Second-Order Effects of AI Integration
When focusing on technology and its ever more advanced possibilities, it’s easy to forget that organisations, and the way they work and function, are still very human. The source of the creativity, and what is created, is driven by the friendships and frictions between people. Over many years working with teams and across larger functions I’ve seen how success is down to the culture and relationships, and the positive collaborations that develop. The common complaints I’ve heard in 1:1s, and what impedes technical progress and the happiness levels of people working within the business, are the result of bad relationships and inter-team attitudes. So, what does any of that have to do with AI? Understanding that success in a technology-focused company is a people-centred endeavour, helps teach us how AI tools help, and where they are dead-weight or actively negative influences. The places they can ease our pain, and where they will just increase it. In the last couple of years we’ve integrated more and more AI-first approaches into our ways-of-working. Time enough to see where the impact has been, where things haven’t changed, and some of the second-order effects of this step-change.
