The Insider’s Guide to Generative AI

From Hollywood writers to U.S. Senators, everyone’s talking about generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, and the news isn’t slowing down.

This transformative technology is already impacting industries around the world. Executives, policymakers and organizations need to stay on top of how these large language models (LLMs) work and their practical applications now, or they may be left behind.

The globally recognized tech entrepreneurs, academics and scientists Stern Strategy Group represents for speaking and advisory services are ready to help leaders make better informed decisions about AI. They unpack the trends while cutting through the hype with their accessible frameworks and scalable strategies for approaching this disruptive technology.

The Surprises of Generative AI

GenAI is transforming jobs and industries and delivering unprecedented creativity and productivity boosts, says Andrew McAfee, bestselling technology author and principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Author of the forthcoming book ,“The Geek Way” (November 2023), who is fundamentally optimistic about the future of AI, he helps leaders understand why these systems still have serious flaws that need to be addressed in order for us to realize their full impact.

Beyond Automation: AI as a Collaborative Force

Computer scientist Iyad Rahwan, managing director of the Max Planck Institute, is an expert in AI ethics. He helps leaders understand how AI can be used as a tool, assistant, collaborator and an inventor, while preparing for a future workplace where AI and automation will require a different set of human skills.

Build Long Term Loyalty with Human-Centric AI Strategies

How can leaders and companies embrace AI so it maximizes service team productivity and doesn’t harm customer relationships? Renée Richardson Gosline – a senior lecturer and principal research scientist at MIT Sloan and the head of the human-AI integration group at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy – says building and maintaining brand loyalty requires a human-centered customer experience strategy. Gosline offers three ways to center humans in your company’s AI efforts, leading to loyalty in the long term.

Your New Universal Personal Intern Is Ready To Co-Create With You

The secret of generative AI is that the best applications are the result of very long conversations between humans and machines, says Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick and co-founder of WIRED. Renowned for his positive outlook, Kelly encourages writers, programmers and those in creative fields with his very clear prediction that not a single human artist will lose their job because of this new technology.

AI in Education: A New Choice for Innovation

AI is a potentially disruptive technology, but just because it represents such an inflection doesn’t mean AI will be used that way, says Michael B. Horn. A pioneering digital learning strategist focused on securing the future of businesses, he reveals how organizations can implement AI as a sustaining innovation, to launch a disruptive innovation or both strategies.

Don’t Fall for the AI Hype

Promoters claim AI is so powerful that it is close to being sentient. The reaction by Paul Romer, a Nobel Laureate in Economics who has been following the tech sector for four decades, is that close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. He believes the hype around the new AI upsurge that crested after the collapse of the cryptocurrency wave is based on a very dubious achievement: Large language models often make up convincing, yet baseless claims. While he acknowledges AI’s potential value in certain use cases, such as autonomous tractors, he criticizes the tech sector’s unfulfilled promises, especially fully self-driving cars.

Realize New Competitive Advantages in the Age of AI

Harvard Business School Professors Karim Lakhani and Marco Iansiti reveal why and how firms with an AI-first business model are uniquely positioned to thrive long into the future in their critically acclaimed book, “Competing in the Age of AI” (2020). New survey data shows how organizations that leaned into becoming “AI factories” based on Lakhani and Iansiti’s bold predictions are realizing a greater competitive advantage from the data available to them over their in-house development work.

Ethically Engaging Artificial Intelligence to Combat Bias In a Digital World

From racial profiling through facial recognition software used by law enforcement to algorithms that unfairly target Black and brown users with subpar services and subprime financial practices, biases in the way technology is developed and used are rampant. Drawing from his extensive research and fieldwork, Dr. Desmond Upton Patton, Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of SAFElab, explains how data scientists, designers and engineers can prevent bias in AI by collaborating with social science professionals who can help them become more aware of the unintended harms being built into the technologies they develop.

