All kinds of topics are on the minds of business leaders today, but one in particular has been dominating C-suite conversations with no signs of letting up anytime soon.
CEOs and executives from around the globe gathered at Fortune Global Forum this week in New York City to discuss the state of business and democracy. Topics like DEI, sustainability, and the economy were all on the table—but issues around how to manage the AI revolution came up time and time again.
Executives at Glassdoor, Honeywell, Sanofi, and the IMF all shared their thoughts on how advanced technology is impacting business, and what they think the future has in store. A few clear themes emerged: human jobs may be hit hard by AI in an economic downturn, fear of the tech could lead to a company’s ‘doomsday,’ and CEOs may be greatly exaggerating their tech capabilities.
Here’s what top executives had to say.
Jobs will be hit
Some leaders believe that AI will eradicate human jobs, while others argue that the tech will be a jobs-creator, not a jobs destroyer.
Christian Sutherland-Wong, the CEO of Glassdoor, said at the forum that he has noticed roles like machine learning engineer and data scientist become the “hottest” gigs with the greatest demand from employers. But he’s also noticed some jobs have started to disappear.
“Interestingly over the last few years since generative AI has become a thing, copywriter jobs and job postings for them have come down,” Sutherland-Wong says. “Those kinds of trends speak to where the economy and hiring [are] going to shift as AI really becomes a bigger thing.”
Other leaders anticipate that AI adoption will be a job-killer in the long-run. The International Monetary Fund’s first deputy manager director, Gita Gopinath, said that we haven’t seen a mass eradication of roles yet because the economy has been solid. But once America hits a downturn, that could change as employers are pressured to cut costs.
“You see it when the recession strikes. That’s when you really see the effect of automation on the labor market,” Gopinath said.
Fearing AI could lead to business ‘doomsday’
A lot of companies might be nervous about implementing AI, but they will have to deal with it one way or another.
“In today’s world, if you’re not going to change, you’re living in the past,” said Vimal Kapur, the CEO of Honeywell, a technology company. “If you’re scared, it’s a doomsday for everybody.”
Other corporate executives at the panel echoed Kapur’s sentiments, and said that it’s critical for leaders to confront this AI anxiety head-on. Kate Johnson, the CEO of Lumen Technologies, a global telecommunications and networking firm, advised that employers brave their fears to stay competitive.
“AI introduces an uncertainty that we’ve never seen before into the workplace and into the global stage,” she says. “You need to be prepared for anything, and that’s terrifying.”
Leaders are overselling their AI strategies
While some company CEOs are deeply afraid of the tech, others are exaggerating their AI capabilities.
Since AI broke into mainstream consciousness in 2022, many businesses have raced to create chatbots and copilots to automate everything from employee onboarding to coaching. But Paul Hudson, the CEO of Sanofi, one of the world’s largest biopharmaceutical companies, says he isn’t convinced that companies are as far ahead with the tech as they claim to be.
“There is a lot of AI washing, a lot of CEOs doing AI projects to say they’re doing it,” he said in relation to the business strategy of overvaluing their tech’s potential. “[There’s] not enough understanding what the opportunity could be.”
Hudson added many leaders may be overlooking the risks of the technology. Companies need proper guardrails in place, and Hudson said that his own company has an ethical AI review board which all new tech projects must go through to get the green light.
“You have to have rules of the game,” Hudson said. “AI is a huge opportunity and we can’t be deniers, but we do have to manage the risks.”
Emma Burleigh
emma.burleigh@fortune.com
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