CEOs Who Just Want to be Replaced by AI! By Brian Simpson
I have often raised the counterargument to AI takeover, that if consistent it will involve the elites themselves being replaced as well. Well, blow me over, a survey by edX of over 1,500 executives and knowledge workers has found that 47 percent of them would be ok with their own replacement by AI! Why is this? “Success in the CEO role hinges on effective leadership, and AI can liberate time for this crucial aspect of their role,” Andy Morgan, Head of edX for Business said about the findings. “CEOs understand that time saved on routine tasks can stimulate innovation, nurture creativity, and facilitate essential upskilling for their teams, fostering both individual and organizational success.”
They seem to be forgetting that if AI can get that far, it can go the next mile too, and swallow up this so-called “effective leadership.” And if everything is going the way of AI, who needs leadership in the first place?
“Since the explosive launch of ChatGPT, there has been a prevailing fear among workers that employers would leverage artificial intelligence to cut costs by replacing human jobs. However, new research has unveiled an interesting twist: CEOs are contemplating replacing their own roles with AI.
Researchers from edX, an education platform for upskilling workers, conducted a survey involving over 1,500 executives and knowledge workers. The findings revealed that nearly half of CEOs believe AI could potentially replace “most” or even all aspects of their own positions.
What’s even more intriguing is that 47% of the surveyed executives not only see the possibility of AI taking over their roles but also view it as a desirable development.
Why? Because they anticipate that AI could rekindle the need for traditional leadership for those who remain.
“Success in the CEO role hinges on effective leadership, and AI can liberate time for this crucial aspect of their role,” Andy Morgan, Head of edX for Business comments on the findings.
“CEOs understand that time saved on routine tasks can stimulate innovation, nurture creativity, and facilitate essential upskilling for their teams, fostering both individual and organizational success,” he adds.
Faced with tight schedules and increased pressure to run companies as lean as possible, Morgan suspects that CEOs are already handing over routine tasks to the likes of Bard, ChatGPT, and Bing to make more time for top-level decision-making.
What’s more, experts have previously told Fortune that it may not be long before AI can take on more complex responsibilities from CEOs, like negotiating contracts with suppliers and customers, evaluating employees, and allocating their company’s capital.
“CEOs aren’t going anywhere”
Although CEOs believe that their jobs should be taken over by the latest technology, Morgan isn’t so sure.
“CEOs aren’t going anywhere,” he tells Fortune. “We’ll continue to see the relevance and necessity of human skills in the workplace – critical thinking, creativity, and leadership – that are foundational to the CEO role and that artificial intelligence simply can’t replace.”
While AI won’t be replacing executives any time soon, Morgan cautions that it’s the CEOs using AI that will ultimately supersede those who are not.
But CEOs already know this: EdX’s research echoed that 79% of executives fear that if they don’t learn how to use AI, they’ll be unprepared for the future of work.
“For top executives, including prospective and current CEOs, understanding and leveraging AI will be paramount to future success,” Morgan insists. “It’s not about humans versus AI, but rather about how we incorporate these developments into the workplace to ensure long-term relevance.”
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