Exploring the Influence of AI on Leadership Roles:

Learn more about the ongoing ChatGPT experiment by MDI CEO Gunther Fürstberger

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Exploring the Influence of AI on Leadership Roles:

Learn more about the ongoing ChatGPT experiment by MDI CEO Gunther Fürstberger

In a ChatGPT experiment, our CEO Gunther Fürstberger tried to test the boundaries between artificial intelligence and humans. He asked himself and ChatGPT the same questions to determine the differences. Read this blog post to see the results.

You can connect with Gunther Fürstberger on LinkedIn and join the conversation! 

“How much can the 4 main roles of a leader according to Covey be supported by AI”

Answers from Gunther Fürstberger:

1. Creating trust: Transparency: AI can visualize the most important things. AI can provide reliable and well-founded answers.

2. Develop visions: AI can calculate the probability of achieving a vision and create proposals for the Strategic Roadmap

3. Implement strategies: AI can coordinate alignment and coordination of priorities between departments and over time

4. Coach potentials: AI can make learning suggestions

Answers from ChatGPT:

The four main roles of a leader according to Covey – building trust, developing vision, implementing strategies, and coaching potential – can be supported to varying degrees by AI technologies. Here is an assessment of how each of these roles could benefit from AI:

Creating trust

AI can help bring transparency and objectivity to decision-making processes. Data-driven analytics can help leaders make informed decisions and build trust by demonstrating that decisions are based on verifiable information.

Developing visions

AI can help extract information from large amounts of data and identify trends that can help develop long-term visions and strategies. AI models can recognize patterns that are difficult for humans to perceive, providing valuable insights for the development of plans.

Implementing strategies

AI can assist in project and resource management. By analyzing data and predicting outcomes, AI can help leaders to better plan and adapt their strategies. Automation of recurring tasks can also create more time for strategic thinking.

Coaching potential

This is one of the biggest challenges for AI. While AI can assist to some extent in identifying individual strengths and weaknesses, the interpersonal and emotional intelligence required for effective coaching is a capability that AI has not yet fully achieved. However, AI can support learning platforms and personalized training to support the individual growth of team members.

It is important to note that AI is not meant to replace human leaders, but rather to complement and support them. Human intuition, interpersonal skills, and the ability to solve problems creatively remain crucial, especially in situations that require empathy, emotional understanding, and complex decision-making.

“What can humans do better?”

Answers from Gunther Fürstberger:

1. Creating trust

When we talk about leading people, humans have a similar advantage. Trust is made up of integrity and competence. In terms of integrity, humans can draw on more experience with people (e.g. in the family) than with AI and would probably currently place more trust in a human leader. People can draw on intuitive skills.

2. Develop visions

Humans can use their own emotions to check how much a vision appeals to them.

3. Implement strategies

People can sometimes better recognize and deal with resistance.

4. Coaching potential

Some people are passionate about supporting the development of others.

ChatGPT answers:

Humans bring a set of skills and qualities that are difficult or even impossible to replicate by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Here are some areas where humans are often better:

Emotional intelligence and empathy

Humans can perceive subtle emotional nuances, understand interpersonal relationships, and show empathy. These skills are crucial in leadership positions, especially when it comes to motivating employees, resolving conflicts, and creating a supportive work environment.

Creativity and innovation

Creativity involves linking different ideas and concepts in unexpected ways. Humans can come up with unconventional solutions, develop ideas, and drive innovation beyond the programmatic capabilities of AI.

Complex interpersonal communication

Interpreting body language, non-verbal communication, and subtle signs is a human strength. In complex interpersonal situations, such as negotiations or conflict resolution, human understanding of communication is invaluable.

Values and ethics

People have moral and ethical considerations that influence their decision-making. The ability to weigh up right and wrong is strongly influenced by individual values and social norms, which AI does not have in the same way.

