Everything's an Exception: AI's Lessons for Business
There's a lot of buzz about AI as a productivity tool - for instance, how ChatGPT can help you write emails faster or summarize documents more efficiently. While these applications are valuable, they only scratch the surface of AI's potential. AI's ability to process vast amounts of detailed data and identify patterns beyond human comprehension enables a profound shift away from traditional management practices that prize uniformity and rely on generalizations.
I had the privilege of working with David Weinberger (the author of seminal works on the Internet's impact on society and business, like the Cluetrain Manifesto and Small Pieces, Loosely Joined) on a Harvard Business Review essay exploring AI’s potential to transform how companies are led, managed, and organized. Our core argument is that that AI opens the door to new organizational models that distribute authority to the edges, where employees have the information, skills, and tools to make nuanced decisions based on specific situations.
We sketch out a few scenarios for how this is playing out—such as more open and participative strategy making, personalized talent development, fluid hierarchies based on situational expertise, and supply chains that function like responsive, self-adjusting systems. These are just a few ways in which AI might roll back bureaucratic management in the coming years. Here's the link to the un-paywalled article:
If you’re experimenting with AI to usher in a simpler and more empowering organization, or considering ways to do that, I’d love to hear about them.