Organizations have been sending very mixed signals with AI. Many have claimed a strategy of being “AI-first” in one breath, while setting confusing draconian guardrails in the next.
The promise of AI has outpaced our organization’s ability to adopt it.
I like how Oguz Acar, professor at King’s Business School advocated for a more balanced approach to adopting AI in an HBR article last year. Instead of being “AI-first”, he suggested, follow the 3Ps of being “problem-centric, people-first, and principle-driven” in how to adopt AI.
As Oguz put it:
“The problem with an AI-first strategy lies not within the “AI” component but with the “first” aspect; it is about how organizational focus is directed. An AI-first approach can be myopic, potentially leading us to overlook the true purpose of technology: to serve and enhance human endeavors.”
Just a couple days ago, Wharton professor Ethan Mollick, one of my favorite thinkers on the state of AI, announced a bombshell new Harvard Business School working paper, with the findings of a field experiment at Procter and Gamble.
They studied how P&G used AI performs as a “teammate” in product development in a large randomized control trial. They found that individuals working with AI performed as well as teams working without AI. Teams working with AI performed best of all, particularly in the top-tier results. And surprisingly, teams with AI reported more positive emotional experiences.
Ethan’s conclusions are worth quoting at length:
“Organizations have primarily viewed AI as just another productivity tool, like a better calculator or spreadsheet. This made sense initially but has become increasingly limiting as models get better and as recent data finds users most often employ AI for critical thinking and complex problem solving, not just routine productivity tasks…
“To successfully use AI, organizations will need to change their analogies. Our findings suggest AI sometimes functions more like a teammate than a tool. While not human, it replicates core benefits of teamwork—improved performance, expertise sharing, and positive emotional experiences…
“The most exciting implication may be that AI doesn’t just automate existing tasks, it changes how we can think about work itself. The future of work isn’t just about individuals adapting to AI, it’s about organizations reimagining the fundamental nature of teamwork and management structures themselves. And that’s a challenge that will require not just technological solutions, but new organizational thinking.”
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
