Many executives are enthusiastic about the business potential of machine learning applications. But business leaders often overlook a key issue: To fully unlock the benefits of artificial intelligence, you’ll need to upgrade your people’s skills — and build an empowered, AI-savvy workforce.
There is no question that artificial intelligence (AI) is presenting huge opportunities for companies to automate business processes. However, as you prepare to insert machine learning applications into your business processes, I recommend that you not fantasize about how a computer that can win at Go or poker can surely help you win in the marketplace. A better reference point will be your experience implementing your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or another enterprise system. Yes, effective ERP implementations enhanced the competitiveness of many companies, but many other companies found the experience more of a nightmare. The promised opportunity never came to fruition.
Why am I raining on the AI parade? Because, as with enterprise systems, AI inserted into businesses drives value by improving processes through automation. But eventually, the outputs of most automated processes require people to do something. As most managers have learned the hard way, computers can process data just fine, but that processing isn’t worth much if people are feeding them bad data in the first place or don’t know what to do with information or analysis once it’s provided.
With my fellow researchers, Cynthia Beath, Monideepa Tarafdar, and Kate Moloney, I’ve been studying how companies insert value-adding AI algorithms into their processes. As other researchers and managers have also observed, we are finding that most machine learning applications augment, rather than replace, human efforts. In doing so, they demand changes in what people are doing. And in the case of AI — even more than was true with ERP systems — those changes eliminate many nonspecialized tasks and create skilled tasks that require good judgment and domain expertise.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Winter 2018 من MIT Sloan Management Review.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Winter 2018 من MIT Sloan Management Review.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Ask Sanyin: How Do You Build for an Unpredictable Future?
While the pandemic was a wild ride of uncertainty for me and many of my peers in leadership, it feels like we never regained our footing.
What You Still Can't Say at Work
Most people know what can’t be said in their organization. But leaders can apply these techniques to break through the unwritten rules that make people self-censor.
Make Character Count in Hiring and Promoting
Most managers focus on competencies when evaluating candidates but it’s character that will transform the DNA of the organization. Here’s how to assess it.
Why Influence Is a Two-Way Street
Managers achieve better outcomes when they prioritize collaborative decision-making over powers of persuasion.
Know Your Data to Harness Federated Machine Learning
A collaborative approach to training AI models can yield better results, but it requires finding partners with data that complements your own.
How Integrating DEI Into Strategy Lifts Performance
Incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion practices into core business planning can provide a competitive edge.
The Myth of the Sustainable Consumer
Companies that understand the different kinds of consumers for sustainable products can market to them more effectively.
A Practical Guide to Gaining Value From LLMs
Getting a return from generative AI investments requires a systematic approach to analyzing appropriate use cases.
Improve Workflows by Managing Bottlenecks
Understand whether process or resource constraints are stalling work.
Craft Schedules That Work for Everyone
Business leaders can improve retention and business performance with schedules that make sense for workers’ lives.
