by Peter Cosgrove, MD of Futurewise Ltd.
Last month, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke introduced a new hiring rule: managers must first prove that artificial intelligence (AI) can’t do the job before they can add new headcount. The announcement quickly went viral, as people began to grasp the real implications of AI — and more recently, agentic AI — for the future of hiring. We’re already seeing increased challenges for graduates entering the workforce, as many of the entry-level roles traditionally designed to help them understand the business are now being automated.
While jobs are being threatened on one front, we’re simultaneously seeing a surge in stories of AI being used for fraud. The most high-profile recent case involved a deepfake scam at the company Arup, where $25 million was stolen. In the course of the sophisticated scam, an Arup finance employee was tricked into joining a video call with individuals he believed were the chief financial officer and other colleagues — but they were all, in fact, deepfake re-creations.
Companies that try to limit AI use at work are essentially achieving as much as King Canute did when he ordered the tide to retreat. The new acronym is BYOAI — bring your own AI to work. Younger generations are seeing so much value in AI that they consider not using it almost unthinkable. As Sam Altman said of his ChatGPT creation, “While older workers use ChatGPT as their new Google, younger workers are using it as a life advisor and a full operating system.”
There are many apocryphal stories about AI’s capabilities — one of the most striking involves it being asked how to solve climate change. Its answer? “Very easily — create a pathogen to kill 7 billion of the 8 billion humans, and climate change, food scarcity, and resource issues would no longer be a problem.” While such philosophical extremes may be fascinating to ponder, they won’t solve your day-to-day concerns at work.
If you’re an employer and you feel the need to engage more with AI but aren’t sure where to begin, start by:
- Asking: what are the five tasks taking up most of our time, and how could AI help? The more specific you are, the better your chances of finding a workable solution.
- Building internal AI capability — either by upskilling your most engaged team members or bringing in consultants and contractors to accelerate learning.
- Training staff at all levels of the organisation, and leading by example — employees need to see the leadership team actively using and talking about AI.
- Providing funding — invest in paid AI models rather than relying on free versions.
And if ever there was a reason for employees to keep their video screens on during Zoom or Teams calls, Arup may have just provided it!
About the author
Peter Cosgrove leads Futurewise and is an expert on future trends and a much sought-after speaker on talks related to the future of work. He has over 25 years business experience on executive teams as well as on not for profit boards as board member and Chairman. He has been Chair of Junior Achievement Ireland, the National Recruitment Federation and currently serves on the 30% Club Steering Committee tackling gender balance and is Vice Chairman of Aware, a leading mental health charity. Peter has served as a Board adviser for a number of Staffing organisations and has been a contributor to the Expert Group on Future Skills.
