While providing a definitive answer to this question is definitely a challenge, tackling it directly is important for navigating this transition effectively. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fundamentally changing the nature of employment, often drastically modifying the constitutive tasks of jobs. Unlike previous historical innovations or revolutions, AI is impacting white-collar professions. This new reality demands a proactive approach: by considering and defining the future evolution of our own roles, we can actively shape our adaptation to this rapidly changing professional landscape. In particular, to adapt to this new environment, managers – and management in general – must demonstrate their added value and complementarity with AI. Specifically, they should focus on how they can leverage AI to enhance their leadership capabilities and help collaborators grow and empower themselves.
A complex transformation to capture
When debating how AI is impacting the job market, some people might discuss the entire replacement of jobs by AI; however, in practice, AI is interfering with the constitutive tasks of a job. This forces us to think more deeply about the ins and outs of such a transformation, as well as its underlying mechanisms, given that many unknowns remain. Understanding how jobs will change over the next few years requires capturing how industries will evolve, becoming more precise, predictive, and personalized thanks to AI. Jobs will evolve accordingly to reflect intrinsic changes in how we work daily, leveraging new tools and methods, and to align with how their industry will transform. This involves long-term training, live upskilling, attracting and retaining new talent, and exploring new types of collaborations. Grasping the scope of this shift is further complicated by the current timeline; indeed, we are witnessing an acceleration in innovation, evidenced by the rapid transition of research findings into practical industrial applications.
How AI changes roles by interfering with constitutive tasks
In practice, AI is interfering with the constitutive tasks of jobs, which implies analyzing current jobs by distinguishing between tasks that can already be performed by AI, tasks that could or will eventually be performed by AI, tasks that could be assisted by AI, and tasks that only humans can perform. Of note, identifying new tasks with high added value is also critical and exciting in the next few years and for each collaborator’s journey. That being said, jobs might change significantly, becoming entirely different from where they are today. The roles of each collaborator, individually and collectively, as well as those of managers and top executives, are key to achieving success.
From tracking efficiency to empowering capabilities
Managers will face a deep transformation of their role structurally and functionally. The somewhat outdated vision of managers tracking people’s work will definitely give way to guidance that empowers people to outperform. In this context, automating daily routine is key when focusing on people’s competencies, both individually and collectively. Indeed, AI will help managers better understand their teams, enabling them to capture stronger and weaker signals about the team’s dynamics and performance. Managers will provide collaborators with tools to better manage their own workflow and become more independent, while guiding them on their journey within the company, industry, and career.
From talent onboarding to lifetime training and upskilling
The acceleration of innovation and adoption by a broad range of collaborators, regardless of their level of education and experience, implies greater responsibility on the part of the company to develop their competencies. This involves lifelong training and upskilling by proactively understanding team needs, upcoming next-generation AI solutions, and current AI trends. Managers should then listen more closely to what’s happening in AI research and development across startups, academic labs, and corporations. Of note, Managers should upskill themselves to be in the best position to read the news on AI by avoiding buzzwords, useless or inefficient trends, and misinformation. Managers become conductors in coordinating knowledge transfer by providing teams with a clear view of AI.
From management to enlightened leadership
(Old) Management is dead, long live (new empowering) management! Defining the precise profile of the next-generation manager remains a challenge, yet developing this framework is essential. Managers will collaborate more with each other to move in the right direction by transforming their roles to align with their new mission. Enlightening leadership will be key in the following years, and AI can help.
