Business leaders' optimism over AI continues to grow: BCG X

Business leaders are more optimistic about the benefits and potential of AI, according to a new BCG X report.

The report highlighted that 47 percent of business leaders in Australia rank optimism as one of two sentiments towards AI.

Adam Whybrew, partner and director at BCG X said leaders are more optimistic over artificial intelligence than front-line employees because senior, experienced people have more to gain from AI.

“The demand for people like them will rise because they will be essential to use, direct and check the AI systems, and they will become more productive as a result,” he said.

“It’s like introducing tractors to farming – great for the people who see themselves using them, but not so rosy for the people whose labour they replaced.”

Those who are concerned, there are two main factors, Whybrew noted.

“There may be an existential threat to humans, and a more personal one – that the skills they have invested in and developed may become devalued. On the existential threat, reasonable people hold a wide range of views,” he said.

“There’s more consensus on the devaluation of skills – and although historically the jobs that were lost have always been replaced by others, there’s no guarantee that this will happen again, and even in the past this has taken generations to happen.”

The concerns most leaders have about generative AI focus around the “what ifs”, Whybrew explained.

“What can go wrong if they use it – bias, hallucinations (making things up – often very plausibly), privacy and data leakage, potential copyright infringement, fraud and cyber risk, unexpected behaviours and over-reliance on the output (“computer says no”) are all of concern, although many can be mitigated,” he said.

Less universal, but just as important, are concerns about what can go wrong if they don’t use it, but new or existing competitors do, Whybrew said.

“When Steve Jobs held up the first iPhone in 2007 nobody said ‘that’s the end of the taxi industry’ – but of course, Uber caused huge disruption. The more forward-looking leaders are trying to find what the new Ubers will be – in order to prepare their business for new forms of competition, or better still, to do it themselves.”

Despite their concerns, BCG noted that 65.3 percent of ANZ leaders believe the rewards of generative AI outweigh the risks.

Whybrew said, “By itself it has made AI much more accessible for anyone to experiment with – every business leader I’ve asked in the past couple of months has tried it themselves. Familiarity has reduced fear, and most people have found it helpful.”