Chatter about ChatGPT

There is a lot of chatter about Chat GPT and, whilst it’s the topic of the moment I, too, am fascinated by what this, and other transformational technologies, such as AI, could mean for organizations, and how it could help to uncover new opportunities for improvement and growth.

Another related topic we have been discussing of late has been organizational resilience and, in utilizing these technologies, businesses can certainly become more competitive - and resilient – as well as capitalizing on the chance for long-term gains.

One role in any organization which will be pivotal in making this happen is the CFO - long gone are the days of the number-crunching and purely cost-focused CFO. As the world and technology has evolved, so has the role of the CFO, who now needs to consider how efficiencies can be achieved – using tech - and guide other leaders to think in the same way. AI is just one of the tools which can be leveraged to try and achieve these improvements...creating efficiency AND, crucially, effectiveness.

The CFO has the purview to map out the whole value chain of the company, finding the areas where additional output can be generated, where costs can be removed and, consequently, where more value can be delivered. By identifying the right areas, the CFO can play a critical role in not only making the company more efficient from a cost perspective, but also more productive, competitive, and resilient.

And this is not a picture of the ‘future’, this is happening now. Already, there are use cases explaining how AI can help businesses and people become more efficient and, within the next few years, I believe we will see a massive acceleration.

In PwC’s fourth annual AI business survey, published in 2022, it was shown that AI success is becoming the rule, not the exception. Almost 90% of CEOs surveyed in that report all agreed that AI was ‘the norm’ within their businesses and that using software and other tools to help support everyday operations was crucial for future success. AI conjures up the image of complexity, of the future, of robots taking over from people but AI is as ‘simple’ as software helping to drive automation, using data more effectively and insights being driven by advanced analytics, leading to faster decision making.

AI is, therefore, already starting to have a major impact on how we work across a number of industries, with new applications and use cases being identified every single day. We see this disruption being well documented with ChatGPT, even though it is in its early stages of adoption. Automation and AI are dramatically reducing the time needed to process information, and handling huge amounts of data to provide insights. On the flip side of all these benefits, some cite concerns around the impact of AI – for example, on potential job losses - but what about the new roles being generated as a result?

It's clearly a topic not without controversy... even Elon Musk and the creators of ChatGPT recently suggested that a six-month halt should be called on the development of larger, more powerful AI systems. Over 1000 technology pioneers signed an open letter proposing that more in-depth work should be undertaken to analyze the risks that AI could pose to humanity

There are also theories that artificial intelligence could slip outside of the control of people and become so ‘clever’, writing its own code so that computers could end up destroying humanity. It sounds like the plot of a sci-fi movie and maybe there is something in it. For now, I would rather us focus on some of the positives – for instance, a boost to productivity in an uncertain environment, bolstered decision-making ability, improvements in many aspects of how we live our lives, better customer experiences, more insightful use of data, reducing time spent on more manual work – and use AI in business to help us more forward.

It will be interesting to see how the relationship between AI, business and people evolves, and whether the positives outweigh the initial concerns, not only reducing the chatter, but which will be crucial for both CEOs and CFOs to seize opportunities in the future.