Now that the dust has settled and AI evolution has become a truth we must all live under, this narrative feels outdated. The agencies that thrive won't be those resisting AI, nor those blindly automating everything in sight, but those that incorporate it, intelligently, in their process. The real opportunity lies not in the battle of human v AI, but in the partnership of human plus AI.
Many organisations are entering the year facing economic headwinds, while the early promises of AI have yet to be fully realised and hybrid working has still not fully settled. Leaders will be asking what it will take to unlock higher productivity in a period of uncertainty. At the same time, the labour market will feel unusually static. With a frozen jobs market for recent graduates, fewer people will want to take risks by moving roles.
I founded my startup, Forage, around 18 months ago. Besides myself, I have one full-time employee who has been with the company for eight months. My business is in the marketing technology space, and I needed someone with a deep connection to modern culture and social media. So, I hired a 24-year-old growth and brand specialist from my neighborhood. She's a college graduate with less than two years of experience, whom I started mentoring.
"What does it mean to be the best coach or the best team enabler? What are the skill sets that you now have to grow in your teams in an era of AI where the expectation is judgment, decision-making, and creativity?"
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian says AI isn't here to replace you - it's here to help you keep up. In an interview with the tech newsletter Big Technology, Kurian dismissed the hype that AI will automate so much work that it will cost everyone their jobs. He said AI's role for the foreseeable future is to bridge the gap between what workers can do today and what they aspire to do in the future. "I think there is definitely a middle ground," he said.
The idea has now reached a new zenith. A startup called Halo is releasing a pair of smart glasses that will record and transcribe all your conversations and use it to beam you AI-powered insights. It'll remember details you forgot and recall what someone told you they like, the startup says, arming you with facts it looks up on the fly and answering questions you don't know the answer to so you can look like a genius.
Sometimes it seems the most direct route is to automate wherever possible, and to keep iterating until we get it right. Here's why that would be a mistake: imperfect automation is not a first step toward perfect automation, anymore than jumping halfway across a canyon is a first step toward jumping the full distance. Recognizing that the rim is out of reach, we may find better alternatives to leaping-for example, building a bridge, hiking the trail, or driving around the perimeter.