Early in my career (meaning: a looooong time ago), I was told that a major manufacturer in my area would hire consultants to make all major decisions and execute major projects. I thought that was incredibly insulting to their own staff. However, the reasoning was that the internal teams were shielded from blame for any failures along the way. They would just fire the consultants and bring in a new bunch. It was “The Consultants said so” mentality. Most people can recognize this from their own experience in various forms and degree. AI provides a potentially cheaper and quicker scapegoat for an age-old weaknesses and sins.
I am a fairly regular reader of your posts (thank you). Each time that you describe your interaction with a senior business leader my initial reaction is "how on earth are they in their job"?
What you describe are mostly serious failures in business judgement and execution that are exacerbated by AI's potential to deliver great benefit .... and great harm.
Leaving that aside, you are 100% right that we are losing our critical thinking ability. I worry particularly about our kids.
So true
Early in my career (meaning: a looooong time ago), I was told that a major manufacturer in my area would hire consultants to make all major decisions and execute major projects. I thought that was incredibly insulting to their own staff. However, the reasoning was that the internal teams were shielded from blame for any failures along the way. They would just fire the consultants and bring in a new bunch. It was “The Consultants said so” mentality. Most people can recognize this from their own experience in various forms and degree. AI provides a potentially cheaper and quicker scapegoat for an age-old weaknesses and sins.
I am a fairly regular reader of your posts (thank you). Each time that you describe your interaction with a senior business leader my initial reaction is "how on earth are they in their job"?
What you describe are mostly serious failures in business judgement and execution that are exacerbated by AI's potential to deliver great benefit .... and great harm.
Leaving that aside, you are 100% right that we are losing our critical thinking ability. I worry particularly about our kids.