Spies, spies everywhere…
I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about and researching where we are with AI today, the role it’s likely to play in our future, and particularly how it relates to our work. Commentary ranges from “we’re entering the golden age of humanity” to “Skynet is here”; I sit more towards the former than the latter, but things will certainly change beyond recognition.
The truth is that AI is no longer coming. It’s here. Our digital co-pilots have quietly, subtly inserted themselves into our lives, priming us for the more pervasive role they’ll play in the next phase of their infiltration. The coming shift will be profound, with AI becoming the central nervous system of every company on the planet.
A collection of agents and platforms will sit at the core of every organisation, capturing, synthesising and analysing every email, meeting, message, conversation, document, decision and interaction. From finance to sales, logistics to HR, data will be fed into an intelligent model constantly learning and adapting. That model will be your source of truth, flagging performance issues, security concerns and substandard processes before they surface, providing critical real-time insight to leaders.
This might sound like science fiction, but it’s already happening. Palantir, Microsoft and Amazon have launched AI platforms that monitor operations, optimise workflows and proactively identify risk and inefficiencies. Gartner predict that by 2026, 80% of large enterprises will use AI to observe employee behaviour and performance in real time, and today most companies already use some form of LLM, formally or informally, to assist or guide their decision making.
Step away from your instinctive horror for a second and consider the genuine benefits of this level of insight. You’ll have genuine transparency and visibility on what’s happening in your business. I’ve written in the past about the culture perception gap, and this is a particular problem for CEOs. Every piece of information you receive when you’re in the top job is filtered, consciously or not, so finding the truth is a real challenge.
You’ll also receive early warning before issues arise, so you can tackle them at source. Imagine a message in your inbox from one of your AI platforms to say that many of the managers in your US business have been asking questions about how best to incentivise their sales teams after a major competitor has entered the market, throwing their financial weight around to hire from their rivals (i.e. you). No-one’s brought it to your attention yet, but you can be proactive and tackle the problem head on.
Your AI-driven analytics will find opportunities to increase efficiency and effectiveness in places you never thought to look, spotting patterns across divisions that would go unnoticed by humans. The small errors and subtle risks that can grow and derail your performance will be corrected, compounding to create monumental change. In fact, studies already show that companies using real-time analytics outperform their competitors by 20-30% across most important metrics. Imagine turbocharging this analysis with AI.
There are, of course, risks. Serious ones. The privacy, security and IP issues thrown up by the kind of monitoring we’re talking about are genuine and widespread. The trust implications are considerable too - oversight without consent breeds resentment. There are real ethical and transparency questions to answer, and each company will tackle them differently. Many leaders aren’t ready to embrace a data-driven reality, still “trusting their gut”. Instinct is important, but we consistently fail to realise that instinct comes from the subconscious processing of data. In some ways, AI provides the same intelligence, but with more granular input.
Today, implementing this kind of central AI monitoring is met with strong resistance. The technology is capable, but our level of comfort lags behind it. That’s a good thing, and you should absolutely think through the implications before building an all-seeing watchtower at the heart of your business. Things are changing rapidly, though, and over time your hesitation is likely to decrease. Eventually, the benefits will be too significant and the new reality too convenient. Trying to run your company the old way, powered solely by humans, will leave you obsolete in the face of augmented competition.
Andrew Ng, founder of DeepLearning.AI, once said “AI is the new electricity”. I believe he’s right. The question is not whether you’ll use it, but how.
Are you ready for what it might uncover in your company?
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