The Real C-Suite Concerns for GenAI Transformation

This month Yellow Radio has been involved in a number of “bootcamps” for senior C-suite leaders in major FS banks and organisations, in partnership with Altus - a leading UK financial services consultancy.

The experience has been very insightful. So much of the dialogue around the adoption of AI focuses on applying GenAI to use cases, but often this is the wrong starting point, but more importantly, seldom is the question of should / shouldn’t we continue down this path considered.

What was encouraging to hear in these workshops was that there is a willingness to understand the long term implications of acceleration with GenAI. There are now many opportunities to leverage LLM capabilities to automate and augment existing capabilities, often under the guise of “increasing productivity.” But the long-term consequences need to be carefully considered.

To consider two common, typical scenarios:

1. Entry-level paralegal work is ideally suited for AI acceleration. But in reality, this work forms the foundation of a lawyer’s career, enabling them to “walk the walk” and really learn and understand their core business. Over the next 5-15 years, paralegals will use the wisdom, experience and judgment gained to be better equipped to become the future general partners and leaders of their business. If they do not have this low level, lived experience - how well will they know their core business, and how good will their judgment and decision-making capabilities be?
2. Call centre automation can now be automated, certainly for the “easy” customer enquiries that can be handled quite well by an AI-powered chatbot. The consequence though is that human Customer Service Agents (CSAs) will no longer have the easy calls, and be left with only the difficult, challenging calls to address. Where previously their job had variety, with a mix of “easy” and “difficult” calls, now there is the risk that they will only handle difficult cases - for a very challenging work experience.

There are many business reasons for using GenAI - beyond the fact that every other competing organisation seems to be doing so. But it’s important to keep in mind, as these leaders at the Altus bootcamp understood, that a short term OpEx reduction through the use of AI can leave the organisation significantly impoverished and unable to compete well in the long term.

Rather than automating the “easy” work, a better approach is to automate the “boring” work, while still giving employees the opportunity to learn and acquire the core skills involved. Starting with a healthy People Strategy that empowers the workforce with the use of AI, organisations can ensure that they achieve short term productivity gains, without sacrificing the wellbeing of their staff and future organisational strengths.