How to Think About AI for Your Business - SWI #64

Read time: 2 mins

Using the world’s top minds to grow your business is a superpower.

But not everyone has hours and hours to sift through all the information out there and figure out how to apply it in real life.

That's why we're excited to share insights from the 2-hour interview OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gave this week on the Lex Friedman Podcast.

Sam is a thought leader in technology, business and future trends.

He and Lex discussed the future of automation and what it means for businesses.

As the leader of your business, this is stuff you need to be thinking about and planning for.

But since you probably don’t have 2 hours to find the gems, we’ve distilled it to one essential insight and 5 ways you can take action.

Let’s get into it!

KEY INSIGHT: Future Automation Targets Activities, Not People

In the short term, people won’t get automated, activities will be.

This means that in the next 5 or so years, AI will lead to people being replaced by robots or massive job losses.

Instead, certain activities (i.e. components or tasks) that make up part of a person’s role will become quicker and easier based on access to new technology.

As a business leader, this means you have 2 potential outcomes:

1. Your team have extra time for more coffee breaks and chats in the lunch room
2. Your team have extra time for more complex creative thinking and problem solving
   
   

Your job is to figure out how to leverage the automation of activities - so that you implement option 2, creating a more profitable and growing business.

How do you do this?

Start with these 5 things to automate tasks and bank the benefits to your bottom line.

1. Document your process and activities:

It’s almost impossible to automate a process or activity that’s not documented.

Don’t fall asleep on this! Start documenting.

Don’t know where to start?

Document the activities that either take the longest or you do most often.

2. Engage your workforce:

Explain the benefits of automation to your team (most people want to do interesting, creative work - they will be happy to hear you want to automate mind-numbing tasks!)

Then encourage your team to actively participate in the automation process and identify opportunities for improvement.

An engaged workforce will spot opportunities for you to standardise, automate, and eliminate way better than you can.

3. Be flexible & reorganise your staff:

Identify opportunities to reallocate resources and skills as tasks are automated.

Evaluate your staffing needs and adjust roles and responsibilities accordingly.

And since your profit and growth-focused, make sure you’re reallocating resources to high-value activities that drive business growth.

4. Build the skills of the future:

Recruit, hire and build the skills you need tomorrow - not just today.

Invest in identifying emerging trends and technologies relevant to your business, and invest in building a team with the skills needed to use it!

5. Get support:

You can’t be great at everything.

By leveraging external expertise and coaching, you’re getting the support you need to focus on strategic initiatives that drive business profit and growth.

And there you have it!

2 hours into 2 mins. Phew!

Use these strategies, and you’ll position your business for success as technology changes the landscape.

Speak soon and thanks for reading,

Lynne and Steve

Bonus insights from Sam:

a) The future's most valuable commodity will be "compute," e.g. the ability to carry out commands or calculations. This means problem-solving capabilities will become increasingly important.

b) The convergence of large language models (LLMs) and advanced search technology presents significant opportunities for innovation.

We're excited to delve deeper into these topics and more - so if you love this stuff too, let us know!

TLDR:

• Business leaders need to understand the future of AI, but don't have hours and hours to sift through information or figure out what to do with it

• Sam Altman's 2-hour interview this week has 1 key insight we've distilled: future automation targets tasks, not people.

• Businesses can leverage automation by documenting processes, engaging the workforce, reallocating resources, and investing in future skills.

• Seeking external support, expertise and coaching will help you focus on the right strategic initiatives for growth.
  
  
  
  

Extra resources:

If you have 2 hours to spare, here's the interview from the excellent Lex Friedman Podcast: https://youtu.be/jvqFAi7vkBc?si=OREVa8V8zm4XHyEo