Hearing aids that form a bubble around two people in a crowded room, bringing new life and interaction to the hearing impaired. A robot that delivers food to the table after the wait staff has taken the order. AI teachers who instantly adapt a student’s assignment to develop a business plan, whether the interest is sports, tribal sovereignty, education or geology. A personal AI in my pocket or at my fingertips to talk to me in Spanish or help me summarize a twenty-page policy document that I now no longer have to review over the weekend.
All this is happening today and is made possible by the rapidly changing developments in the field of artificial intelligence. The explosion of possibilities will only accelerate.
What is a leader’s responsibility to prepare for technology transformation? Imagine if you, as a leader, could go back 25 years in time. Only you know everything about how mobile phones and the Internet have changed the world.
How would you prepare your family, community, and organization? If you tried to explain the details of everything that was to come, you might be labeled a dreamer or a fool. A more effective approach would be to initiate discussion and imagine future possibilities together.
Of course we can’t go back in time or know the future, but we can prepare for tomorrow. Whether you are a leader in government or a nonprofit organization, a regional business or an educational institution, there is a leadership requirement: an AI leadership requirement.
Embracing this imperative starts with a first step in engaging those around you. Ask thoughtful questions about AI so others can speak, wonder, and generate ideas without judgment. Find out who is secretly using AI (an AI cyborg), who is wary, and who is curious and wants to learn more.
The second step: discover how AI is already impacting your spaces. AI applications are in full swing in every field. Knowing what’s happening in your industry paves the way for the third step, which is experimenting with AI in small, safe, and relevant ways.
For some, it could be experimenting with how AI can help with time-consuming calendar tasks or transcribing notes and conversations, while larger explorations could involve using AI to explore differences in health outcomes between different populations.
A fourth step a leader can take is to gather a team and think of different scenarios about how AI can be used for good, without naively ignoring the potential harm. This may also involve a working group that develops principles to guide the use of AI to ensure alignment with the organization’s values.
Action characterizes all steps. Action means fulfilling our responsibility to upskill students and employees (and leaders) for this new AI world. Inactivity means no training, no new knowledge. Students and employees are then susceptible to deskilling (technology automates or simplifies tasks previously done only by experts) or non-skilling (technology replaces tasks previously done by humans, such as ATMs and self-driving vehicles).
Action means strategically and responsibly integrating AI into our organizations to improve effectiveness and manage entrusted public or private resources. This could mean forming teams to address AI policy or strategically apply AI in ways that improve processes or services. Inaction means staying stuck in practices and processes that are years or even decades old, while the competition embraces change and progress.
Action means fulfilling our obligations to serve families, citizens, students, customers and clients. This takes many forms, from delivering life-saving solutions to everyone – machine learning made the 2020 COVID-19 vaccine possible in record time – to supplementing faculty teaching with accessible, effective AI math guidance for every student. Inaction means accepting differences between those who have access to the social and cultural benefits that technological progress provides and those who do not.
The need for AI leadership is imminent. It is critical for Southwest Colorado leaders to begin the AI journey with steps toward action. Let’s take these steps together.
Mario Martinez is the provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Fort Lewis College. Since 2014, he has held leadership positions at public and private higher education institutions. Sign up for the AI Institute newsletter bit.ly/AIInstitutenews to stay informed about everything related to AI at FLC and our region.
