Many corporate leaders have in theory embraced artificial intelligence, but there is a shortage when it comes to executions, according to Dumpriest, who was named PricewaterhouseCoopers' first top AI officer a year ago.
Generic AI is testing CEO leadership skills by radically reshaping how everything from accounting and HR to sales and marketing is done. How they are moving forward with today's AI strategy, warning priests will probably mean the difference between achieving greater cost savings over the next few years and fast growth from falling behind the curve.
“It's a disruptive journey that needs to be managed,” he told Business Insider.
For example, last year, a PWC survey of around 4,700 CEOs found that if AI continues to develop at the current rate, four in 10 people expect the business model to be unenforceable over the next 10 years. The priest said this suggests that businesses need to come up with a new and perhaps ways to drive AI to generate revenue, but that can be difficult.
Given how quickly generative AI is evolving, the priests emphasized the importance of CEOs investing in AI tools and investing strategic plans around them to set up their business for success. However, he admitted that the task was challenging.
For one, if leaders stand out from their competitors, they need to find ways to use AI to distinguish companies from other companies, the priest said. Most use cases today simply set new standards for table stakes.
“If AI is ubiquitous and everyone gets it, it's not just your differentiator,” he said.
Leaders also need to know which employment functions are supported by AI, to what extent, and which duties will become obsolete, the priest said. Additionally, they need to determine where new skills are needed, invest in helping employees develop them, and assess where talent needs to move into other areas of the business.
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“If you believe people are a key part of your success in the future, you should invest in their reskills,” he said.
Not all workers use AI tools the same way, the priest added.
“It's more likely that team members in their early career stages are overthinking AI,” he said. “Late-stage team members are probably too reserved to use it consistently.”
There is one chip for people using AI to write notes and other texts using AI. People need to create their first and last versions themselves, he said.
“You want your thoughts to be yours, which is why the first draft is so important,” the priest said. “We need the benefits of editing and we want to put the final draft into our own voice.”
This is also an example of why he believes humans should be at the heart of corporate AI-related initiatives.
“The new shiny object is AI, but I don't know one AI agent who is changing the business,” he said. “It's AI agents combined with humans who change business.”
