The New York Times recently published an article “If AI Can Do Your Job, Maybe It Can Replace Your CEO,” about why artificial intelligence (AI) may soon replace leadership roles. It’s a clickbait-y topic, yet at the same time, not the most unrealistic prediction regarding what AI will soon be able to achieve. As it stands, the majority (80-90%) of C-level functions can be automated by AI. But this begs the question: Should they?
There’s definitely a case in favor of the shift from humans to machine executives. It would streamline operations and save time and a lot of money. But here’s why this is a terrible idea: The remaining 10-20% of a leaders’ jobs is critically important to success. This includes inherently human skills, like inspiration, responsibility, and accountability. We’re not comfortable with AI driving cars – how would we be comfortable with AI driving entire companies?
Rather than focusing on replacing human employees, we should prioritize reducing their workloads, moving to a three- or four-day work week and upskilling to keep compensation competitive. Most employees would appreciate spending more time on creative human tasks, continuous learning, and enjoying more flexibility and time off. This is where AI has the power to change the way we work for the good, rather than simply replace us.
Here are three actions CEOs and organizational leaders should be taking instead of replacing employees with AI.
1. Reduce workloads and work weeks
Burnout is only getting worse, driving down productivity and increasing turnover. AI increases workforce efficiency, giving employees hours back in their day. Reduce the workload of each employee and give them time back in their week to improve their lives and their loyalty to your company, without sacrificing output.
This can be achieved by prioritizing the use of co-pilot-style AI tools – the types that make employees more productive but don’t attempt to take over completely. Resist the temptation to replace even junior employees with tools such as the much-hyped Devin, the world’s first fully autonomous AI software engineer. Without a pipeline of junior employees, you will never have truly competent senior employees.
2. Refocus responsibilities
With AI taking over mundane, repetitive tasks, your team will have more room for creative, human work. Shift your organizational structure and job descriptions to open up room for the strategic, relationship-oriented work that AI can’t do as well as a human. With less on employees’ to-do lists, leaders and managers can shift their focus to challenging and developing themselves in other more valuable areas, such as building relationships and soft skills.
AI can help here too, but not in the way you may think. Rather than replacing humans, it can unlock insights (from data most companies already have) that lead to hiring and nurturing the right humans for the job. Software used to identify the important soft skills that lead to success in specific roles can be extremely valuable for both employers and employees. Ultimately, improvements in job performance and satisfaction will boost morale and your bottom line – a win-win.
3. Maintain competitive compensation
Reducing work and maintaining or even increasing pay sounds paradoxical. And while software improvements can and should lead to operational savings, it shouldn’t be at the expense of your team. Leveraging AI to benchmark your company’s compensation can be used to uncover trends to build more competitive compensation packages for your employees. Paired with manageable workloads and more time off, you’ll see a better time-to-hire, quality of hire, productivity, and performance.
Pay will always be a big part of employee compensation, but companies would be smart to consider less tangible compensation factors that lead to happier people and better retention than money alone. Among these top non-tangibles are work flexibility, autonomy, and a healthy work environment. This, of course, comes down to who you choose to hire. As long as that’s humans and not bots, using AI to help tap into soft skill competencies will shape a better team and overall work culture.
Some might argue that using AI to augment instead of replace employees is too lofty of a goal. Shareholder value-driven corporations may believe they’ll be punished by the stock market for not being aggressive enough in resource optimization. But as it stands, AI cannot replace leadership. And every good leader knows that for business to survive, people can’t simply be replaced.
The impulse for cutting costs and enhancing operations can’t continue to overshadow the impactful work humans do every day. Instead, enterprises should focus on how AI can make employees more productive and improve their lives – the other benefits will come. Only then can we realize the true value of the technology.