The international political and economic landscape is constantly changing, new technologies are advancing with each passing day, and all kinds of trends are emerging every minute and every second. If enterprises and organisations do not follow the trend, it is difficult to maintain a competitive advantage and ensure a leadership position. Nowadays, one of the major trends is the overwhelming impact of AI on all kinds of industries and individuals.
Facing the powerful “foreign species”: AI, is it a blessing or a curse for the organisation? As part of an organisation, how do we stay competitive? Worst of all, when AI “joins the organisation”, who will be replaced in the organisation? The internationally renowned expert on “luck”, associate professor Chengwei Liu at ESMT Berlin, Germany, specialises in strategic and behavioural science research, was invited to an exclusive interview with “The Icons”, and provided us with a lot of new ideas.
Source: ChengWei Liu
If you don’t want to be replaced, learn to complement with AI
The data shows that most people, especially the employed class, are pessimistic about AI development and focus on the replacement effect it will cause. In the era where AI can play chess, compose music, paint, and even beat humans in these activities, people panic: “Will there be a day when AI does my job better than I do?”
Prof. Liu explained, as long as a job can be identified, recorded, analysed, and programmed by algorithm, the replacement effect is absolutely present, “This might be good news for the employers, but not for the employees,” Prof. Liu smiled and said.
Nevertheless, for employees, this isn’t necessarily a dead end, “this trend might, on the contrary, become the chance for organisations and employees to change and advance.” Prof. Liu emphasised, what AI joining humans’ life provides is an opportunity for organisations and employees to reflect and focus on the “human-centric skills” that AI are yet hard to replace.
“The complementary method is the most widely accepted mainstream view today, and also the best way for the employees to make the organisation with AI hand-in-hand.”
Source: ChengWei Liu
Think in the contrarian way with AI
To complement AI seems to make sense, but what sort of skills can humans depend on to complement the all-mighty AI? Prof. Liu said, we have to think in a “contrarian” way.
“What AI does the best, avoid it.” When is AI the strongest? It’s when it has an abundance of data. Whether chess, composing, or painting has plenty of data recorded for AI to learn from and reproduce. In comparison, humans have no chance of winning. “Therefore, humans should think oppositely. When the data is flawed or doesn’t even exist, it is the time humans can outshine AI.”
Curiosity and Sympathy are humans’ bargaining chips in the face of AI
“Curiosity is incompatible with the nature of AI!” Prof. Liu explained that for AI, curiosity is illogical at all. AI algorithms have a feedback mechanism. If the effect is the same as expected, it will reinforce the action, and if it is wrong, it will avoid it. “Curiosity is different. Humans often persist in exploration regardless of results. This is also the driving force behind human progress.”
Prof. Liu added with a smile, “Hollywood often describes AI as being sympathetic, maybe decades from now, but there is still a long way to go before AI has sympathy.” He explained that sympathy is based on humans’ past interaction experience and social cues, which is unstructured and unsystematic.
“Imagine you’re going to tell a persuasive story and convince a partner to start a business with you. This requires humans’ unique sympathy.”
Source: ChengWei Liu
How can managers and AI be partners?
Prof. Liu pointed out that many managers regard AI as a monstrous beast; however, “The smarter way is to become a partner of AI, while being careful not to be constrained by it. So, to cultivate new thinking and new skills like curiosity and sympathy is a must.”
“If managers have no professional attitude of life-long learning, it is just a matter of time for them to be replaced by AI!” Prof. Liu took GPS navigation as an example. GPS navigation is like a microcosm of AI technology, deducing the best path to the future from past data. However, the successful model in the past is not guaranteed to be applicable in the future, that’s why there are so many cases of drivers blindly following GPS and leading to a dead end,
“A manager should be like a driver who constantly corrects his path, to lead the organisation to the road of success in the AI era!”
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