I was thinking about him accent and Walmart AI and employment news. It reminded me of a letter Hunter S. Thompson wrote to a friend reminding him of the importance of purpose in our work.
For advanced users, people are starting to “sound” like AI in real life and studies find that we are losing our creativity and critical thinking the more we transfer brain power to generation AI.
We must be purposeful in the transformation of AI and how we work with AI and agents. We cannot lose sight of human potential while automating work. We must not lose the human in the way we design work to achieve results. We must make the results meaningful for the company and for the recipients and beneficiaries of those results. Otherwise, our work and unique value will start to become the next em dash.
“…we must make the goal fit the individual, rather than making the individual fit the goal. In every man, heredity and environment have combined to produce a creature with certain abilities and desires, including a deep-seated need to function in such a way that his life is MEANINGFUL. A man has to BE something; he has to matter.”
There is something to be said about those who minimize work and those who maximize results and experiences for their beneficiaries. This video is a barometer for executives to decide which side of the transformation they want to be measured on.
As human beings, sometimes, all too often, we like to press the easy button. But it’s about short-term gains over long-term viability. We compete for the moment and not for the future. Ironically, our destiny lies not only in the hands of AI and how leaders see the future of an AI workforce, but also in how we shape our own destinies. Research already shows that it is possible that discharge too much of our thought and communication AI skills versus collaborating with it to do what was previously impossible.
In 2022, Airbnb was considering mass layoffs due to a sharp drop in bookings. Apple’s Jony Ive served as a personal mentor to CEO Brian Chesky and shared a long-term perspective as he weighed cuts.
“We’re not going to cut off the path to innovation,” he told Chesky.
The same goes for AI business transformation.
In the end, the path to innovation cannot be automated. 💡
If all you do is try to scale what you did yesterday, you miss the opportunity for people and AI to collaborate to achieve what was impossible yesterday: unlocking the creation and growth of new net worth. The smart decision is to balance both paths.
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