During a training course on the subject of artificial intelligence, which I attended with my colleague Jean-Pierre Huchet, formerly owner of Renault’s data lake, as well as an international group from the business and technology sectors, I realized that the holistic consulting approach, which looks at both the human and the technical, is particularly relevant to the development of AI: we all stand to gain from contributing to it, including you.

Explanation.

From healthcare to finance, the impact of artificial intelligence continues to grow

Unprecedented technological advances

Advances in artificial intelligence are constantly shaping the future of humanity in every field: the creation of new vaccines, the modeling of human speech, improved security for banking transactions, to name but a few.

According to an IBM survey in 2023, 42% of companies have integrated AI into their operations and 38% have implemented generative AI in their processes, with almost 75% expected to adopt the latter in the next few years.

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Complex challenges with a direct human impact

During this exploration of an AI consulting practice, the questions I was asking – or wanted to ask – as well as the aspects I wanted to consider were different from those of my classmates. I realized that I was as much interested in the humans who would be impacted by artificial intelligence, as in the process to be automated or the technology itself. For although AI offers incredible business advantages, it also raises highly complex questions about the engineering of organizations and the mission of companies within society.

22% of American employees believe that AI will make their jobs obsolete, and this percentage keeps rising year after year, creating a veritable FOBO (Fear of Becoming Obsolete). According to the “Future of Jobs 2023” report, 44% of current job skills are expected to be called into question over the next 5 years.

AI also brings ethical and social challenges. In the coming years, AI will increasingly be confronted with issues relating to privacy, algorithmic biases, the ethics of transparency and the socio-economic effects of job losses. Some studies even claim that AI could one day destroy humanity, potentially leading to its extinction…

Interdisciplinary collaboration and regulatory policies are needed to meet these challenges, and a balanced, holistic approach is essential to maximize the benefits of AI while minimizing its risks. Once again, the technological evolution of the subject is much faster than the social, political and economic thinking of decision-makers.

AI in the service of humans: an ethical challenge for our future

The importance of practicing AI ethics

At this stage, we lack a real human-centered policy for integrating artificial intelligence into our lives and our world. The ethics of AI, as I write this, sound more like guidelines than actual practice, and I can’t help but imagine that if the profits generated by AI require manipulating and abusing human communities, then with the current logic that permeates AI, this might just seem like what we need to do. This is because we live in a world largely dominated by the quest for financial performance, far removed from the prism of the non-financial value generated for human beings. If we suspend our judgment of this system, which has enabled certain advances in the species, if we connect for a moment with our creativity, and accept that at this precise moment in history, this is how our world is emerging, we will see thatit’s essential that we take a particular interest in following this logic, and commit ourselves to helping artificial intelligence develop our organizations in line with our highest human potential., in a way that corresponds to the values you want to preserve or develop, and that supports the effort to sustain life in all its forms on our endangered planet. The needs of developing the use of AI have already created several new jobs. You have probably heard of “prompt engineers” specialized in the interrogation techniques of generative AI. One of these new jobs is directly related to the issue of an AI respectful of human values: they are “AI ethicists” who can assist both AI product designers to integrate ethical principles into their product design, in other words “Ethics by design”, and user companies to adhere to these principles in their use cases and remain compliant with new regulations such as the AI Act of the EU that implement these principles. These AI ethicists are beginning to structure their practices and professionalize their training, for example by joining associations such as the AAIE (https://ethicists.ai) of which my colleague Jean-Pierre Huchet is a member.

Augmenting humans rather than replacing them

How can we keep AI human-centric?

In a search for holistic practices on the subject, one particular approach caught my attention: Human-centered AI (Human-centered AI). It places the needs, values and benefits of humans at the heart of the development and use of artificial intelligence, and seeks to ensure that AI complements human capabilities, strengthens autonomy and supports ethical goals, while minimizing security, privacy and bias risks.

This approach promotes transparency, accountability and inclusion to ensure that technology serves humanity best.

As Arthur Mensch, co-founder of the start-up Mistral AI, says: “We’re talking about something that’s going to increase people, that’s going to change the way they have to work.Artificial intelligence and human intelligence should not be opposed: they are complementary. The real challenge today will be to retrain and upgrade the workforce in these areas.

A holistic approach to AI in your company

With my co-founder Patrick Hoffstetter, we apply Connection Leadership’s holistic approach to AI development for our customers. This approach brings together AI experts who can simultaneously help companies develop POCs, deepen their strategy and develop their performance, working hand in hand with human design experts who ask the questions and provide the techniques that enable you to contribute to a world you’d really like to experience. Our holistic practices enable us to include the many players who can benefit from artificial intelligence to redefine their role and their contribution to results. This approach can benefit business performance and customer success, as well as employees, who now have the time to add value they didn’t have before the arrival of AI.

As with all Connection Leadership transformation programs, our approach includes a vital factor of caring. Even in the complex and high-pressure environments we see at our customers, it is possible to take care of people in a world run by machines. The complexity and creativity of our human brain, its ability to generate empathy and solutions, can make your teams the stars of integrating AI into your business. This means training and coaching them to use their vast reserves of knowledge to build your future.  

As with the many other transformations you have undergone, this one is also an opportunity for unprecedented success. For I conclude with this optimistic quotation from  Ted Talk by Mustafa Suleyman, researcher and co-founder of Deepmind: 

AI is not new. AI is us, all of us. In developing AI, we can and must reflect all that is good, all that we love, all that is special about humanity: our empathy, our kindness, our curiosity and our creativity. This is the greatest challenge of the 21st century.”

Would you like to lead a half-day seminar on AI? Would you like to analyze AI solution processes in a sector of your company? Our AI Design Sprint™ offer is made for you. Our approach, based on transversality and pragmatism, brings you all the necessary elements to co-construct the transformation of your company. This co-construction is carried out with all levels of the company to improve collective commitment. Our coaching and transformation programs are designed to bring impact and concrete results, ultimately empowering you in your transformation.
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