Chapter 1: The Inhumane League: Leading in a world of AI - A conversation with Jordi Ferrer

To understand more about the potential, and threat, of AI, I wanted to talk to Jordi Ferrer. As head of ServiceNow’s UK and Ireland business, he knows first-hand what this new technology is capable of. In this wide-ranging discussion we face in to the threat AI poses but then move the conversation on to AI in our organisations, the impact on how we utilise human beings, the benefits to businesses and the implications for leadership.  Key points:  You can now interact with technology in a conversational way. It feels you are interacting with a being.  We need to develop rules and guardrails to limit the power of this technology so that it can be used to our benefit and not our detriment.  This technology could eliminate a lot of mundane tasks. Where humans don't add value it is better for technology to be used. But typically this shift won’t be motivated by a cost-saving. The cost saving will not be compelling enough. However, the boom in customer service, services for citizens, will be a more significant prime motivator.  Companies that wait until the pain is so significant they are forced to change, will disappear.  The IT department is about to become a central, strategic function. AI will be found in the classroom. Your bank, using AI, will be able to tell you how you’re spending your money, instantly, and how to utilise your finances more efficiently. There are many questions we would like to ask but the information is hard and slow to access so we haven’t even asked...until now.  Leaders need to be open to opportunities to use technology to get to the source of problems rather than spending money patching up legacy systems and solutions just because that’s what they are used to.   The possibility that you could simply ask AI “Tell me what I need to know...” and it would! You can find out more about ServiceNow here.