Leading a Workforce Empowered by New AI Tools

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New AI technology enables anyone to become a programmer — opening doors to faster analytics and automation but also presenting big challenges. Organizations need policies and strategies to manage the chaos created by what Tom Davenport calls “citizen developers.” Davenport is a professor of management and information technology at Babson College, and he’s been studying how employees are using new AI tools and how companies can both encourage and benefit from this work. He suggests practical ways for team and organizational leaders and IT departments to best oversee these efforts. Davenport is coauthor of the HBR article “We’re All Programmers Now” and the book All-in On AI: How Smart Companies Win Big with Artificial Intelligence.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Are you trying to bring your leadership skills to the next level?
0:04.0	I want to suggest HBR's new podcast feed, HBR Unleadership.
0:09.0	HBR editors like me hand select the best leadership case studies and conversations
0:15.0	from across HBR's podcast videos and beyond.
0:18.0	Listen for free to HBR Unleadership, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:24.0	New episodes every Wednesday.
0:30.0	Welcome to the HBR Idea Cast from Harvard Business Review.
0:41.0	I'm Allison Beard.
0:43.0	When any new technology comes into a workplace, you'll usually see the IT department
0:54.0	and a few other early adopters experimenting with it first.
0:57.0	Eventually, though, as the tech becomes more user-friendly, there's a tipping point
1:02.0	where almost everyone could find a way to use it in their jobs, from the C-suite to the back office.
1:07.0	Right now, artificial intelligence and specifically generated AI is having that kind of moment.
1:13.0	Once the purview of mathematicians, engineers, and coders, AI tools can now be effectively designed and deployed
1:20.0	by anyone who has a basic knowledge and training.
1:23.0	But how do we as individuals figure out how to do it most effectively?
1:26.0	How do managers both encourage and corral these efforts?
1:30.0	And what strategies should organizations put in place to harness the power of what our guest today calls citizen development?
1:37.0	Tom Devonport is a professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College,
1:42.0	a visiting scholar at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and co-author of the HBR article
1:48.0	where all programmers now, as well as the book, all in on AI, how smart companies win big with artificial intelligence.
1:56.0	Tom, welcome.
	...

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