How AI is Transforming Businesses: CEOs Share Their Views on the Impact and Opportunities Presented by Artificial Intelligence

I have spent the last couple of months speaking extensively with CEOs, Founders and other business leaders about AI. Uncovering what their views about AI are, how they are seeing it impact their businesses and the markets they serve; and the opportunities they see to do more with AI.

In this newsletter edition, I’ve condensed these discussions down to share with you the most important themes that emerged:

1. The Impact on the Jobs Market and our Career Paths

2. The Impact on Transforming Businesses and Markets

3. Other Points of Note

But before turning my attention to these themes, I must firstly stress the big picture coming out of these calls.

Pretty much everyone I spoke with feels that Generative AI is going to fundamentally change the way we build companies in the coming decades, indeed even in the coming years. We can expect to see companies with significant top lines having greatly reduced numbers of employees.

The remaining employees are going to be the more strategic, domain-specific, disruptive thinkers – and we might expect that managing such a team will require different skills from those needed to manage the workforces of the last decade.

These changes can be expected to be felt right up to the CEO level. Our future CEOs will need to be the kind of person who understands the long term implications of these technological changes, but who can implement bite-sized changes to leverage AI and start the task of transforming and preparing their companies for the future.

The most successful CEOs will be visionaries but with their feet squarely rooted to the ground. They will need to be empathetic and know how to navigate the anxieties that are bound to arise from the pace of change we’ll see. We need look no further than the blowback from Intuit’s recent AI-induced round of redundancies to see how this can go wrong very quickly. 

1. The Impact on the Jobs Market and our Career Paths

To date, much of the media’s discussion around AI has focused on whether it is likely to cost jobs or to create jobs. My discussions suggest that at least as many jobs are likely to be created as be made redundant through AI. Indeed, when you delve further into the Intuit redundancies story, you discover that the company is both making significant redundancies but also envisaging a hiring spree that’s greater in magnitude than the number of jobs lost.Tesla is another early mover in this regard. They are quickly retooling the company to be a more Robotics/AI company from an EV/Auto company.

Speaking with a wide range of CEOs and business leaders, there is a widespread feeling that AI will automate many tasks – and, indeed, that middle management may be eliminated in some sectors through greater automation and use of intelligent systems. The automation of business processes, including sales and call centers, was also something that many leaders are envisaging.

But business leaders see there is still a need for human interpretation and expertise in many areas of their businesses, not least figuring out how to adapt businesses to leverage AI (and then having the expert teams to be able to deploy the solutions envisaged).

Hiring in this period of heightened AI / Machine Learning adoption will increasingly focus on finding candidates with expertise in research, engineering, product development, and Go-To-Market skills. Hiring at the executive level will increasingly require companies to identify candidates with technical proficiency and a familiarity with current technology and how it can be applied in a particular sector. Again, these were points raised repeatedly during my conversations.

The rise of AI also means companies are seeking more hires with specialized skills in data science and machine learning, with an emphasis on both math and adaptability. Soft skills such as leadership and motivation are also seen as remaining essential.

In enterprise setups, Chief AI Officers are a relatively new addition – being hired to drive AI transformation and exploit the opportunities these technologies present; although my discussions indicate that this is only part of the solution. Hiring a Chief AI Officer alone doesn't solve the problem of fully leveraging AI; business leaders recognize that organizations need to rethink all their functions and make big changes to the fundamentals of the business if the full potential is to be realized.

Specialized Skills and Soft Skills Needed Today

My conversations with business leaders also uncovered the combination of specialist skills and essential soft skills that are most likely to be valued by those companies looking to exploit the potential of AI. These are some of the key skills that emerged from these discussions:

Specialized Skills:

1. Data Science and Mathematics: The success of AI implementation heavily relies on professionals with a deep understanding of data science and mathematics. These specialists turn complex data into actionable insights, ensuring that AI applications are accurate and valuable.

2. Technical Knowledge: Proficiency in AI technologies and tools is critical. For example, Marketing executives and Product Managers now need to be familiar with these technologies to effectively leverage AI in their departments.