Intuition and gut feeling

People often make quick decisions based on intuition or gut feeling, based on experience and emotional signals. This can be useful in situations where data is incomplete or decision-making needs to be quick.

Contextual understanding

People can better grasp the context of a situation, including cultural, social, and historical aspects. This is important for making decisions based on a broader perspective.

Adaptability

People can adapt quickly to unexpected changes and new situations. They can react flexibly to unforeseen events and develop alternative solutions.

It is important to emphasize that AI and human skills can complement each other. AI can automate repetitive tasks, facilitate data analysis, and serve as a source of information, while humans bring their unique skills to manage complex situations and foster human relationships.

How does AI influence the management task of delegation?

What do we delegate?

Answer from Gunther Fürstberger:

What we delegate and what we prefer to do ourselves is a personal question. It has to do with our abilities and wishes. If you want to build up a large company or a corporation should delegate as much as possible. If you want to learn as an expert, keep the exciting topics for yourself and delegate routine tasks.

As it ultimately comes down to the question of what work you want to do, what you find meaningful, and what you enjoy, it is probably better to engage in an internal dialogue about this than to leave these decisions to an AI app. AI programs such as Insightful can coach you on this, however.

Answer from ChatGPT:

Task automation

AI can automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks. This allows leaders to focus on more strategic and creative tasks.

Data analysis and decision-making

Leaders can delegate the analysis of large amounts of data and the derivation of insights to
AI systems to make informed decisions.

Communication and information management

Chatbots and intelligent assistance systems can support the management of communication and information by filtering emails, scheduling appointments, and organizing information.

Who do we delegate to?

Answer from Gunther Fürstberger:

AI itself takes on the function of an employee to whom it can be delegated. And the most interesting thing is that this employee is sure to get better, can take on more, and deliver higher-quality results. It wasn’t so long ago that we were hiring translation agencies to translate training materials into other languages.

Now this works in seconds with good quality. Learning search engines provide us with relevant information, and travel portals with suitable and affordable transportation and accommodation options. Navigation systems save us from traffic jams and radar fines. OpenAI can summarize books in 1000 characters or write poems for the Christmas party.

Which “human employees” you delegate to depends, for example, on their available capacity, skills, and wishes. If you as a line leader have a management span of e.g. 10 employees, then your assessment based on interviews is probably sufficient to decide which tasks you pass on to which person.

If the number of delegation candidates is very high, machine learning can help to create a selection of suitable candidates. There are consultant or coach databases and recruiting programs that suggest the top selection from a large number of people according to defined criteria.

Answer from ChatGPT:

AI systems and robots

Tasks can be delegated to specialized AI systems or robots that have been developed for specific tasks or processes.

Employees and teams

Leaders must decide which tasks are delegated to employees and teams and ensure that the resources and skills are in place to complete these tasks successfully. 

How do we delegate?

Answer from Gunther Fürstberger:

How you delegate determines the confidence and motivation with which your employees will carry out the task. Depending on their level of experience, employees should be given more or less autonomy. If the person receiving the delegation is a professional, it is sufficient to state the purpose of the task. “For example, could you please make sure that the visitors are happy”.

This would be too much for a beginner. This assessment of employees is currently still the responsibility of the leader and not an AI program. However, ChatGPT could be used to design skill tests or self-assessments. However, AI tools such as Taskade.com are good at generating lists of detailed tasks from main tasks.

Answer from ChatGPT:

Skills assessment

Leaders need to assess the skills and strengths of their employees and AI systems to delegate the right tasks to the right people or systems

Clear communication

Clear communication is crucial to set the expectations and goals of delegation. This is
particularly important when delegating tasks to AI systems as the programming and configuration must be correct.

Monitoring and feedback

Leaders need to monitor the progress and performance of delegated tasks and provide regular feedback to ensure that objectives are being met. Overall, integrating AI into delegation processes allows for a more efficient and targeted use of resources, enabling leaders to focus on strategic and valuable tasks while improving the overall performance of the organization.

