What are business leaders really saying about AI?

From fear vs opportunity, to the ‘Spinning Jenny’ story, we summarise four key conversations from GW’s Tech Leaders Roundtable 

We are now boldly headed into the Age of Intelligence, or Cognitive Age: a new era for society, and businesses, that will be defined by our relationship with Artificial Intelligence and GenAI.  

At least, that is the idea. Right now, while AI holds a great deal of potential, true AI-powered transformation is still in its early stages. Although there are a lot of exciting pilots and initiatives taking shape, few – if any – businesses can say that they are fundamentally an AI-driven business.  

Yet that gap is quickly closing. Listening to members of our Tech Leaders Network at our recent roundtable, there has been a palpable shift in energy, from leaders treating AI as an abstract idea to wrestling with the concepts that will make AI an intrinsic part of their business.  

Here, we summarise four of the key conversations that took place, from balancing fear and opportunity, to looking to the past for lessons on how we shape an AI-powered future.   

1. How do you balance fear and opportunity?  

Let’s be frank: AI is scary, if you allow it to be. For employees, AI can feel like a very real threat to their livelihood, and dialogue around AI ‘replacing roles’ and ‘generating efficiency’ does nothing to mitigate these fears. Then, there are broader concerns around industry disruption (especially in insurance and banking), economic uncertainty, the pace of change, the risk of falling behind, the risk of moving too fast…the list goes on.

The reality is that AI will impact jobs, it will disrupt industries, and it does pose risks – but it’s up to you to decide how to manage this. Will AI impact jobs by reducing headcounts, or rethinking roles? Will it disrupt by taking away market share, or will you use it to carve out a new niche? Will you manage risk by testing and iterating initiatives, or by avoiding it altogether (ironically creating an even bigger risk in failing to move forward). Avoidance isn’t the answer, but neither is blindly jumping on to the first opportunity you find without a strategy. 

Tip: think optimisation, not efficiency. In our Intelligence Blueprint, we talk about the importance of not becoming too focussed on efficiency with your AI initiatives as a method of alleviating fear in your workplace. Efficiency might give you short term gain, like cost cutting or streamlining, but it won’t give you long term growth or exciting innovation. Think instead about optimisation: how can AI improve people’s jobs, enable them to make decisions, do better work? Not only is this better for your business’ long-term strategy, but this narrative will garner more support and less resistance.  

2. What are the real barriers to adoption? 

Piloting AI solutions still faces hurdles, but some are more obvious and upfront than others: lack of investment in innovation, budget concerns and obvious technology obstacles being the main three. 

Yet for many businesses, the biggest barriers don’t become obvious until after development has started, causing delays, bottlenecks and poor ROI later in the process. Security, data quality, data availability, legacy technology and architectural issues are still common causes of failed or stalled pilots, and 85% of AI spend is still being funnelled into repetitive claim processes rather than more innovative solutions.

Then, there is the big hidden barrier: cultural resistance. Successful AI adoption is about people as much as it is process and technology. At GW we call this the ‘human experience layer’ and it’s a fundamental part of AI transformation. If you’re going to successfully onboard AI in any capacity, you need to bring your people – the board, employees, customers – on the journey with you. As one guest at our roundtable put it: “AI is change management.” 

Tip: prioritise capability and culture. Build capability into the first stages of your rollout (you can see how we do it here) and prioritise cultural adoption as much as technology.  

3. How can AI solve enterprise needs, not just specific problems? 

One of the more complex AI issues facing IT leaders is how to make AI agents work together, instead of just solving siloed problems. Agents that can communicate and support cross-functional teams have more power to transform the business than those that fulfil isolated tasks. This looks set to become one of the signposts of evolving AI maturity: a key part of the ‘applied intelligence’ layer of AI transformation.  

However, given the complexity of this issue, smaller, more focused models that are tailored to business departments may well be the future, with that connectivity and communication becoming a layer that is developed over time. It is interesting to see how this area is evolving, and will no doubt be a recurring theme at future roundtable events. 

Tip: Think about your wider, long-term business goals when you are developing AI solutions to smaller, more specific tasks. It will allow you to stay focussed on the bigger picture, even if you’re not ready to roll out a full business-wide AI model just yet.  

4. What lessons can we learn from the past? 

A lot of the dialogue around AI is the same as it was around previous ‘transformative’ technologies: disruption, cultural resistance, integration, and so on. Yet AI promises change on a much more significant scale than anything we have seen in recent decades, heralding the ‘Age of Intelligence’ or ‘Cognitive Age’.  

Conversations at the roundtable came back to the ‘Spinning Jenny’ during the industrial revolution, and the certainty that AI, like the Jenny, will disrupt. Yet a new generation will embrace it, not by adapting old ways, but by creating new ones.  

Tip: AI can become divisive (like the Spinning Jenny) and create resistance or distrust. Or it can become inspirational and transformative. Remember that Human Experience Layer of transformation and think creatively about how to innovate, not just adapt. The Spinning Jenny did displace workers and eradicate jobs, but AI doesn’t have to. It can elevate and optimise, improving your business from the ground up.

If you’re exploring AI and want to understand how far along your business is on that journey, and what you need to do to get where you need to be, the next step is to conduct an AI Maturity Assessment. You can book your assessment with our team here: https://www.griffiths-waite.co.uk/contact 

Meanwhile, if you want to join the conversation, we’d love to see you at our next Roundtable or Webinar: follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date with our upcoming events in your area and online.