Reflecting on the pursuit of better (through GenAI)

‘Education is the passport to the future’, Malcolm X once proclaimed, to articulate an innate belief that persistent rediscovery is necessary in the pursuit of true identity.

This is more than ever of relevance today. With the treasure trove of technologies that are increasingly empowering us to redefine business and society, the latest of those being Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), we find ourselves in a constant pursuit of what we can be and believe in.

At the heart of this pursuit is education and exploration, and in the past week I have been working with the good folks at Lucky Beard to understand how GenAI, which I increasingly articulate as my super-colleague, could help reimagine roles and the pursuit of value.

Being fellow consulting firms, we of course are deliberating and conceptualising how GenAI could reimagine consulting, which there is much merit in and we are steadfastly working that through. But being bed-fellows in a passion for education, we are also asking the question ‘what is the role of GenAI in building the programmes of learning to help those who are curious about the opportunity of GenAI, and willing to learn about it?’.

A tongue-twister of sorts, but In essence - can GenAI help us to understand how GenAI can help us?.

Disruption, yes – liberator, surely

Steve Andriole, Professor at Villanova School of Business and author of The Digital Playbook: How to win the strategic technology game , argues fiercely about the disruptive forces that GenAI will have on education in his 2024 Forbes ‘How Generative AI Owns Higher Education. Now What?’ . Painting a picture that Professors could be reduced to mere ‘roll-callers’, and students could have little more to do than prompt-engineer their way through to graduation, he paints a disturbing picture for educators, and perhaps a rosier one for the learner.

But I am an optimist on all sides of this spectrum. Surely GenAI, like all general purpose technologies, can play a liberating and powerful role in supporting the professor gather the knowledge of the world, and filter it to create robust and impactful learning outcomes. And surely the student can embrace it to enhance, accelerate and challenge their learning journey. All with the right checks and balances to make sure it’s ‘for good’, and the systems that uphold our standards and decrees are held intact. This is too what Andriole is aiming at positioning in his well-constructed piece.

The Rub

But this isn’t just a conundrum for education. This ‘circular’ debate is in fact one for all businesses and leaders I believe. As your research, creative and educational super-colleague, what role could GenAI play in helping you reimagine what you do, so that you and your super-colleague can reimagine what you do, for your clients and users?

What is your reflection. One to ponder, and more to come.

?Garvan Callan is a Board-level and c-suite transformation adviser, speaker, lecturer, Non-executive Director and author who works across sectors and regions to bring strategy in to execution, the power of digital culture and innovation to the fore, and help leaders and their businesses prepare for tomorrow, today. He is the author of Digital Business Strategy: How to Design, Build, and Future-Proof a Business in the Digital Age.

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