Aren’t you already tired of all the buzz around generative AI?
I am.
As if the ChatGPT hype weren’t enough, there’s not a day without a hoard of self-declared AI gurus that keeps overwhelming my news feeds and inboxes, playing with my FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
So yes, AI has boundless potential and forces a paradigm shift in how we work and live.
Yet, I’m not going to instill the fear that AI technology will soon displace many jobs.
That’s centuries-old news. It already happened!
Technology didn’t wait for AI to be a disruptive force in the job market, eliminating some jobs with specific profiles and creating new ones requiring different skills.
Think a minute of the horses displaced by automobiles, the elevator boys replaced by buttons, and the travel agencies disrupted by the Internet.
It isn’t new: technology progress keeps aiming at simplifying our lives. The byproduct is a streamlining of complex layers we once created. Some old habits, processes, and jobs disappear in that new equation.
But is it different this time?
Will AI go further? Can it change the very nature of leadership?
It helps to step back and reflect on what leadership truly is about.
If you follow The Sherpa Tuesdays, you know my view on outstanding leadership: the attitude, mindset, and way of life that successfully bring people together and keep them engaged toward achieving a shared vision.
In other words, great leadership brings and nurtures meaning in your teams.
That quest for a meaningful life is one of those key differences between us and the machine.
Eventually, humanoids are not defined by productivity gains, optimized tasks, or even profitable businesses.
An accomplished life is a meaningful life.
It doesn’t come easy.
It’s hard because it’s forcing us to think for ourselves and make our own decisions. That’s what makes our lives meaningful.
So can AI help bring more meaning into our lives?
Predictive AI will keep improving and help us make educated decisions. Generative AI (like the Chat GPTs of the world) will also keep fixing its flaws. It will grow and displace how we create or repurpose content. It already does a great job filling the gaps in our inherent data processing limitations.
Yet again, leaders should keep challenging and questioning what comes out of AI, triangulating, and considering what needs to be accomplished.
So, embrace AI and its growing possibilities. It is already changing our world. If you don’t, someone else will and put you at a disadvantage.
But remember to always put your critical thinking hat on, not blindly follow the flow of increased productivity and outputs brought by AI.
We should all focus on designing a meaningful life for ourselves.
We can achieve some of that on our own. Yet, for the bigger goals, our little selves are not enough. AI will be in our toolbox, but we need great leaders to guide us to our desired destinations.