The Expertise Economy: How AI is Changing the Future of Work and Skills

Kelly Palmer, Silicon Valley thought leader and the new Chief Strategy Officer of Southern New Hampshire University, reveals the trends that are causing disruption in the workplace, including generative AI, and how they are changing and shaping the way leaders need to think about upskilling and reskilling their workforce. She describes how she and other business leaders have created forward-thinking learning and career transformation strategies that help drive a company’s success.

The Complete Guide to How Generative AI Will Change the World — and How It Won’t

Gideon Lichfield, the global editor-in-chief of WIRED, is an expert on all the ways in which new technology can interact with and redefine society. Starting with a clear and simple introduction to what makes these new AI models different from their predecessors, he speaks to their powers and their limitations, which industries stand to benefit the most, how and when to try them out in your own business and how to safeguard against the risks of using them unwisely.

Leadership, Algorithms and the Future of Work

Renowned behavioral scientist, digital transformation strategist and technology futurist, David De Cremer reveals key areas where algorithms will likely collide with human skills as AI becomes a bigger part of the workforce. Drawing on his 2020 book, “Leadership by Algorithm,” he shares fascinating insights into the challenges that an automated work environment will pose for organizations in the future and explains how leaders can be preemptive by adopting new technologies in ways that leverage the strengths of both AI and humans.

Supercharge Your Team’s Inquiry Muscles with AI-Assisted Brainstorming

Many companies are using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to automate repetitive tasks. But they have much to gain if they expand their current view to treat AI as a knowledge-work teammate, says leadership and innovation authority Hal Gregersen, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and award-winning author of “Questions Are the Answer.” He demonstrates how AI has affected questioning patterns, innovation behaviors and outcomes in organizations from more than 30 different countries in a new standout article in Harvard Business Review, “AI Can Help You Ask Better Questions — and Solve Bigger Problems.” 

Bytes, Bots and Bonds: How AI is Reshaping Our Professional and Personal Lives

The advent of AI technology marks a transformative shift in how the world does business, promising to redraw the lines of careers, industries, and client relationships – and even affect personal lives. For decades, Harvard Business School Professor Debora Spar has studied technological revolutions and how they reshape society in fundamental – and incredibly intimate – ways. Spar, author of “Work Mate Marry Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny” (2020), introduces audiences to the recent explosion of AI technology and its capabilities, then illustrates the many ways leaders will need to practice good judgment as it affects overarching industries as well as individual careers. She then optimistically explores how AI will go beyond commercial implications to impact home lives as well, potentially changing how we interact with our families, our partners and each other.

How to Make Generative AI Your Strategic Decision Making Partner

Is it possible to combine two of today’s most consequential business initiatives – opening decision making to diverse voices outside the C-suite and artificial intelligence – to empower and enhance input from across an organization? Warwick Business School professor and renowned strategy and leadership expert Christian Stadler explains how generative AI, like ChatGPT, can be used as an informative external voice in the decision-making process. Audiences will learn how AI tools can help to create more efficient connections between people, allowing more to participate in important conversations, as well as how to prompt AI programs to produce the best results. Leaders will understand how to leverage generative AI to help executives better listen to their organization, unlocking powerful new decision making techniques.

Generative AI Means You Need a New Approach to Cybersecurity

Powerful generative AI tools give bad actors the ability to convincingly sound like anyone online, posing a new set of risk challenges to business leaders, says George Westerman, a digital transformation pioneer and MIT scholar. In a perceptive article published in MIT Sloan Review, “From ChatGPT to HackGPT: Meeting the Cybersecurity Threat of Generative AI,” he gives practical recommendations for replacing traditional, rule-based approaches to cybersecurity with “smarter” technology and training. Westerman, a pioneer in the study of digital transformation, knows how to help top executives make business sense of fast-moving technologies through his speaking and coaching on digital transformation as well as his popular, long-running MIT Sloan course “Essential IT for Non-IT Executives.” To learn about his top management workshop “What Executives Need to Know about AI”, contact us. 

