David Maister was angry. He had been surprised and annoyed to learn that his company had set up a new AI-based marketing system that was doing most of what he thought was his job as digital marketing manager at Global Consumer Brands: deciding what ads to place where, for which customer segments, and how much to spend. And when he found that the system was buying ads for audiences that didn’t fit the company’s customer profile, he stormed in to his boss’s office and yelled, “I don’t want men and women over 55 buying our product! It’s not our audience!” Maister demanded that the system vendor modify it to enable him to override its recommendations for how much to spend on each channel and for each audience target. The vendor scrambled to give him the controls he wanted. However, after being given the reins on budgeting and buying decisions, Maister saw his decisions were degrading results. For example, despite the company’s younger customer profile, men and women over 55 were buying gifts for their children, nieces, and grandchildren, making them, in fact, a very profitable audience.
How to Get Employees to Stop Worrying and Love AI
Many companies are unable to take full advantage of the huge potential of AI because employees don’t trust AI tools enough to turn their work over to them and let the machine run. Resistance to disruptive, technology-driven change is not unusual. Specifically, many people resist AI because of the hype surrounding it, its inherent lack of transparency (its decision-making seems to take place in a black box), their fear of losing control over their work, and the way it disrupts familiar work patterns. So, what can companies do to help employees become more comfortable working with AI systems? Overcome AI resistance by running experiments, creating a way for employees to visualize the decision process of the AI, and engaging constituencies who would benefit from the technology. The sooner you get people on board, the sooner your company will be able to see the potential results that AI can produce.