AI is changing the business landscape in many ways, impacting people in all kinds of roles. Odgers Berndtson’s recent report outlines how AI could impact his five key C-suite positions, both immediately and in the future.
June 23, 2023 – The predicted potential of AI may be subject to debate in some industries. Some, including Elon Musk, are predicting a Terminator-like Skynet-like future if AI advances unchecked. Others believe that the threat is exaggerated and question the autonomy of true AI to act maliciously towards humans. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), companies can’t accurately predict the existential impact of his AI technology, but Odgers, according to a recent report by Emanuel Pfister of his Berndtsson, executives. You can imagine the current and future impact on
Odgers Berndtsson has connections with some of the world’s leading AI companies and nonprofits. The company’s European team has supported applyAI, Europe’s largest initiative on the application of trustworthy AI, since its inception. “The role of AI gives a different perspective to the role of the C-suite and creates new and unique challenges posed by AI that organizations need to be aware of,” Pfister said.
CEO
Underestimating the impact of AI and ignoring the ethical dilemmas it increasingly poses are two major mistakes CEOs can make, according to Odgers-Berntsson’s report. “This leads to a lack of self-education, delegation of responsibility to AI, half-hearted progress and investment in AI innovation, and causes many to see AI as just another tool,” said Pfister. Stated. “The consequences of this attitude can be devastating, with companies like Netflix, Amazon Web Services and Nvidia dominating the market largely thanks to their AI strategies. CEO, Head of Business Strategy risk falling victim to severe market competition if they ignore AI-driven business models.”
Odgers Berndtson said AI success for CEOs comes from interpreting data correctly, understanding what can be achieved, and predicting the outcome, enabling leaders to make responsible decisions and avoid discrimination. It states that it will be able to respect legal and regulatory requirements such as. Notably, search companies say, CEOs quickly learn that “simple ethical rules” don’t work when it comes to AI, and they’re easily skewed by following precise algorithms.
CFO
Pfister said many functions within the CFO realm, such as planning, forecasting and risk detection, are great candidates for automation with AI solutions. “Fraud and money laundering detection and compliance are simply not possible anymore without AI,” he said. “Irregular patterns and outliers in financial and market data also indicate other potential risks and are standard application areas for AI. Therefore, CFOs are good primary adopters of enterprise AI. But the problem arises when CFOs think of AI investments like any other IT investment.”
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AI performance depends on the quantity, quality and availability of data, which can all vary widely and be difficult to obtain, says the report. Odgers-Berntsson later explains that this creates uncertainty about the final AI solution, hinders adoption and progress, and affects contractual arrangements with third-party providers of AI solutions.
CIO
Unsurprisingly, the CIO is the most critical role in a successful AI implementation. According to Pfister, they typically have the deepest subject matter expertise on AI and should (and do) act as sparring partners to all other board members when it comes to AI questions. often). “The biggest challenges facing CIOs in deploying AI are matching distributed data to AI algorithms, underestimating the security requirements of AI applications, and accumulating technical debt in the form of legacy processes,” he said. is,” he said. “Most organizations have historically had poor data governance, and addressing this and developing an effective data strategy is his CIO’s first responsibility.”
Emmanuel Pfister has been with Odgers Berndsson since 2014 and is a member of the global industrial practice and head of the global automotive practice. He employs executives and professionals from the automotive supplier industry, automotive OEM, plant construction and engineering industries.
Pfister also points out that cybersecurity becomes very complex when automated systems need to be protected instead of just passive data. “Therefore, we need to be aware of this at every stage of AI implementation,” he said. “Finally, cross-functional collaboration is the most effective way to overcome legacy systems and scale AI solutions.”
CHRO
The Odgers-Berndsson report also says that AI transformation will lead to entirely new role profiles. “CHROs should define new role profiles (or extensions of existing roles) like this with the AI capabilities they need,” said Pfister. “Therefore, HR strategy must align with the company’s technology roadmap. Talent is in short supply and often demands a specific culture and environment, and building the right workplaces to attract these talents is also a key responsibility of CHROs.”
According to Odgers-Berntsson’s report, potential conflicts arising from AI transformation are also a priority for CHROs, including alleviating current employee fears, eliminating misunderstandings, and reducing workplace resistance that can easily arise. includes developing a culture of acceptance and innovation to overcome . CHROs will need to implement processes to prevent bias in company data, and the company’s human resources and HR teams will be critical in mitigating bias, the study says. The company believes that many AI developments are plagued by persistent biases, especially regarding gender and skin color, and the major challenge we see here is the limited number of CHROs with the technical expertise to implement these processes. I warn you that it is very rare.
COO
COOs are one of the primary users of process-centric AI solutions, and Ogers Berntsson said that leading most of the company’s core operations means that many high-value AI applications fall within the COO’s scope of responsibility. It is pointed out that it means that it is in “His COO, in charge of AI implementation, can enhance production control. It can significantly improve the performance of supply chains and logistics processes, optimize supplier selection, develop new quality assurance methods, and much more. possible,” the report said.
“The big challenge for COOs is to change the way we think about skills training and the use of AI,” Pfister said. “Companies can fall into the trap of incremental optimization that takes discrete steps for a single function rather than a holistic company-wide approach. The unprecedented speed and scale of AI , amplify any mistakes.For product development, this is a significant risk that COOs need to be aware of.Finally, AI is causing a major paradigm shift in business operating models, so keep up with the development of the AI industry. is a must for the COO.”
Odgers Berntsson provides executive search, leadership assessment and development strategies to organizations around the world. His 250+ partners in the company cover his 50+ disciplines and are active in his 59 offices in 29 countries. The company’s US division was founded in 2011 and is one of the fastest growing search companies in the Americas. Odgers Berntsson has its US office in Atlanta. Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Houston, TX. Los Angeles; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York; San Francisco; and Washington, DC
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Contributed by Managing Editor Scott A. Scanlon. Dale M. Zupsanski, Editor-in-Chief. and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