The Right Use of AI Algorithms for Our Society

Preeminent legal scholar and Harvard Professor Cass Sunstein says AI algorithms can be a phenomenal boon for businesses because they can counter human tendencies to overreact to recent events, restoring teams from near-sighted vision to long-term focus. He uses vivid examples to demonstrate applications for AI algorithm-assisted decision-making in the legal and medical systems, then advises on their limitations to increase an organization’s risk tolerance with AI.

Actionable Insights for Leading Responsibly in the AI Era

As generative AI tools become more commonplace, leaders must ensure they are developing machine learning systems that bolster human progress and well-being. Bringing organizations seven core principles to follow is Juliette Powell, a top advisor at the intersection of responsible technology, business and culture who helps companies address accelerating change due to AI-enabled technology, shifting social dynamics and heightened global competition.  Founder and managing partner at Kleiner Powell International [KPI], her forthcoming book with Art Kleiner, “The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology”(August 2023), addresses crucial issues including unconscious bias, data misuse, accountability and the calculus of intentional risk when engaging with AI technology.

AI Chatbots Seem to Have Empathy – But Are They Our Friends?

Talking to ChatGPT can feel like connecting with a real person, but Sherry Turkle, renowned MIT professor who founded its Initiative on Technology and Self, wants everyone to know that AI-based chatbots merely present the illusion of companionship. Author of “The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir” (2021), which was named a top book of 2021 by The New York Times’ staff critics, Turkle appeared on ABC’s “Impact” to emphasize that technology changes not just what we do but who we are. She recently surveyed AI programs used to judge empathy in conversation, reflecting, “Having built the machines that will judge us, now we will train ourselves to please the machines.”

The New Skill Needed for a New Era of Problem Solving

How can someone generate ideas for innovation without fully understanding the problem that needs to be solved? It takes a new skill called emergent thinking, says pioneering collaboration expert and bestselling author Heidi K. Gardner. In a new article in Harvard Business Review, “Discovering Where ChatGPT Can Create Value for Your Company,” Gardner and her co-authors demonstrate how to nurture the new skills that will be required to use ChatGPT to solve problems in almost any industry, domain or context.

The Digital Mindset: How to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI

The digital revolution is here. It’s changing how work gets done, how industries are structured, and how people work, behave and relate to each other. To thrive in a world driven by data and powered by algorithms, we must learn to see, think and act in new ways. We need to develop a digital mindset. Drawing from his new book, “The Digital Mindset: What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI,” University of California, Santa Barbara Professor Paul Leonardi discusses the skills needed for a digital mindset and new ways of thinking that will enable leaders to be productive in the digital economy. With a digital mindset, employees can leverage a 30% fluency in a handful of technical topics to ask the right questions and make smart decisions, leading to new possibilities for a digital future that can be appreciated. Leaders who adopt these approaches will be able to develop their organization’s talent to prepare their company for successful and continued digital transformation. Individual contributors will learn how to better support their company’s strategic changes and advance their own careers. Win-win.

The Untold Story of the AI Revolution – and What Comes Next

Modern AI, a 70-year-old revolution in the making, stands as one of the most impactful technological developments of our time. While many anticipate the disruptive potential of AI, the untold story of its origins remains largely unheard. Jason Pontin, a leading futurist and partner at DCVC, unravels this hidden narrative of unlikely innovators who upended their field. Exploring further, Pontin demystifies the future of AI and its impending influence across diverse industries.

As generative AI continues to reshape industries and fuel innovation, it’s essential for leaders to heed the advice of these experts and embrace AI responsibly. By leveraging their insights and practical recommendations, organizations can navigate the AI landscape with confidence, unlocking new opportunities while ensuring a sustainable and ethical future.

When new tech captures the world’s attention, organizations need reliable guidance for leveraging its new capabilities without getting swept up by media buzz. Stern Strategy Group connects you with renowned thought leaders whose insights, strategies and management frameworks help organizations fuel growth and disruptive innovation to better compete in a constantly changing world. Let us arrange for these esteemed experts to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting sessions, workshops and keynotes.