Artificial intelligence should only gain scale within companies when it is part of the leadership routine. This is the assessment of Guilherme Brasil, CTO of Starian, a software company for the corporate market that was born from the split of Softplan and projects net revenue this year.
According to Brasil, managers who do not use technology in their own activities have difficulty identifying the obstacles that prevent teams from incorporating it into their daily lives. “Leadership needs to use artificial intelligence on a daily basis so that teams can embrace the technology,” he states.
The study, carried out by Thomson Reuters with 1,816 professionals from 62 countries, recently showed that 74% of employees use AI tools at least a few times a week, but 91% say that their organizations are unable to take advantage of the full potential of artificial intelligence – the so-called “value gap”, which describes the distance between the capabilities already offered by AI and the benefits actually captured by companies.
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The research also identified that, even among organizations that claim to have a strategy for artificial intelligence, around a third of professionals say that it does not reach their daily work. Furthermore, one in three interviewees admits to using AI tools not approved by the company – a practice known as Shadow AI –, often associated with organizations’ delay in providing adequate corporate solutions.
In the assessment of Starian’s CTO, practical experience allows leaders to find barriers, such as cybersecurity obstacles, which would be difficult to appear only in meetings or indicators, and act to find an alternative.
“When you, as a leader, use AI, you can see the barriers that your employees are facing and that are preventing them from using it. And you are the leader, so you are the one who has the means to act to resolve the issue. I’ve been there. I went to perform a task in another area and found a security block that prevented me from completing it. If I faced this difficulty, the team faces it too. But, if I hadn’t taken it on to do it, I would never have known. The leader will only see the blockages that are preventing the team from using AI in their daily lives as well,” he stated.
Training needs to be personalized
In the CTO’s view, another recurring mistake companies make is to rely on generalist training on artificial intelligence. According to Brasil, presentations that explain broad technology concepts are important as a starting point, but have limited impact since they do not dialogue with the reality of the teams and the specific challenges of each area.
“Training for the use of this technology needs to be personalized and the person who will give the training needs to have knowledge and proximity to the area of who is receiving that training. It needs to make sense for those people, for that specific team”, he added.
