Large language models are like "alien technology"; their creators understand the inputs and outputs but not the "why" of their learning process. This reality requires leaders to be vigilant about managing AI's limitations and unpredictability, such as hallucinations.
The greatest value of AI isn't just automating tasks within your current process. Leaders should use AI to fundamentally question the workflow itself, asking it to suggest entirely new, more efficient, and innovative ways to achieve business goals.
The next frontier of leadership involves managing an organizational structure composed of both humans and AI agents. This requires a completely new skill set focused on orchestration, risk management, and envisioning new workflows, for which no traditional business school training exists.
Instead of a fragmented landscape, the future of personal AI usage will likely follow an 80/20 rule. Professionals should focus 80% of their effort on mastering one core platform (like Gemini or ChatGPT) and use specialized tools for the remaining 20% of tasks.
AI's growing ability to perform long-horizon tasks, like building software for hours without human intervention, means leaders must proactively rethink strategy, staffing, and budgeting. A responsible approach accounts for this increasing autonomy and its impact on knowledge work.
The goal of AI in customer service isn't human replacement. Instead, use AI agents to handle predictable, repetitive queries instantly. This strategy frees up human staff to focus their time on complex, empathetic problem-solving where a personal connection is most valuable.
Agencies can no longer rely on billable hours for tasks AI can automate. Their future lies in strategic consulting, helping clients navigate AI adoption, manage change, and develop custom AI agents and applications, which are currently unmet needs for most brands.
To move from AI theory to hands-on building, use the tool to teach you. Prompt a platform like ChatGPT or Gemini to walk you through creating a custom GPT step-by-step. It can help define the use case, write the system prompt, and refine the assistant interactively.
A key quantitative indicator that you're outpacing your organization's ability to govern AI is the utilization rate of provided tools. If you've deployed hundreds of licenses but only 20% of staff are weekly active users, you have an education and change management problem, not a technology one.