I am trying to decide if statements like this by major consulting players are true and what could possible drive them. Do they reflect what their leadership teams actually believe - or is it a marketing ploy to show to their clients how much they are embracing AI and how progressive they are? I am not sure. On the one hand you have executive ignorance, on the other storytelling cynicism. I really hope it’s the latter.
Not because that is the right approach to take, but because the alternative is worse.
Here is what leaders think they mean when they say AI sceptics have no place in their company:
We are a progressive, forward-thinking organization
We are embracing the latest technologies
We are leaders in AI, so clients you can trust us with your AI adoption journey too
Here is what everyone else hears:
Leaders are detached from my everyday reality
Leaders have never had to use the sub-par internal tools we’ve been given
Leaders think that I need to train AI tools to take my job
And to be clear, though PwC is the one making these claims, this situation is playing out across many consultancies, so they are by no means alone in this approach.
So what is going on?
Executives are not paying enough attention to is what happens when you take a “drop and hope” approach to AI.
Employees are already overworked and overwhelmed. Research by LinkedIn showed an 82% increase in the number of professionals saying they are feeling overwhelmed. AI workslop, poor quality AI-generated workslop, is proliferating, with 50% of employees admitting to sending such content to their colleagues. Brain-fry is becoming a phenomenon as the addition of AI tools in the workplace intensifies the nature of work, making it a more pressurized environment.
And yet leaders look at all of this and conclude: I know what the problem is! Our people are just not positive enough about AI.
I don’t think that's what is happening here.
I think sceptics are giving us valuable information about where and why AI is not working.
The word sceptic comes from the ancient Greek skepsis , meaning to question, to interrogate, to examine carefully. The original sceptics were the ones asking the most thoughtful questions. Somewhere along the way, we turned that into a personality flaw.
Think about these AI related situations where people appear sceptical:
The employee not using the AI tool you have built in house. Are they resistant to change or is the tool actually adding to their workload because in reality it's not that good?
The senior manager that's being asked to hit the same targets with 20% fewer people because "AI makes up the difference". But are the AI tools a full match for those jobs yet?
The software developer that raises the alarm about a bias but is told they are not moving fast enough. Are they slowing things down or ensuring your product doesn’t invertedly cause harm?
The lawyer asking “am I losing the ability to review contracts for myself”. Are they stuck in old habits or raising the alarm about cognitive atrophy?
In many ways those individuals that you might initially deem to be sceptics you just want out of your company because they are holding back AI progress are the very people telling you where things are going wrong in your AI adoption. They are all giving you important signals about where to focus your attention in order to get the most out of your AI investments.
Some executives may choose not to listen to these signals out of fear of being left behind (FOBO). Others because there is so much noise out there that it becomes to hard to distinguish between what’s a true signal and what is not.
Ironically PwC’s own research found that 42% of executives say their companies are stuck and unable to unlock either revenue or cost benefits. Their own clients are showing scepticism around AI, how it is being implemented in their organization - and whether that impact will ever show up on their metrics.
This is why sceptics deserve to be heard instead of being shut down. We need to engage with their arguments and understand what is hiding behind their resistance. Because they can give essential information about where AI adoption is going off the rails, and how to fix it.
So before you write off your sceptics, ask yourself these questions:
Do I really know what my employees are experiencing when they use our AI tools day to day?
Have I personally invested in understanding AI well enough to lead this, not to become a technical expert, but to ask the right questions?
And if one of my best people came to me tomorrow and said "I don't think this AI rollout is working", would I hear that as a problem, or as the most valuable piece of intelligence I've received all week?
If my sceptics are not the obstacle, but the only people in the room telling you the truth, what does that reveal about my AI investments?
I reckon AI sceptics are doing companies a favour. We just don’t know it yet.