When a revolutionary golf club hit the pro circuit in 2022, it did more than just drive balls faster – it changed the game. But, like artificial intelligence (AI) today, it's not the technology alone that creates success – it's how skillfully humans deploy it.
When TaylorMade launched the first club with a carbon composite driver face, it was a significant advance in golfing technology. It was 40% lighter than titanium faces and added up to 3 km/hour to ball speed. First only available to pros, the innovation soon entered the mainstream, available to weekend golfers and imitated by other manufacturers.
Golfers had a choice. They could keep plugging away with their existing drivers or up their game with the new technology. And why wouldn’t they want to hit their golf balls faster and more accurately, with increased room for error?
As a golfer, I’m biased, but I think this is a useful analogy for AI in business today. Once all the hype, debating and hand-wringing is over, we’ll see AI as just another tool. For sure, it’s an essential tool, allowing people and businesses to perform at their peak. And certainly, not using this innovation will put us at a disadvantage compared to our peers, no matter how good our business is.
The thing about tools is that they exist to be used by humans. It’s how the human deploys the tools that creates the results. Let’s look at golfing again: despite the massive advantages of the new driver, Rory McIlroy didn’t sit back and stop improving his game. And although the driver upped my game significantly, it didn’t turn me into McIlroy. The inherent skills, experience, and knowledge of humans still predominate.
As leaders, it is on us to make sure our people are equipped with the best tools for the job. And today, in many instances, this includes AI. What’s more, your stakeholders – from new hires to clients – expect you to be using it.
One of the main challenges for businesses trying to adopt AI is human resistance, based on the fear of job loss. When people are fearful and uncertain, they double down on what they know – in this case, legacy ways of doing their job.
Perhaps framing AI as a tool that, like a golf club, needs to be wielded by humans, is a helpful counter-narrative to the myth that the machines are coming to replace us. Tools change and improve all the time. Today AI is a new, very important addition to our golfing bag. But it is just a tool, and the human wielding it remains paramount.
Leaning forward
You need to encourage your team to lean forward, not back, and engage critically with AI-generated outcomes. There are many things that humans will continue to excel at and these should not be lost. For instance, even though AI can crunch numbers faster than we can blink, it also has huge limitations. It needs our oversight, our critical thinking, and our deep understanding of the bigger picture to truly be impactful.
As published ASA Magazine - December 24
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