AI: The Real Leverage

What’s the True Value of AI?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands as a beacon of progress in our technological landscape. It’s often lauded for its potential to enhance efficiency in various fields, from healthcare to finance. However, focusing solely on its ability to streamline existing practices might lead us to overlook its true potential. The real leverage of AI isn’t just about doing things better; it’s about fundamentally rethinking what we do and why we do it.

Is Efficiency Enough?

AI’s role in improving efficiency is undeniable. By automating tasks, analysing data at unprecedented speeds, and predicting outcomes, AI offers marginal gains in efficiency. But, is this all that AI has to offer? Peter Drucker, a renowned management consultant, once said, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” This profound statement underscores a critical point: Efficiency in itself isn’t the end goal. It’s about being efficient in tasks that truly matter. Drucker called this effectiveness.

How Does AI Shift Our Assumptions?

The transformative power of AI lies in its ability to challenge and change our individual and collective assumptions and beliefs. It can, if uses appropriately, push us to question the status quo, encouraging us to reimagine our approaches and strategies. Instead of simply automating what we’ve always done, AI offers a lens to view problems and solutions from a new perspective. It invites us to think differently about our objectives, our processes, our practices, and the impact of our actions.

Can AI Reshape Collective Beliefs?

One of the most profound impacts of AI is on our collective assumptions and beliefs, and from there to both culture and practices. In organisations and societies, shared assumptions often dictate the way things are done. AI, with its data-driven insights and predictive capabilities, empowers us to surface, reflect upon, and ultimately challenge these collective beliefs. It can enable a culture of questioning and innovation, paving the way for more significant, systemic changes.

What’s the Bigger Picture?

The bigger picture is not just about AI-driven efficiency; it’s about AI-enabled transformation. By leveraging AI, we can redefine our goals, reshape our strategies, and rethink our impact on the world. This transformative approach goes beyond mere efficiency – it’s about making sure we’re effective – efficient in the things that truly add value and meaning to our lives and societies.

In conclusion, while AI’s ability to enhance efficiency is a thing, its real leverage lies in its potential to help us change our assumptions and beliefs. By embracing AI not just as a tool for doing things better but as a catalyst for doing better things, we open ourselves to a world of untapped possibilities and meaningful progress.

Prompts FTW

What questions are you asking your AI to help with surfacing and reflecting on YOUR personal and shared (organisational) assumptions and beliefs? Would you be willing to share these questions here?

Here’s a starter you might like to put to an AI chatbot such as ChatGPT:

“What questions can we ask ourselves to uncover the implicit assumptions and beliefs driving our organisational behaviour?”

Let me know if you need any help with this. I’m always happy to help. Both with prompts (as a long-standing prompt engineer) and with surfacing and reflecting on shared assumptions and beliefs (as an even longer-standing organisational psychotherapist).