A year ago, Glenn Hopper advised only a handful of company leaders on how to embed tools like AI agents and ChatGpt throughout the organization. Today, the Memphis-based AI strategist has an extensive waitlist of C-suite executives seeking his help in these tasks and more.
“This technology is moving very quickly. The gap between what CEOs need to know and what they actually understand is huge,” says Hopper, author of the 2024 book, “AI Mastery for Financial Professionals: Foundations, Techniques, and Applications.” That's why so many bosses are knocking on his door, he told Business Insider.
Leadership coaches and consultants have long helped CEOs navigate the pressures of the corner office. Executive Sherpa, who was now early in adopting AI, says he's seen CEO spikes seeking all the guidance from reviewing vendors and establishing safety protocols to preparing for the next AI breakthrough.
“It's all inbound,” said Conor Grennan, chief of AI Mindset, an AI consulting and training company that was founded in 2023. “I have a list of one mile lengths.”
Glennan, who is also the chief AI architect at New York University's Stern School of School, said he often reaches out to his employees after struggling to recruit AI. They feel like they're behind as they see other CEOs promoting AI benefits, he said.
“It was garbage, take out the garbage.”
Some of the AI masters who have tapped startups that have recently been launched to take advantage of the AI boom, where corporate leaders are tapping helm (or working). Others lead new or expanded AI teams within an established advisory company.
Lan Guan was named Accenture's first top AI executive in 2023, 20 years after joining a professional service company. She has since counselled more and more corporate leaders on how to bring AI into an organization.
“The CEO basically needs an AI translator to sift through all this noise,” she said. “The amount of signal you're getting, the amount of noise, it's very distracting.”
Company leaders also sometimes look for AI masters to correct mistakes they make while doing it alone. Guan recalled the CEO who came to her after the person's company had to suspend a multi-million dollar investment in custom AI models as employees trained in many different versions of the same operating procedure.
“Their data wasn't clean enough when they tried to expand,” she said. “It was garbage, trash.”
Amos Susskind, CEO and founder of London's beauty technology startup Nori, has been tapping Guan and her team members for AI-related guidance for the past year. Approximately 20 NOLI employees work using AI tools, and the company's recommended beauty products platform is powered by AI.
“I've probably stayed in touch with Accenture's AI leaders five times a day,” said Susskind, who previously headed L'Oreal's consumer production division in the UK and Ireland.
Shaping the use of AI narrative readers
Last year, 78% of workers said their organizations used AI in at least one feature, according to a March survey by McKinsey of Global Management Consulting Firm.
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Companies are planning to delve into AI even more this year. A May survey by professional services firm Pricewaterhousecoopers found that 88% of senior management planned to increase their AI-related budgets in the next 12 months.
“AI matches the internet, if not larger than the internet,” said Dan Priest, PWC's chief AI officer, created last year.
According to AI research firm Alphasense, the CEO of the public company mentioned similar conditions in the 269 conference calls, including “Agentic AI” (AI systems that can act autonomously) and the 269 conference calls.
To properly mention those AI is another reason why company leaders are leaning towards AI sage. CEOs need to consider more than how investors and analysts interpret what they say, the priest said. Employees have heard, and workplace experts say that increasing anxiety among staff can undermine productivity and drive job turnover.
“I want to be careful,” he warned priests who help the CEO communicate their AI strategies externally. “When the team starts talking about AI efficiency, it gets very nervous.”
Hopper, an AI strategist in Memphis, should also confirm that employees using AI need to ensure they do so safely.
“If you're trying to ban policies too much or don't have policies at all, that's when people do stupid things with data,” he said.
The CEO may not want to be involved in all the AI processes and initiatives that are taking place in the company, but Hopper said the hands-on experience with technology will be better equipped to make wise decisions about how the organization can benefit.
Michael White, the chief of Mashtank, a boutique management consulting firm near Philadelphia, became one of Hopper's clients last year. He considers himself tech-savvy, but White said Hopper speeds up AI faster than he could do.
“We now have bots who know a lot of what I know, but have better memories than me,” White said. Without the AI whispers like Hopper, he added, “I'm still at the starting gate.”
