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Executive Spotlight: How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Will Transform Management

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As organizations navigate an era characterized by rapid technological advancements, artificial intelligence (AI) emerges as a transformative force that promises to revolutionize the way management is conceptualized, executed, and optimized. While the benefits of integrating AI into management are numerous, from automating routine tasks to enabling data-driven decision-making of unprecedented accuracy, there are also various disadvantages and potential challenges that leaders need to be aware of during this transformative journey.

We recently asked our leading executives how they think AI will transform management.

Here are their responses...

Ana Smith, Leadership Development & Learning Strategist

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I can confidently say that AI is poised to transform management in numerous ways, revolutionizing how businesses operate and leaders make decisions. Here are some key ways AI will transform management:

  1. Data-Driven Decision Making: AI enables managers to make data-driven decisions by analyzing vast amounts of data quickly and accurately. AI-powered analytics can identify patterns, trends, and insights that human managers might miss, leading to more informed and effective decision-making processes.
  2. Automating Repetitive Tasks: AI can handle repetitive and mundane tasks, freeing up managers' time to focus on more strategic and creative aspects of their roles. This automation can lead to increased efficiency and productivity across the organization.
  3. Predictive Analytics: AI can predict future outcomes based on historical data, helping managers anticipate challenges and opportunities. This capability empowers leaders to be proactive in addressing potential issues and optimizing business strategies.
  4. Enhanced Customer Insights: AI can analyze customer data to provide deep insights into consumer behavior and preferences. This information enables managers to tailor products and services to better meet customer needs and drive customer satisfaction.
  5. Personalized Leadership Coaching: AI-powered coaching tools can provide personalized guidance to managers, helping them enhance their leadership skills and management capabilities. These tools can identify areas for improvement and offer actionable recommendations.
  6. Talent Management and HR: AI can streamline the talent acquisition process by screening resumes, conducting initial interviews, and matching candidates with suitable positions. Additionally, AI can analyze employee data to identify patterns that can inform HR decisions related to employee engagement, retention, and performance management.
  7. Virtual Assistants for Managers: AI-powered virtual assistants can help managers with scheduling, reminders, and organizing their daily tasks. These virtual assistants can provide valuable support to busy managers, keeping them organized and on track.
  8. Supply Chain Optimization: AI can optimize supply chain management by analyzing demand patterns, inventory levels, and logistics data. This can lead to improved inventory management, reduced costs, and better overall supply chain performance.
  9. Risk Management: AI can help identify and mitigate potential risks by continuously monitoring data and identifying anomalies. This proactive approach can enhance risk assessment and response strategies.
  10. Real-Time Insights: AI can provide real-time insights into various aspects of the business, allowing managers to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and react swiftly to changing market conditions.

It is crucial for managers and organizations to embrace AI and adapt to these transformations. Proper implementation and understanding of AI's capabilities can lead to improved decision-making, increased efficiency, and competitive advantage in the ever-evolving business landscape.

Ana Smith helps people & organizations achieve their full talent potential by developing and co-creating people strategies and customized solutions, and turning them into impactful outcomes and collaborative relationships, using coaching as the "red thread."

Michael Willis, Sports Business Operations Executive

Artificial intelligence (AI) in football

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I look at artificial intelligence (AI) as historical, technological breakthroughs like flying, the automobile, electric lights, and the telephone due to their transformative impact on society.

In comparing AI to these historical discoveries, it s important to note that while these innovations brought about significant changes, AI s impact is particularly noteworthy due to its potential to affect nearly every aspect of human life, from work and education to healthcare and entertainment.

Additionally, AI presents unique challenges and considerations, such as ethical concerns, potential job displacement, algorithm bias, and questions about how AI will integrate into our social fabric. As AI advances, its trajectory will likely be shaped by technological progress, societal adoption, regulatory frameworks, and ethical guidelines.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already impacting various aspects of sports management, and its transformative effects are expected to continue growing. Here are some ways AI could transform management in sports:

Player Activities

  • Injury Prevention and Management
  • Nutrition and Conditioning
  • Scouting and Recruitment
  • Game Strategy and Analysis
  • Data-Driven Management Decisions
  • Sports Analytics and Insights

Game Day Activities

  • Fan Engagement
  • Ticket Pricing and Sales
  • Social Media and Branding
  • Referee and Umpire Decisions

Striking the right balance between technology and human expertise will be crucial to successfully harnessing AI s benefits in the sports industry.

Michael Willis has 18+ years of experience working with accounting & sports organizations and has managed P&Ls of $10M - $125M+ with budgets of $3M-$50M+. He worked for the NFL for 22 1/2 years, mainly with the game officials working on the financial/accounting side of the business.

