Will AI commodity intelligence change business?
In 2012 Patrick Lencioni released his book “The Advantage”. In it he argues that intelligence in business is a “permission to play”. In other words it is something that a business needs just to compete in the marketplace.
He argues that in a poorly run business only a fraction of the intelligence on offer is actually used. With a cohesive message and constant communication much greater progress will be made - as opposed to having poor cohesion, poor messaging and simply increasing intelligence.
This has an important impact as AI becomes more powerful. You can increase the “intelligence” (in quotes) level quite simply, but organisation structure takes more effort. You cannot prompt an AI and get it to start better business practises.
AI on the other hand does not suffer from the things Patrick outlines as business detractors: politics, morale, turnover… But all this is reliant on the person who instructs the AI. A program that can get an answer faster, with more detail and accuracy is only as useful as the task it was asked to complete.
Once the AI becomes powerful enough to compare its outcomes across disciplines and realises that it is being used at cross purposes… that is another discussion entirely.
Summary
- Intelligence is a given in business
- Increasing intelligence with poor business practises yields little
- Even with a powerful new tool good business practises are needed to maximise its outcomes