AI & Business: The Invitation of Our Times

If there was one main theme of life and business it may be this: both are a continual process of adapting to change. Life does not stay the same for long. And AI is posed to supercharge this change in all aspects of society, especially business.??

We often think of business as the “hard skills” such as data analysis, technical abilities, accounting, etc. AI, however, is getting increasingly better than humans at more and more of these tasks, and this will change the nature of business.?

If we are looking to develop skills in this new age of AI, what matters most of all are so-called soft skills, such as empathy, relationship building, and resilience. This is not just my opinion. Most of the leading business leaders of our time know this.?

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said in an interview:

“I think empathy is at the root of all innovation…. that comes from your innate ability to have curiosity, to learn about others, to walk in their shoes and innovate on their behalf.”?

Jensen Huang, the CEO of likely the most successful company of our time, Nvidia, recently said this to Stanford students:

“Resilience matters in success. I don’t know how to teach you except to say that I hope suffering happens to you…. greatness is not intelligence, as you know. Greatness comes from character, and character is not informed out of smart people; it is informed by people who suffer.”

Having empathy, walking in another person’s shoes, knowing how to suffer and to learn from our suffering — these are the most important business skills.?

Most of these leaders did not learn this in business school; they learned it from paying attention. Yet this is what spiritual teachings have been directing us to for centuries. The real work is inside. Learning to pay attention, to have empathy, to nurture resilience — these are the vital skills of our time.?

People at times ask me if I think AI is good or bad, and I tend to see it more as a koan: What if AI is an invitation? That is, an invitation to nurture all the skills that not only make us better leaders and entrepreneurs, but also better humans.??

To me, the Inner MBA? program, hosted by Tami Simon and myself, provides exactly this kind of curriculum that modern leaders such as Satya and Jensen point to. Through this program, we seek to nurture a community of leaders dedicated to personal growth, and to changing the world of business in the process (with a little help from AI).?

We hope you can join us and thousands of others in this learning community.?

Soren Gordhamer

IMBA Co-host & Founder of Wisdom 2.0

P.S. Explore the 9-month Inner MBA? curriculum and reserve your spot here.