Soft Skills:

1. Leadership and Team Building: Despite AI's significant capabilities, the human touch in managing teams and projects remains indispensable. Numerous leaders I spoke with emphasized the need for positive interactions and building trust within teams to achieve success. Employees need to be won over that AI represents an opportunity and an upside for them, rather than a threat to their livelihoods.

2. Problem-Solving and Optimization: AI specialists must collaborate effectively with subject matter experts to solve problems and optimize processes. This requires strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work as part of a team.

3. Adaptability and Continuous Learning: The rapid growth and evolving nature of AI technologies mean that professionals must be willing to continually update their skills and adapt to new advances.

2. The Impact on Transforming Businesses and Markets

Make no mistake, this is a massive topic. Some of the CEOs I spoke with talked about how AI will make it possible for us to offer solutions that, until now, simply weren’t possible or viable. So, we can expect whole new markets to appear – and demand to be created – for offerings we’ve discounted as being feasible up until now.

Alongside this, CEOs spoke of the major productivity leaps that could be achieved in businesses that grasp these opportunities. Some also highlighted the differing approaches here – with long-established businesses having to find ways to fundamentally transform their operations; while new entrants can be expected to emerge that are able to start afresh in thinking about how AI could best streamline operations in a business serving that market.

If we think of how Blockbuster’s demise came about through mass adoption of streaming services like Netflix, or how Tesla decided a costly network of car showrooms and dealerships simply wasn’t necessary, we can start to appreciate how fundamental the shifts in some of our existing busineses and industries could be. Especially where entirely new entrants are able to build businesses from the ground up that are AI-enabled from their conception.

Let’s take a look at a few of the issues that were raised:

AI is transforming both decision-making and operations in enterprises

AI's transformative impact on both decision-making within businesses and on the operations of businesses came through loud and clear in my conversations.

One key consideration is that AI necessitates a re-thinking of business strategies and processes. In particular, companies need to identify the specific use cases that are both likely to generate strong ROI, and are achievable, to truly derive value. This is likely to involve pairing subject matter experts with data scientists, to facilitate effective AI implementation that is tailored to the needs of the sector being served.

This is worthy of further discussion, not least because many of the CEOs I spoke with are considering how their monetization strategies are likely to evolve as a result of AI.

How AI is Changing Monetization Strategies

Our discussions highlighted several ways in which AI is changing monetization strategies for businesses, both for those offering AI services and for those leveraging AI to transform their mature businesses:

1. Understanding Use Cases and Value Derivation: Companies need to identify specific use cases for AI in order to derive value. Successful AI implementation requires pairing subject matter experts with data scientists to fully understand and exploit AI's potential in monetization strategies.

2. AI Specialists and Utilization: The availability of AI specialists is not in question, but effective utilization of their skills is essential. Companies must create environments where AI specialists can leverage their expertise to develop and implement profitable monetization strategies.

3. Pairing Technical Knowledge and Domain Expertise: For successful product development and monetization, having product managers with both domain expertise and technical knowledge is crucial. This combination ensures that AI-driven solutions are tailored to meet market needs, thereby enhancing revenue generation.

4. Pricing and Customer Adoption through Design: In the development of AI products, design has a significant impact on pricing and customer adoption. Companies must invest in good design to make their AI products attractive and usable, thus increasing their marketability and profitability.

5. Substantial Value Delivery: AI must deliver substantial value to justify its pricing and encourage customer adoption. Without clear, demonstrable benefits, customers are unlikely to invest in AI solutions, no matter how innovative they might be.

Overall, AI is transforming monetization strategies by necessitating a deeper understanding of use cases, effective utilization of specialists, integration of technical and domain expertise, focus on design and marketing, and ensuring substantial value delivery.

The Significant Challenges of Implementing AI

Implementing AI within a business context presents several significant challenges. Firstly, there is a clear need to tailor AI solutions to address specific business challenges, rather than adopting a generic, AI-forward approach. This requires a deep understanding of market needs and the ability to build customized solutions that provide substantial value, which can justify their pricing and foster customer adoption.

Alongside this, effective utilization of AI specialists is a critical hurdle to overcome. Although AI specialists are available, they often face frustrations when companies aren’t able to efficiently leverage their skills. This indicates a gap in effective resource utilization and highlights the necessity for businesses to better integrate these experts into their operational frameworks.

