Why Mindset Is the Key to AI Adoption

Christine Calhoun:

What should individuals do to get the most out of AI? Shishank?

Shishank Gupta:

And that's an interesting one. I think most people think of, you know, it's about technology. And I think it's the biggest thing in my mind is about mindset, a mindset that every one of us should embrace that AI is here, AI is real. And we embrace AI wholeheartedly and look at how AI can really transform what we do. We have to stop looking at AI as a competition to what we do, but more as a companion, an assistant, a buddy to what we do. And I think the moment we look at it that way, then the world of opportunities is very different. We start to look at, as I said, how things can be done differently, how new things can be done. And obviously, the next factor that comes with it is really once you embrace AI and the mindset towards doing AI, the question or the conversation will shift from saying, what are the use cases for AI? I do believe the day is not far, and the conversation will be, what are those exception cases where you can't use AI? I think that’s the shift that you're going to see with time. And you'll have to enable, obviously, the teams to be able to not just the mindset, but it will come with training, enablement, change management of how do you embrace AI in a positive way. And this training enablement will vary depending on the roles that people play. Not everybody was building with AI. Many will be consumers of AI. So they have to be taught or the experience how to leverage the best of AI. And then obviously, they will be the techie people, the geeky ones who want to really build new models and try new stuff. So there will be something for everyone.

Christine Calhoun:

Jared, what are your thoughts on this one?

Jared Spataro:

Gosh, I really like what Shashank had to say. Starting with the mindset, I think that's a great place to start. Maybe I could back up just a little bit too and say, you know, sometimes we become so ingrained in the way the mental models we have, how the world works that we forget that those mental models are just built around outcomes. You know, as humans, we're pretty focused on outcomes. In business, we're laser focused on outcomes. And a business is a way to take in resources, produce value for society at large, for a market in particular and to essentially make money. When you think of it that way, that mindset that Shashank talked about really should start by saying, well, AI is a new type of resource we can take in. It's an intellectual, or you could call it a cognitive work type of resource. And the way we organize everything we do today is based on a different mental model, some different assumptions about resources. We used to only be able to hire cognitive work by hiring people. Today, we're going to, and going forward, we'll be able to hire this cognitive work by essentially buying intelligence like as a commodity. When you can do that, the way you organize your work, the way you think about resource allocation, the way you focus human attention and energy, all of that is set to shift. And that starts with what Shashank said of having a new mindset, a new way of thinking about what we're doing. It's still within the game or the context of what we would call a business, but I think we have to question a lot of our assumptions about why we do what we do. And that's what the future holds for us is this opportunity to pose those questions, answer those questions, find dominant designs, and change things for the better.