Will AI really replace your job? CEOs don’t seem to think so.
“I talk to a lot of CEOs and I learned very quickly that they don’t envision AI replacing us – I can say that with complete authority,” said Ronnie Sheth, CEO of SENEN GROUP, a company based in Austin, Texas. strategic consulting firm whose bread and butter is helping businesses unlock and integrate AI into their workflows. Sheth spoke with Fortune on the dangers and potential of implementing AI during an interview at London Tech Week earlier this month.
Fear and speculation that AI could take away jobs has seeped into every sector. Amazon recently laid off more than a hundred customer service agents, The wealth Jason Del Rey reportedas part of its ongoing efforts to reduce costs and invest in automation. New reports of New York Times and of Citi Group both caution beginner bankers and financiers on their replacement risk, and last month Sinovation Ventures CEO Kai-Fu Lee said he anticipated that A.I. replace 50% of human jobs in the next decade.
But some CEOs might remain cautious, Sheth said. She checked the name of a large construction company that was a client of SENEN. “I just spoke to their CEO who obviously, as a leader in construction, is thinking about robots and AI algorithms that could be used to do some of the menial tasks out in the field.” The pattern was not sold, she said. “Many workers asked him if AI would affect their work. He told them: “No, but it will increase your security. » This is how CEOs see things differently. And that’s the right way to think about it.
That may be little comfort to CEOs who worry about their own public service and the possibility that they themselves will one day be replaced. Sheth doesn’t worry either, at least not for effective leaders.
“As CEO, my job is to do certain things,” Sheth said. “Manage culture. Lead the company in a direction where it won’t go bankrupt. To drive sustainable growth. To truly improve the community I’m in.
Sheth said many CEOs are more concerned with the human aspects of the business, such as branding and connecting with customers, than the cold numbers.
Its clients, which span Fortune 500 companies like Nike And IBM to start-ups and NGOs – have been willing to abandon their short-term revenue and growth goals in order to invest in sustainable and viable brand expansion.
“I’m not going to name names, but there are some very, very large retail brands that we’ve worked with that have entered into interesting times, because they’ve decided to go into AI and forget their brand,” Sheth said. ” It’s not a good idea. They need to backtrack on branding.
Replacement theory
In the short term, no jobs will be “really successfully replaced,” Sheth predicted. “But what if we think that in 10, 15, 20 years, maybe assembly line jobs? Maybe a little bit of accounting, maybe just a little bit of basic marketing, administrative data entry work.
Of course, she said, these can be replaced or outsourced, but that doesn’t mean the people who did this work will be left without other options. “I think there’s a balance between right-sizing the workforce and putting policies in place to ensure AI is used for human good, not to take away people’s livelihoods. “
It is the responsibility of business leaders – and even public sector government officials, Sheth said – to think about ways to mitigate the impact of AI on professionals. Going further: “I don’t believe any company that claims to want to be AI-centric or data-driven is on the right track,” Sheth said. “You’re not value-driven and you’re not value-centered. You are what you focus on.
The dangers of personal data
Drawing on years of projects Sheth’s company has done with large companies, she said she’s noticed “companies coming to me and saying: we want to do more with data. We want to be data-driven, we want to be data-centric: these are the businesses that are doomed to fail.
This failure comes from a single vision: focusing on numbers rather than people. “On the other hand, companies that say, ‘We have all this data, now how can we generate value for the company, for our customers, for our employees, for our community?’ It’s a different state of mind.
The difference between the two, she says, lies in finding the answer: becoming data-centric rather than unlocking value for individuals. “As business leaders, we really need to start making sure that policies and regulations are very, very, very clear on the human and we need to ensure that AI doesn’t hold back human innovation” , Sheth said. “Right now we are seeing a lot of fear-based regulations and policies. I really want to see innovation happen, without compromising human value.
