The AI Era and Executing Your Strategy

AI won’t replace the need for great leadership. But it will change what great leadership looks like in the new world of work. Maximising business outcomes today is from producing adaptable AI capabilities, that are critical for executing your strategy. I recently raised an important topic for discussion with Deakin University’s Teaching and Learning Committee for Business and Law: As AI transforms how we work, learn, research and make decisions, people leaders have an important responsibility: equip yourselves with the capabilities to lead confidently in an AI-enabled world. The AI Era Learning Manifesto developed by Gartner (2024) shows how business learning equates to business earnings (see image). The future of work isn’t simply about being cautious of AI or who can use AI. It’s about who can combine AI capability with human intelligence, emotional intelligence and sound judgement to make a meaningful difference. It’s no longer enough to simply understand what AI is. You need to know how to apply it, challenge it, make deliberate decisions on where humans add meaningful value and when AI maximises that value. That means developing more than technical capabilities: * Human judgement: Knowing which decisions can be supported by AI and which must remain firmly in human hands. * Curiosity: Being willing to learn, experiment and adapt. * Capability: Knowing how to use AI to improve productivity, solve problems and support better decisions. * Critical thinking: Questioning outputs, conducting audits and quality assurance tests to ensure AI is doing what it is supposed (and not) to do, recognising bias and understanding limitations. As leaders, we cannot expect our teams to embrace capabilities we haven’t invested in developing ourselves. And importantly, we need to create opportunities for our people to develop these same capabilities. Stay curious. Lead by example. Image source: Gartner 2024 https://lnkd.in/p/ggekSPPF