clear, AI isn’t ready yet, and there’s no substitute for an empathetic human being when a customer is experiencing an issue. Implementing AI tools incrementally allowed us to see how AI could add the most value over time. It also gave our teams a chance to experiment, workshop new strategies, and generally test the limits of what AI can and can’t do. Forcing teams to adopt new technology too quickly could lead to backlash, especially given the widespread fear that AI will eventually take over our jobs. Early adoption positions AI for what it is meant to be: a tool to reduce tedious, tedious tasks and free up more time for meaningful work.
lastly
We are only just beginning to understand the scope of AI's impact on business, society, and our lives. When the iPhone was released in 2007, little did we know it would forever change the way we think about a “cell phone.” The same is true with AI.
As a leader, now is the time to establish your philosophy on AI. How does AI fit into your business, both in its current and evolved form? What foundations can you lay today to prepare for the future? Asking these questions now will give you a competitive edge today and prepare you for what comes next.