Another prominent challenge that CEOs spoke of lies in aligning engineering efforts with market requirements. Offshore engineering teams, in particular, struggle to translate market needs into technical solutions while maintaining effective collaboration. This misalignment can lead to product development that does not fully meet customer needs or that fails to fully capture market opportunities.

Finally, building and scaling a successful AI implementation requires the convergence of domain expertise and technical knowledge, particularly in roles like product management. The absence of this dual expertise can impede the development of solutions that are both innovative and practicable. Investing in design, sales, and marketing is also crucial, as these elements significantly influence product success, ensuring that AI-driven solutions are not only technically sound but also market-ready.

A number of the CEOs I spoke with see AI and Machine Learning as a disruptive force – they are transformative technologies that will require companies to rethink their strategies and careers. One fascinating possibility that was floated is that we could start to see a trend of flatter organizations, coupled with the need for greater hands-on expertise from senior leaders. While the biggest challenge is likely to be navigating through the noise and choosing the right AI solutions for specific business needs and / or identifying the aspects of the business operations that are ripe to be transformed by AI.

3. Other Points of Note

I honestly covered so much ground in these discussions that it’s hard to do all the threads of conversation justice here. But I would like to at least mention in passing lots more of the observations that I either heard repeatedly, or that seem to me to have the biggest potential to impact us all. So, in no particular order, we also need to consider:

The Impact of AI on Professional and Personal Lives: My discussions reflected the profound impact AI is having on both professional and personal aspects of life. In the professional realm, AI is transforming how businesses operate and what the markets of the future are going to be.

But, on a personal level, AI is also influencing society through the shifts in hiring patterns it is bringing about, such as a preference for hiring younger executives familiar with AI technology. Furthermore, AI's integration into daily life is contributing to changing perceptions and opportunities, spanning everything from health and wellness to the evolution of our smartphones. The discussions encapsulated AI's potential to reshape various aspects of our lives.

The emergence of Generative AI and Cognitive AI: Some of the discussions also touched upon the emergence of both Generative AI and Cognitive AI, providing insights into their impact and potential applications. While Generative AI excels in creating content based on patterns, Cognitive AI goes a step further by analyzing vast data, identifying relationships, and making predictions.

Cognitive AI's ability to understand, learn from, and interact with human behaviors, thereby enabling more dynamic and intelligent business operations, was highlighted as a potentially game-changing development. 

Regulation of AI: Some of the CEOs I spoke with had views on the current regulation of AI, highlighting that industry self-regulation is not effective due to the industry's focus on maximizing return on investment (ROI). This inherent conflict of interest suggests that relying on companies to self-regulate their AI technologies will likely fall short, necessitating the implementation of government regulations to ensure ethical practices and to mitigate potential risks associated with AI deployment.

Despite the growing importance of AI, there is also a lack of political discussion about AI. Politicians seem hesitant to delve into topics related to AI, possibly due to the potential disruptions these discussions could have on their political futures. This gap in political engagement further underscores the need for external regulatory mechanisms to govern the development and application of AI technologies.

The Impact of AI on Upskilling and Adaptability in the Workforce: The rise of AI is changing the expectations for upskilling in the workforce. Adaptability is crucial, even for experienced professionals, as technology continues to evolve rapidly. The ability to learn new skills and stay current is likely to become increasingly important for executives wanting to progress their careers rather than stagnate.

AI Industry Challenges and the Need For Careful Selection of Partners: We must keep in mind that the AI industry is still in its infancy and many companies are likely to go out of business. But those who provide system solutions and a strong user experience will likely be the ones to succeed. Consequently, we must be wary of tying our own business fortunes to those of an AI partner that may or may not survive.

The Challenges of Implementing AI in Businesses: Trying to implement AI in businesses we can expect to face both resistance and challenges, particularly in terms of the perception that it may result in workforce elimination. One approach may be to target agencies that businesses work with and use AI to develop more cost-effective solutions that reduce dependency on those external agencies. In this way, the savings achieved don’t directly impact the existing workforce and so may be more readily accepted.