However, it is important to consider the human and ethical aspects of delegation in the context of AI and ensure that it is in line with the organization’s values and goals.

How can AI contribute to corporate management?

Answer from Gunther Fürstberger:

Artificial intelligence has had a permanent place at the table in our leadership meetings since July 2023. It’s not yet a robot dressed in a costume or suit with speech recognition and output, but a member of the leadership team who gives AI a voice. At the moment, I’m taking care of it and doing it as follows:

1. We have a shared agenda document in MsTeams. About 1 day before our weekly 50-minute leadership meeting, I look at the agenda and select 1 topic, for which I usually create a ChatGPT4 prompt.

2. I show the answer in the meeting and we discuss it. There are almost always good suggestions that give us new ideas.

3. AI does not yet have a (co-)decision-making role. At the moment, it is more of a valued advisory role.

We have decided to integrate AI into company management for 2 main reasons:

As a management development institute, we see it as our responsibility to help shape the opportunities and risks of AI in leadership in general. This raises many interesting and challenging questions, such as “Do we want organizations in our society that will one day no longer be led by humans, but by AI?”

At the moment, we believe in the co-creation of leaders with AI and also want to learn from our own experiences in the spirit of “walking the talk“.

b. As a company, we are convinced that we need to keep disrupting ourselves to develop further and make a relevant and efficient contribution to society. AI currently offers enormous potential for disruption, which we want to exploit with passion and a sense of responsibility.

An interesting side effect of integrating AI at the management level is that we are using AI more consistently in a wide range of operational areas. We have now also launched an AI transformation journey for all areas of the company and introduced AI co-trainers. But there will be separate blog posts about this.

From today’s perspective, we can recommend the integration of AI in corporate management and would be delighted if you would also share your experiences with us, for example in the comments.

Now the answer from ChatGPT-4 to a slightly customized prompt:

“Please describe an example of the integration of AI in board meetings”

AI integration in board meetings: a practical example

Initial situation

An international technology company wants to increase the effectiveness of its board meetings. The meetings are often characterized by extensive reports, presentations, and data analyses, which slows down decision-making processes. It is decided to introduce an AI-powered solution to streamline discussions and facilitate real-time, data-based decisions.

Solution

1. Preparation of the meeting

An AI system consolidates all relevant data and reports from the various departments in advance. It checks these for completeness, up-to-dateness, and consistency. It then generates a summary of the most important points and visualizes them in easy-to-understand diagrams and graphics.

2. During the meeting

An AI-supported assistant projects information onto a screen in real-time. For example, if a board member asks a question about sales development in a specific market, the AI immediately displays the relevant data, historical trends, and forecasts. Through machine learning and pattern recognition, the AI can also suggest potential causes for deviations or anomalies.

3. Interactive discussions

The system enables board members to run through “what if” scenarios in real-time. For example, when discussing how an increase in the marketing budget could affect sales, the AI simulates the potential impact based on historical data and current market conditions.

4. Recording and task management

The AI records the meeting and transcribes it in real-time. Based on the discussion, it recognizes action items and assignments and automatically creates meeting minutes with a list of tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines.

5. Feedback loop

After the meeting, the AI collects feedback from the participants to continuously improve the process and the data presented. It learns from this feedback to make future meetings even more effective.

Conclusion

Integrating AI into board meetings can significantly speed up and improve the decision-making process. Providing data in real-time enables fact-based discussion and helps the board to make informed and strategic decisions. However, it is important to ensure that AI recommendations are transparent and that human intuition and expertise continue to play a central role in the decision-making process.

Insight from the ChatGTP response

So far, we have mainly used AI as a source of inspiration in management meetings. We will soon be trying out AI meeting software to optimize meeting documentation, including the formulation of action items.

Hopefully, these questions have given you something to think about. As you can see, there are still some differences between human and AI-created answers. 

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