AI and Culture & Change

The success of Artificial Intelligence is not about technology. It's about people who can extract value from this technology and, by extension, an organisation with sufficient resilience, curiosity and adaptability. And exactly at the point of building such an organisation, AI can provide valuable insights.

How do you prepare an organisation for the era in which AI invades almost all processes? This is a valid question. But it is, at the same time, too narrow a question. There is no such thing as an ‘AI organisational culture’. But there does exist an organisational culture that can deal well with turbulent and rapidly changing environments with ever-evolving issues. In this, people still make the difference.

With AI taking over (parts of) people's thinking, the distinctiveness of organisations is shifting. More than ever, the distinction is now being made with human competencies such as curiosity about technological developments, empathy for (new) ethical issues, the ability to guide people through uncertainty, and the ability to make sense of a world which is in a state of constant flux due to technology. 

The right leadership is essential to shape that distinctiveness. It requires leaders to give people confidence in a complex and ever-changing dynamic. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers and certainly no success recipes for such leadership. 

In any case, harnessing those competencies requires leaders who do not approach AI from the idea that technology is the answer to all problems. A good leader reasons from relevance – how can the organisation deliver value now and in the future – and only after that, from the role technology plays in this; certainly not in the reverse order.

It also requires attention to (and dialogue about) fairly fundamental issues. For example, many people are not only wondering whether they will still have a job in the future, but also how the new division of roles between human and machine will work out. Whereas humans traditionally learned the language of the machine in order to make optimal use of it, this is now actually turning around: the machine is mastering human forms of communication. Another fundamental issue lies in the area of meaning-making: technology removes much friction and can provide a hyper-efficient environment. This is convenient but also has its limits and can clash with human values. 

As mentioned, there are no ready-made answers and no simple recipes for success. But it is clear that other competencies are needed to continue making a difference. For example, curiosity about new developments is a must; the art of questioning becomes more important now that the machine has all the answers. Human creativity can make all the difference in a world where ‘the statistic of AI’ is dominant. And last but not least, humans must be able to make ethical trade-offs and thus adjust and steer the (decisions of the) machine. 

The HR function can play a central role in this challenging cocktail and contribute to the necessary competencies and mindset of employees with targeted programmes, among other things. In practice, therefore, many HR organisations are working to better unlock data and knowledge – the fuel for AI. They realise that higher maturity in this regard not only leads to a better HR experience for employees, with more self-service and chatbots, for example, but also that this creates opportunities for the organisation to better utilise the talents of employees in a tight labour market. The use of AI makes it possible, for example, to not only reason on the basis of classic roles, profiles, knowledge and experience when recruiting and developing talent, but also provides tools to spot the (unsuspected) potential of employees or applicants. This is useful, for example, when transferring employees within an organisation or hiring people who at first glance do not fit the desired profile. These are insights that we as humans do not see – also because we have our own biases – but that can become visible in patterns of data. 

Artificial Intelligence should therefore primarily enhance human potential within organisations, not replace it. A combination of leadership and further development of the HR function is essential for this. Our professionals will be happy to help you build on this idea.