The Future of AI and Its Impact on Industries: AI is expected to disrupt a wide variety of industries, but not necessarily in uniform ways. This will likely lead to a shift in required workforce skills and career expectations, but differing by sector and by how AI has impacted that sector. In terms of the AI industry itself, the foundational layer of AI may end up resembling the cloud industry, with a few major players emerging and consolidation ensuing.

Hiring Strategy as a Talking Point: Approaching hiring from a top-down perspective by understanding the business, market, and problem to be solved. Then hiring in resources and leveraging AI accordingly.

The Potential For One-Person Companies To Flourish: The rise of one-person companies that achieve significant success is something some of the people I spoke with anticipate for the future. As AI both allows more to be achieved within the business and allows the business to buy in ever more advanced services externally, the prospects of one-person or small team businesses “punching above their weight” is elevated.

Impact of AI on Team Size and Retaining a Startup Culture: Linked to the above point, in some of the conversations we explored the possibility of companies retaining more of a startup DNA as the companies grow into large enterprises. As teams become far more productive through AI enablement, companies may be able to scale significantly without losing the benefits of smaller teams in terms of alignment, decision-making speed, and innovation.

Final Thoughts – Thank You All… and Do You Need Help?

I hope this compilation of insights from my recent interviews has given you some good food for thought about the ways AI is likely to impact both your career and the businesses you lead. As always, your thoughts are welcomed in the comments.

My interest is naturally around the impact that hiring a game-changing new leader for your business could have in helping to put you at the forefront of leveraging AI to maximum effect. Please feel free to contact me here on LinkedIn to discuss how we might help, if this is a live issue in your business right now. Always happy to help.

Last, but not least, this detailed assessment of the impact and opportunities presented by AI wouldn’t have been possible without the insights and participation of all the CEOs and business leaders who made time to speak with me and contribute. My thanks go to:

Abhishek Jha - Co-founder & CEO, Kiwi

Anil Mankar - Co-Founder and CDO, BrainChip Inc

Apurva Desai - CEO, Sarvian, Inc.

Arvind Rapaka - CEO, CartUp AI

Arvind Srinivasan - Founder / Product Leader. Ex-Uber, Ex-Amazon

Ashwin Rao - Founder-CTO, CX Score

Dhruvil Sanghvi - Founder, LogiNext

Ganesh Harinath - Founder & CEO, Fiducia | AI

Ganesh Shenbagaraman - Co-Founder, Covisio

Hardik Kabaria - Co-Founder, Stealth

Harish Goyal - CEO & Managing Director, Veria Lifestyle Inc / Essel Group

Jaideep Jain - CEO, TapClassifieds

Krishna Guda - Co-Founder, Broadrange AI

Krish Subramanian - Cloud Strategy, Global CTO Office, & Head of Products, Platform Services, IBM Consulting

Krunal Patel - Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Bordo AI

Luke Lobo - Founder & CEO, TriestAI

Murali Krishnan - Co-Founder and CPO, RapL Inc.

Nandakumar Krishnan - Senior Director, d-Matrix

Nishanth Varghese - Strategy & Planning Leader (CEO's office), Cisco

Para Segaram - Managing Partner, Tagus Ventures

Patrick D. Quirk - Board Member, Pramata Corporation

Pranesh Umashankar - CEO, Reliafin

Prashant Fuloria - CEO, Fundbox

Raghav Sehgal - Co-Founder & Head - Sales, a21.ai

Rahul Bhandari - CEO & Chief Investment Officer, Force Multiplier Capital

Rajeev Madhavan - Founder and General Partner, Clear Ventures

Ravindra Rao - Founder & CEO/CTO, Orchestral.ai

Ron Victor - Board Member, Giggso

Sanjeev Kumar - Co-founder, CTO and Chief Scientist, Quark.ai

Sean Adler (爱尚恩） - CEO, GZI

Shishir Rai - Founder & CEO, DiscoverEE Inc.

Srini Pagidyala - Co-Founder, Aigo.ai

Sumeet Solanki - Founder, Fubrix Product Management

Tejpal Chadha - Co-Founder, SocialGoodAi & MyAiDr

Uday Srinivasan - Co-Founder & CTO, Acante

Vamsee Tirukkala - Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer, Draup

Venky Yerrapotu - CEO and Founder, 4CRisk.ai

Vinay Goel - CEO & Co-Founder, Wald, Inc