Lynn Holland, GTM & Rev Gen Consultant

Artificial intelligence (AI) concept

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Coming from a perspective of selling operational transformation through technology adoption for efficiency, increased capacity with the same assets, and financial gains, I am a proponent of advancement.

As such, I see impactful advantages for managers to get behind an initiative to infuse AI tools into their management process. At the same time, I caution executives of the potential downside and to anticipate several obstacles when seeking buy-in with their teams:

The Managerial Advantages of AI:

1. Balancing the skill sets, workloads, and availability of subordinates to ensure allocated tasks and resources maximize productivity.

2. Monitoring employee performance metrics in real time to provide immediate training and coaching rather than waiting for formal reviews.

3. Gaining actionable insights as AI spots historical trends and patterns and predicts future trends and outcomes to make better decisions, pivot quickly, and substantiate management decisions for subordinates.

The Downsides & Obstacles:

1. Potential loss in empathetic support, understanding, and personal interaction between managers and their employees.

2. Erosion of managerial critical thinking and decision making without an AI tool.

3. Creating a vibe for employees that they are being surveilled by Big Brother with diminished autonomy, protections for personal information, and a sense of personal space.

4. Employee dependence upon turn-by-turn instructions, eroding the same critical thinking and decision making.

5. Employee fear of displacement or a skills gap to incorporate AI tools into their workflow.

Lynn Holland is a business development executive with 18+ years of experience taking operational, IoT & retail technologies, products, & consumer engagement to market with a focus in petroleum & convenience retail.

Lisa Perry, Global Marketing Executive

Artificial intelligence (AI) concept

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One of the most significant disruptors in this era of rapid change is artificial intelligence (AI). Nowadays, 77% of businesses are using or exploring AI. Among them, 35% of companies are using AI, and 42% are exploring AI for its implementation in the future. AI is reshaping the landscape of organizational leadership and management in several ways.

  • Data-Driven Decision-Making: AI can process vast amounts of data in real-time, providing managers unparalleled insights into customer behaviors, preferences, and sentiments leading to higher engagement and strong brand loyalty.
  • Predictive Analytics: Leveraging predictive analytics, managers can anticipate market trends, customer preferences, and potential risks enabling organizations to adapt to changing circumstances and giving them a competitive advantage.
  • Enhanced Efficiency: Using AI-powered tools allows management to focus on high-level strategic thinking and fostering innovation.
  • Strategic Planning: AI can assist management in formulating well-informed strategic plans by analyzing market trends and competitive landscapes much faster rate.
  • Customer Insights: AI-powered analytics can process customer data from various sources, providing comprehensive insights into their preferences, behaviors, and sentiments. Management can tailor products, services, and marketing campaigns to meet customer expectations effectively.

AI is the most transformative technology we will see in this lifetime. We better integrate it into our skill set, leadership, and management practices quickly to add value and ROI to the bottom line.

For a step-by-step guide on how to develop a brand strategy, check out my book How to Develop a Brand Strategy.

Lisa Perry helps companies build leadership brands, driving loyal customers & delivering profitability. She does this through a process that builds brands consumers love. Her goal is to help companies develop, monetize, and grow their brands.

Duncan Prior, Digital Transformation Consultant

Artificial intelligence (AI) concept

Image from Bigstock

Artificial intelligence has arrived and is here to stay and there are three areas where AI will transform management:

1. Managing the current emergence of AI

Robert Glazer devoted a "Friday Forward" weekly article to discussing the emergence of AI in the context of all other technology innovations and I reflect on parallels with the dot-com era. The article breaks down the steps in the innovation wave that engulfs us until things finally settle down and organizations can refocus on their objectives. For now, managers can expect the subject of AI to surface in most conversations so they will have to have a plan for dealing with the current hype.

2. Managing legacy

Perhaps the biggest challenge any organization faces is the delivery of digital transformation and change. From a technology perspective, the key reason is the legacy IT infrastructure that most companies continue to run. Cloud platforms and mobile devices offer the promise of supporting an agile business; however, getting there is rarely straightforward. Without that transformation, AI will not deliver any benefits and, if introduced on top of an aging business platform, will only introduce more complexity and chaos.

However, AI will deliver on that promise either for new business models or for organizations that have been able to transform, so the pressure on those managing a legacy business will increase over the coming years.

3. The day-to-day possibilities

For those running flexible IT systems, help is at hand that will enable managers to free up time to transform their organization. AI tools provide the opportunity to act as a "co-pilot" for staff. Take the example of submitting proposals for new business. This can be a time-consuming exercise with often a small chance of success. Most of the time is spent assembling the proposal response which takes up too much of the team s time when it could be focussed on the true value of its offering. Using AI to assist with this work isn t cheating. Rather, it is helping humans to perform their jobs as effectively as possible. And, in this example, AI can help people focus on opportunities that they have the most chance of winning!

