The AI Revolution: How AI is Shaping Society’s Future
In the space of a couple of months, AI has taken the tech world by storm, reshaping markets, and rattling the market valuation and business models of some of the world’s biggest companies. But what is the human perspective on this seismic shift? Economic growth has always been about optimising human and natural resources and creating goods and services that enrich our lives. However, most of these tasks have been labour-intensive and repetitive, with critical thinking controlled by those in positions of power. AI offers incredible benefits but it comes at a price and the fear is from its potential to unravel the very fabric that binds society together.
The Innovation Blueprint
Throughout our history, every person had a specific role in society. Common surnames like Smith, Baker, Miller were given to help identify a person with their trade or community. Innovation has largely been a driving force that has helped society to progress and thrive. Yet, what’s different today is the unprecedented reach of AI’s impact, potentially affecting millions of people worldwide and at the same time. We are in the next phase of technology domination, where a select few hold our future in their hands. This next phase has offered us a choice where only time will tell us if we use technology to improve society or plunge us into an existence where we experience lower wages and irrelevancy. In truth, this choice is more about how we view ourselves, the value we contribute, and the impact on wealth and happiness.
Balancing the Scales of Power
A lot has been written about AI’s potential to surpass human intelligence with the immediate concern being job displacement. Optimistic argue new jobs will replace lost ones. Those who lived through the last major economic restructure in the 80s will argue it is not as simple as that. Daron Acemoglu’s book “Power and Progress” suggests technological progress only benefits society when the gains are widely shared, where innovation benefits the majority, not the few. But what happens when the benefits aren’t shared? In a dystopian world, surveillance will be a means to control the population, war will be operated remotely by the push of a button, automation will displace humans resulting in underemployed human resources, and there will be a shift in power to a few players who make decisions, not our government, that affect us all without accountability for the impact it has on society. A dystopian world will create even more division between the haves and have-nots. Whereas in a utopian world, automation liberates us from mundane work, and work hours will be reduced giving us more leisure time. In a world not too dissimilar from the TV show The Jetsons, robots do the chores we don’t want to do. Information will be freely available so young people have a chance to explore and work out what they want to do rather than graduate with a debt hangover, we will have more freedom to use our hands and be creative, rather than do work that is designed to suppress our individuality. Imagine a world where the cost of living is affordable where our tax system doesn’t penalise us for working, but shifts responsibility and accountability of our basic needs to businesses that use their competitive advantage and resources to help society thrive. We live more purposeful lives rather than work to live.
A New Age of Work and Measuring Success
The impact of AI on employment is not merely about the loss of jobs and wage theft but also about transforming existing roles to engage with AI tools. This requires leaders to cultivate a culture of continuous training that empowers all employees to contribute to the decision process. Current metrics that measure work performance based on velocity will need to be expanded to include measuring the value created for customers and society. Investment decisions will need to take into account broader societal benefits as well as delivering profitable returns.
The Road Ahead
It’s obvious in the battle ahead, there will be winners and losers. If we want to design a world where we all thrive, we need entities that advocate on behalf of society as a whole. Here we turn to businesses and strong governments for guidance in transitioning our way of life to a system of mutual benefits. It’s now more critical than ever we shift towards a value-outcomes approach and make ethical decisions on a shared view of what success means for us as a society. Business leaders who adopt a values-based approach will be better prepared and can steer their organisations to be adaptive to future changes. What we need is brave leaders who understand what value they create and how they contribute to society.
