The Most Important AI Lesson I've Learned Didn't Come From Where You Think
By Carole Lawson, Co-Founder & Chief Data Officer, MarketStorm
For most of my career I’ve studied the evolution of the internet. Not simply the technology itself, but how people adapt to it.
As a data scientist, I’ve learned that technology is actually the easier part to predict. Human behavior is far more complicated. Every major technological breakthrough creates dozens of possible futures, but only one actually emerges. Which future we get depends almost entirely on the decisions people make after the technology arrives.
That’s why, over the past year, one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned about artificial intelligence hasn’t come from a research paper, a benchmark, or even an AI model. It has come from watching our CEO lead.
Like every company, we’ve had countless conversations about AI. We use it every day. We build products around it. We continually look for ways it can help us work faster and make better decisions. What I’ve found fascinating is that our conversations rarely begin with a question about reducing headcount.
They begin with a question about increasing human capability.
How can AI remove repetitive work?
How can it give our team more time to think?
How can it make our employees even better at what they already do well?
Those questions may sound subtle, but I believe they represent one of the most important behavioral inflection points business leaders will face over the next decade. I’ve also been paying attention to what other companies are doing.
Costco has long argued that investing in employees creates loyalty, and that loyalty creates better business performance. Rather than treating people as an expense to minimize, they treat them as a competitive advantage. Costco is employing AI in its operations, but not at the expense of its people.
IKEA invested heavily in artificial intelligence while retraining employees for new roles instead of simply replacing them. The company recognized that AI could increase the value of its workforce rather than reduce it.
On the other side, we’ve watched companies announce large workforce reductions in anticipation of AI efficiencies, only to discover months later that many of those positions contained something they hadn’t accounted for: institutional knowledge, judgment, customer relationships, and experience that proved difficult to replace.
As someone who spends every day analyzing data, I don’t see these as isolated business stories. I see a pattern emerging. There are really two competing theories about AI. The first sees AI primarily as a cost-reduction tool. The second sees AI as a capability multiplier. Both may improve efficiency in the short term. Only one strengthens the organization over time.
History suggests this isn’t a new phenomenon.
When computers entered the workplace, the companies that benefited most weren’t those that eliminated the most people. They were the ones that enabled people to accomplish more. When the internet became mainstream, customer service didn’t disappear. Customer expectations changed, and companies adapted.
Every transformational technology eventually raises the value of uniquely human capabilities. Here are some examples:
Judgment.
Empathy.
Creativity.
Trust.
Those qualities become more valuable, not less.
Watching our CEO navigate AI has reinforced something I’ve believed for years. Technology doesn’t determine the future. Leadership does.
The decisions leaders make during moments of technological change become the behavioral blueprint for their organizations. Employees observe what leadership rewards, what leadership fears, and what leadership believes is worth investing in. Culture forms around those decisions, and culture ultimately determines whether technology becomes a force for innovation and growth or simply another round of blind cost cutting.
As a researcher, I’m convinced we’ll spend the next several years measuring AI’s impact on productivity. I’m not sure we’ll spend enough time measuring something even more important, that is how leaders chose to introduce it.
Years from now, I suspect we’ll discover that AI didn’t create great companies. It simply revealed which companies already understood that their greatest asset wasn’t the technology they purchased. It was the people who knew how to use it.
That’s the roadmap I’m watching today at MarketStorm.
By Carole Lawson
Co-Founder & Chief Data Officer, MarketStorm