Duncan Prioris a consultant specializing in digital transformation delivery and the host of the Making Things Work podcast series. He enjoys running, reading, and listening to music.

How do you think AI will transform management? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily's Executive Program.

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How To Get A Job With No Experience
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How To Get A Job With No Experience

The job search is difficult enough for professionals who have years of experience under their belts. So, how do you get a job when you don’t have any experience? That’s the million-dollar question, and I’m going to answer it for you.

Focus On Connection Points

When you find a job that you want to apply for, some sort of life experience has taught you to want this job. Otherwise, you wouldn’t even know what this job is. So, write down what it is about this job that you really want. Where did you learn about this job? Where did you come to find this job that you’re very excited about? We have to connect the dots in the story here. Then, write down why you think you’re qualified to do this job, even though you don’t have any experience. What from your own life or professional experience has made you believe that you are fully capable of doing this job?

You need to write all of this out. These are the connection points between you and the job. These are the connection points that a recruiter and a hiring manager are going to need to hear in order to consider you because sending them your resume or your LinkedIn profile is going to get you tossed because you don’t fit the mold.

The story is the factor here. Now, the more powerful the story, the more compelling the reasons that you want to do this job and that you believe you can do this job, the more likely you will get a shot at this job.

Here’s a true story to help you understand the power of connection points…

Years ago, I had a young man come to me and he wanted to get into financial planning. However, the first 12 years of his career had been as a paint store manager. It was a successful career but it had nothing to do with financial planning. So when I said to him, “Why do you think you’re qualified for financial planning and why do you want to get into it?” he explained that a little over a year ago, his father had died unexpectedly and his dad had owned a business, and they found out after he died that the business was in shambles. He left his mom broke and she was probably not only going to lose the business but lose the home that she had spent all her life in with her husband.

So, what did he do? He spent nights and weekends figuring everything out, teaching himself what he needed to know. He was able to turn around and get the business to a place where he could sell it and get enough money for his mother so that she didn’t lose the house and she had something to live on. He said the experience was so traumatic that he never, ever wanted to see another person go through this, and he knew if he could become a financial planner, he could help more people when these unexpected losses hit so they wouldn’t have to deal with all the financial stress and drama when they’re simultaneously trying to grieve. If that isn’t the ultimate motivation to want to become a financial planner!

After he explained all that, we created his career story. I call this career story a connection story. I also refer to it as the disruptive cover letter because it’s not a traditional cover letter. I helped him tell the story of how he realized he needed to become a financial planner and also enclosed some of the transferable skills from being a paint store manager that he believed helped him get up to speed so fast and do all that he did for his mom.

He had five financial planning companies on his interview bucket list—five companies that he would love to work for. He sent his disruptive cover letter off. He networked with all five companies. They gave him interviews. Three gave him offers. And he took the offer from his number one choice.

You can do this too, but the story is going to be what gets your foot in the door and gets people to root for you, to want to give you a chance. Because the upside is when you go into a job that you haven’t done before, you have no bad habits. You’re very moldable. Also, anybody who gives you a shot, you’re going to do everything in your power to exceed their expectations. So there are some clear advantages to hiring somebody who doesn’t have the experience.

But they’re not going to hire you if you don’t have that connection and intrinsic motivation, which is just a fancy word for a really good reason why you’re going to get out of bed every day to do that job and figure it out and crush it. That’s what they’re looking for from you as someone with no experience.

If you would like to learn how to do this step by step, join me inside Work It DAILY today. Sign up for a seven-day free trial and get instant access to my cover letter plan. That is where you’re going to learn the power of the connection story.

Good luck, and go get ’em!

Surefire Questions Every Hiring Manager Should Ask
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Surefire Questions Every Hiring Manager Should Ask

As a hiring manager, the types of questions you ask in a job interview can help you determine whether a candidate is qualified for a position and a good fit for your organization. But which interview questions are the best questions to ask?

In this article, members of Duffy Group will reveal how to craft effective and customized interview questions that help you uncover a candidate’s true potential, assess their fit within your organization, and make informed hiring decisions. Read on to unlock the secrets to conducting successful interviews that lead to building exceptional teams.

Kathleen Duffy

Hiring leaders recruit for technical skills to do the job and assess for cultural alignment. To assess for cultural alignment, we must go deeper than asking, “What does culture mean to you?” Look at your company values and develop questions. For example, at Duffy Group, one of our core values is innovation. I look for people who are curious.

