Assuming the mantle of leadership is a formidable task, which grows more complex by the day. Beyond managing core responsibilities, today's leaders face a rapidly expanding array of challenges, with the swift pace of technological advancement—especially in AI—standing out as particularly daunting. How, then, can leaders stay ahead of these emerging trends and ensure organizational stability amidst such dynamic changes?
The Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership, in partnership with The Long Run Institute, held a series of North Atlantic Roundtables, which brought together leading executives and academics to explore "Character Leadership and Purpose for ESG and the Future of Work." While a range of topics were discussed (see Roundtable Synopsis)—from EDI to meaningful work to intergenerational dynamics—AI was the most pressing issue for participating leaders when discussing the Future of Work. Their candid insights on the teeter-totter of AI risks versus rewards singled out character-infused purpose as an essential pivot for the future of work.
Turning AI risks into rewards
AI is poised to revolutionize the economy and society, becoming a General-Purpose Technology (GPT) with widespread applications. For businesses, AI offers significant opportunities to enhance productivity and drive innovation. It carries the potential to spark a creative renaissance by generating novel ideas and fostering renewed collaboration between those who harness its potential. Additionally, AI holds promising solutions for major challenges, including climate change and healthcare advancements.
AI also poses substantial risks. Its widespread implementation can, and likely will, lead to job disruptions and redundancies as it replaces workers with knowledge-based skills. Previous industrial revolutions provide historical precedents from similar disruptions caused by mechanization. Additionally, the implementation of AI to automate decision-making processes raises critical concerns about biases embedded in algorithms, leading to compromised decisions. The financial services sector, especially banking, is already experiencing both issues: digitization is reducing branch banking and AI has been implicated in generating biased lending outcomes.
The roundtables discussed how philanthropist, corporate leader, and activist Melinda French Gates has become a vocal advocate for greater diversity in AI, warning about the dangers of widespread and ingrained bias should the status quo be maintained. She has publicly argued: “I’m very nervous because we don’t have enough women, again, who are computer scientists and who have expertise in artificial intelligence … and without that, we will bake bias into the system. … The system needs to take all people’s points of view, and see society, and quite frankly, see the world writ large as it is.”
There was consensus amongst roundtable leaders that the diversity of our society has yet to be embedded into and represented by AI. Without inclusion at all stages of AI development, how can we expect AI to see and serve the interests of our increasingly diverse society?
AI vs. Human Judgment
There are reasonable concerns arising that AI-related corporate interests are outpacing government regulation, potentially leading to anti-democratic decision-making and the erosion of trust. This may fuel a race to the bottom, with AI-driven cost reductions overshadowing human judgment in the name of profit. In fact, this is already happening.
How can we do better? How can AI serve as a tool that supplements, and ideally complements, human judgment rather than replace it? One of the main foci of the roundtables was challenging leaders to identify the steps they could take to ensure AI serves humanity, rather than humanity being at the mercy of AI.
For decisions that affect people, human attention and direction remains critical. Human judgment involves resolving problems by engaging our values, alongside situational awareness, cognitive complexity, insight, analysis, emotion, and intuition.
When the human-AI relationship is positioned as complementary, there is no doubt that AI can offer promising solutions to some of the most critical issues leaders face. Thus, the question isn’t about whether or not to engage AI, but how to do so. If AI is optimized only for shareholder returns, the future of work may exclude rather than include diverse stakeholders. A good place to start turning that risk toward reward is to engage a wide range of stakeholders in determining which problems AI solves or supports solving.
Tomorrow’s AI can rise to a much higher bar and can be optimized for critical issues. For example, it can prioritize United Nations’ human rights, rid supply chains of child and slave labour, even look out for mother nature by prioritizing eco-based solutions or coordinating responses to extreme events, such as floods or wildfires.
A north star
As AI adoption becomes a fact of organizational life, how can leaders brace for its consequences? The question of whom AI will displace next already looms large in many workplaces. With 25 per cent of CEOs expecting AI-induced workforce reductions before 2025, organizations must refocus and re-value humans' unique capacities— such as empathy, collaboration, creativity, and vision.
Leaders will need strength of character to tackle these challenges—such as courage to confront difficult decisions, transcendence and justice to imagine a future that considers multiple stakeholder interests, and integrity and accountability to take responsibility for trade-offs. Character allows leaders to foresee AI’s potential negative consequences and build better judgments when finding solutions to critical issues, and thus retain decision-making authority and stakeholder trust, while upholding and serving their organizations' values.
How do we integrate character into shaping the future of AI? The consensus of the roundtables was for ‘humanity above all’ to serve as a north star, guiding us toward a future that previews and prevents the negative consequences we have already begun to experience in today’s workplaces.
Reframing education for an AI-powered future
The time has come for educational systems to prepare individuals to navigate AI's challenges and embrace a technology-enabled creative renaissance. Classrooms are crucial for equipping future leaders with the skills and insights necessary to navigate the complexities of AI-driven environments. Shifting education back toward its interdisciplinary foundations will also help learners within all disciplines to build character, redefine purpose, and create value.
Among Ivey’s curriculum that prepares students for The Future of Work, Ivey’s courses on Purpose (e.g., “Social Enterprise” and “Purpose-Driven Leadership”) and on Character Leadership (e.g., “Transformational Leadership” and “Leadership Under Fire”), as well as the Ivey-powered Western Certificate in Purpose-Driven Leadership, will develop tomorrow’s leaders by reinforcing AI’s role as a tool guided by human judgment and not the other way around. Students will be challenged to reflect on questions such as: How can leaders prioritize their values when they delegate decisions to AI? How can they regain control when AI goes against those values? What are the ultimate values leaders may want to safeguard – no matter what – and how can leaders guide the implementation of AI to prioritize those values above profit?
Two vital takeaways
The roundtable rendered many significant insights, but the two key learnings are:
- High time for humanity: As we brace for and embrace AI, our unique and extraordinary capacities as humans should be acknowledged, honoured, and leveraged. Character leadership and stakeholder capitalism provide a means to contribute more fully and equitably to the breadth and depth of human experiences and realities at work. Breaking through the status quo draws attention toward the role of inter-disciplinary learning, inclusive of the Humanities, in preparing leaders to stay in the proverbial driver seat while harnessing the benefits of AI.
- AI and human judgment: While there are many risks and fears that must be attended to concerning the implementation and impact of universal AI, there is also hope and potential in seeing AI as a partner—by familiarizing ourselves with it, taking advantage of its extraordinary capabilities, and considering the many ways in which it can support human judgment. However, to serve us all well, it is imperative that AI learns from diverse points of view and weens off and wards off baked-in biases that do a disservice to the diversity of humans at work.
Ultimately, the potential of AI is undeniable. However, it requires a thoughtful and methodical approach, emphasizing the balance between valuing human judgment and character. To achieve this, both education and leadership development need to be reoriented to ensure that AI augments human capabilities instead of diminishing them.
