A recent survey from Funnel and Ravn Research found that 64% of marketers fear AI will replace their jobs in the next five years, and three in four worry that AI will impact their pay or value.
Whether or not we’re feeling that fear ourselves, members of our teams likely are. That’s a key factor to take into account when figuring out how to lead through a time of transformation. I don’t think the human side of technology adoption gets enough attention.
I’ve always liked these common acronyms for FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real, Future Events Already Ruined, and F Everything And Run.
They remind me the distorting effect that fear can have in my own decision making. It’s hard to see the reality of a situation when I’m coming at it from a place of fear.
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the “double-edged sword” of AI adoption. In a study of how its consultants use GPT-4, BCG found wide variability in the results of using generative AI, depending on the type of task.
In creative product innovation, GPT-4 boosted performance by 40%. In business problem solving, GPT-4 dropped performance by 23%. The homogenous output of GPT-4 reduced “diversity of thought” by 41%.
AI, like any technology, is not a monolithic force. There will be upsides and downsides. There will be useful ways to leverage it, lazy ways to leverage it, and destructive ways to leverage it.
But the more open we are to experimentation in our work, the more likely we will be to know the difference.
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
