How artificial intelligence can make us better leaders

When I joined the workforce in the early Nineties, I began using Mosaic, one of the first web browsers. I told my boss that the Internet would change the world, but he said I didn’t know what I used to be talking about.

Moving on, I now see history repeating itself with artificial intelligence. I seek advice from many leaders who are still skeptical. They say artificial intelligence is unproven. Flash in the pan. Too good to be true.

They are unsuitable. Over 80% employees using artificial intelligence say it improves their productivity and work quality. Among corporations that expected to cut back costs due to the use of artificial intelligence in 2024, about half expected savings of over 10%. In any case, I think the number might be much higher.

Ultimately, artificial intelligence is a time- and money-saving tool with almost limitless applications. But to reap these advantages, leaders have to actively model the use of AI, not get in the way. This means having a growth mindset when it involves technology.

So how can you leverage AI as a leader? I run a global company with teams around the world and hundreds of clients. Here’s how I take advantage of AI – in basic and advanced ways – to get the most out of my day and that of my employees.

AI as an improvement in workflow for leaders

For this time-strapped leader, artificial intelligence quickly became his best friend. Many of those uses are now obsolete, but it amazes me how many Fortune 1000 executives in my network still don’t use them.

For example, I spent many hours each week listening to recordings of critical sales calls to grasp customer concerns and indicate where we is likely to be going astray. This is a task tailor-made for AI. Now I immediately receive conversation summaries that allow me to make use of keywords to leap to specific places.

Since English is not my first language, I also turn to AI for help with writing. It improves my grammar and makes me sound more conversational. AI can also handle repetitive writing tasks that are a leader’s worst enemy – emails, company news, newsletters, reports and presentations.

It also reduces my reading time at work. In addition to unpacking complex topics, this digital assistant can translate legal language into easy language.

Before the meeting, we use it to summarize the project notes, creating an update that everybody can read beforehand to get in control. This way, the meeting itself might be more productive.

Fortunately, when it involves implementing AI, younger leaders are moving in this direction. In questionnaire of data staff under 40 who are in or aspiring to leadership roles, 70% said they use AI for tasks similar to drafting email responses, writing difficult messages and helping overcome language barriers.

Artificial intelligence for a better understanding of your employees

However, the role of artificial intelligence goes far beyond personal productivity. For executives, it can be a true strategic partner offering unrivaled insight into your small business. Here are some key ways I take advantage of AI every day:

• An actual-time window into team performance: Every leader asks himself: What are my people doing today? What did they do last week? The latest AI tools can collect and interpret the digital footprint of departments, teams and even individual employees. Let’s say a sales representative made 10 calls last week. AI can provide a quick sketch of how many people were needed to prospect, maintain customer relationships, and discover opportunities.
• Connecting people with business results: Historically, people data (team member performance and contributions) and business data (metrics similar to revenue, customer satisfaction, and profitability) have been siled. If information is not separated by department, it gets trapped in dense spreadsheets. AI bridges this gap. For example, a luxury retailer I work with used AI to integrate people and point-of-sale data. This allows the company to see which of its lots of of locations around the world are performing better than others, in addition to check each store manager’s training history. Armed with this information, a company can evaluate which sales training worked best and apply it as needed.
• Workforce transition planning: Predicting talent movements and shortages is one other emerging strength of AI. Let’s assume that several team members in one department have just left. The right AI can pinpoint further impacts – lack of key skills or even missed deadlines.
• Unpacking and contextualizing key metrics: Artificial intelligence excels at identifying the “so what” behind dense charts and graphs. (Yes, even executives can use help here.)

For example, the CEO will probably want to know whether the company will close enough deals to realize its annual revenue goal. Next-generation analytics dashboards show best- and worst-case scenarios, interpreting analyzes in easy language anyone can understand.

The payoff is real for leaders and corporations willing to speculate in artificial intelligence. A worldwide study found that roughly 75% of corporations using generative AI saw a return on their investment inside the first yr. More than 85% of this group increased revenues by at least 6%. Of the organizations that saw revenue growth, roughly 90% of those with a solid AI support inside the C suite exceeded this threshold.

The opposite is also true. Thanks “digitally illiterate“Bosses and employees already waste six hours a week on tasks that could be easily automated if their company had artificial intelligence. No wonder every fifth employee is now an “underground” AI user.

Like my former boss who didn’t consider in the Internet, anyone who is still hesitant about artificial intelligence risks making a big mistake. As leaders, we set the tone for our organization. It starts with incorporating AI into your day by day workflow. If you are like me, you will wonder the way you ever lived without it.