Tell me about something you were really curious about that has nothing to do with this job. It doesn’t matter what they are curious about; it lets me know if they have a curious mind. We want people who are curious because that’s how we innovate.

Another question is, “What does diversity mean to you?” For some, it may be gender, race, ethnicity, etc. We are looking for people who have an appetite to come into an organization where reasonable minds can disagree. How do you approach someone who sees the world differently from you?

It is critical for us as hiring leaders to figure out if candidates will thrive in our environment that celebrates diversity.

Kathleen Duffy is the founder, CEO, and president of Duffy Group. The company’s vision is to elevate recruitment research as an alternative to contingent and retained search. Since its founding, Duffy Group has been a remote workplace and a culture of work/life harmony.

Colleen Neese

Hiring manager listens to a job candidate answer an interview question

As an executive recruiter, it’s our job to be curious and ask a lot of questions that will help us determine if the candidate has the skills and fit for the job. Many times those questions are very specific to the industry or job. For example, the questions I ask when recruiting in the non-profit industry are different than the questions I ask when recruiting for a for-profit company. And the questions I ask a chief financial officer are very different than the questions I ask a chief information officer. But I have one tried and true question that I ask everyone I interview:

  • How do you spend your time? Break down in percentages where your time is spent.

This allows me to understand if the candidate has the right skills and experience to do the job. Are they doing this today or would this be a stretch for them? Of course, this only works if you have a true understanding of the job requirements and where the candidate will be spending their time in the role, so it’s critical to have that understanding first before asking this question of candidates.

For example, when recruiting for non-profit CEOs, I always ask them to break down how they’re spending their time. Many of the non-profit CEO searches I lead require a strong background in fundraising, so if I learn they are spending very little time on fundraising, it’s a mismatch.

The other question I always ask every candidate I talk to is:

  • What is motivating you to consider making a job change?

It’s so simple, yet the answer you receive will uncover so much information that will help you understand what’s important to the candidate. In many instances in life, we need to go back to the “why,” and that’s true in recruitment and interviewing. Why now? Why this job? Why this company? What are you NOT getting from your current role that you’re seeking? And then listen!

Happy hunting!

Colleen Neese is a practice leader at Duffy Group. She specializes in recruiting executives in non-profit and healthcare.

Kristin Pozen

Hiring manager asks about a job applicant's resume during an interview

One of my clients is TTI Success Insights, an industry-leading assessment provider dedicated to revealing human potential through assessment solutions and research. They had recently hired a new president and were positioned to grow the company. Although they had been a family-owned and operated business for over 30 years, their internal human resources structure or processes needed updating. Additionally, they required an HR leader who could bring about a culture change and fuel their planned growth.

Here are a few examples of the questions we used:

  • Have you ever been with a company while they were experiencing a culture shift? What was your role in that shift?

This question allowed us to determine if they could drive culture change. TTI’s president envisioned a culture that cared about character and serving others.

  • Give an example of how you influenced a positive outcome when several senior leaders disagreed.

By asking for examples, we could evaluate if the candidate could assist in the company’s strategic growth by collaborating with the senior leadership team.

We identified and hired a fantastic HR leader for their organization by digging deeper into our interviews and addressing their biggest concerns. Asking for examples of past successes and failures can better describe a candidate’s experience.

Kristin Pozen is a research recruitment recruiter at Duffy Group and a former HR recruiter.

Sharon Grace

Hiring manager asks a question during a job interview

You’ve been tasked to fill a position. Maybe it is a newly created position, maybe it’s with a new hiring leader with the company, or maybe it is a high turnover role, and you are not excited to work it again. Even if it is a role and hiring leader that you are familiar with and excited about, it’s still important to ensure you ask the right questions as part of your intake process. Here are some tips that have helped me:

  • Be able to define what makes this group attractive to a potential candidate. Why would you want to work with this group? Describe the personalities of the group.
  • What are the top three primary skill sets (not soft skills) necessary to succeed in this role? Do they need experience creating and implementing a strategy, budgeting and forecasting, and designing and implementing legally compliant HR procedures and best practices?
  • What is the most important thing this person needs to do in the role to succeed?
  • What experience or skill set will not work?
  • What companies should we avoid?

There is so much more to a position than what is in the job description. Digging deep with the hiring leader will set up the process to dig deep with a candidate as you try to identify the fit. Both the hiring leader and the candidate are curious about each other. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for hiring leaders and candidates to work with a recruiter to help uncover the real opportunity, identify fit, and remove ambiguity.

Sharon Grace is a veteran search executive at Duffy Group who helps hiring leaders hire great people because of her proven track record as a strategic partner and advisor to recruit, identify and assess talent.

Need help recruiting talent for your organization? Check out Duffy Group today.