Not Bypassed by AI, but by Those Who Master It
Chill out, folks, you aren’t about to be made redundant by AI. Rather, your bigger worry should be the person sitting in the next cubicle, the one who’s honing their skills on the latest machine learning algorithm. And the numbers back it up. Microsoft recently found that while most of us have our attention fragmented, a staggering 68% in fact, people are turning to AI for a helping hand. But there’s a catch. How do we ensure we’re not just trading in one set of complications for another? You’ll want to sidestep these pitfalls.
Trap #1: Avoiding AI Out of Fear
Stepping onto the AI field can feel like stepping onto quicksand, mostly due to the fear of the unknown. But let’s put things in perspective. You’ve already endured countless Microsoft Word updates. We’ve gone from faxes to emails, from physical data storage to the cloud, and from COBOL to Ruby. Not to mention the transition from QuarkXPress to Adobe Indesign and waving goodbye to Adobe Flash. Change is part of the game.
Chances are, AI has already eased some burdens for you or your company. Whether that’s unlocking your phone with your face or creating a sleek website on Squarespace, the impacts are substantial and already part of our daily lives.
So let’s talk numbers. Over the next seven years, AI is projected to have an annual growth of more than 37%. Some companies might be keeping a tight leash on AI, but the goal shouldn’t be just to shoehorn it into your current job. You should be actively exploring and experimenting with it.
Here’s what Holly Shipley, a Google alumni and strategic leader spearheading generative AI (genAI) initiatives at a Fortune 200 tech company, has to say. Even if diving into the deep end of AI still feels like a bit of a leap, at the very least, workers should familiarize themselves with genAI platforms. Understanding their capabilities and potential applications can be a game changer. “Employees should be focused on the basic functionality of genAI tools like ChatGPT,” Shipley advises. The bottom line is, AI isn’t just coming. It’s here. So, don’t be the one left treading water.
Trap #2: Believing AI Will Replace You
Artists have been fretting about obsolescence since DALL-E 2 hit the scene. But AI should be viewed as a resource and tool to get to outcomes faster, not a replacement.
Interestingly, about half of the workforce is worried about AI replacing their jobs. But over 70% are more than happy to delegate tasks to AI and lighten their load. Organizational psychology professor and author Adam Grant finds it intriguing that most people are more excited about AI freeing them from burnout than they are concerned about job loss.
AI can do a lot more than just fetch your coffee. It can handle administrative tasks, information searches, meeting transcription, editing, and even analytics. Reviewing and tweaking where AI falls short is essential, but if AI lays the groundwork, you can focus on the details. Then, you can put your resources to work where they are most needed.
“GenAI tools can provide resource-constrained teams some relief and breathing room so that they are able to think strategically,” says Shipley. The key takeaway? You won’t be replaced by AI; you’ll be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI.
Trap #3: Relying on AI to Fix Company Culture
AI isn’t a magic fix-all solution. For instance, AI might help you speed up email responses, but if your company culture equates quick responses to productivity, you’ll just end up with a bigger inbox to manage. We need to tackle the cultural issues head-on, not just provide technological band-aids.
And while AI can help us prioritize meetings, we need to understand what is driving their volume. If being invited to a meeting is seen as a sign of worth in the company, then no tech tool will fix the meeting overload. We need to address these cultural issues before we can hope to solve them with tech.
Trap #4: Filling Our Time
AI has the potential to take some tasks off our plates and give us back time. But if we’re not careful, we may just fill that time with something else. The real benefit of AI lies in creating space for rest, relationships, and creativity. If we’re always looking for the next thing to do, we’ll just fill any gaps AI opens up. Use your newly gained time wisely.
Concluding Thoughts
AI can and will remove some of the work that doesn’t require a human touch. But without awareness of these traps, it could just complicate things further. It’s not enough to simply adopt AI; we also need to shift our mindset about productivity.
Uninterrupted focus time is a primary aim, but it’s not all about the tech. We need to start valuing different things if we’re going to truly benefit from AI.
