A survey by AI vendor "Writer," cited in a CIO.com article, found that 31% of employees deliberately sabotage their employer's AI strategy. This percentage even rises to 41% among millennials and Gen Z. Sabotage can occur in several ways, including:
1.) Manipulating the performance tests of AI tools to make them appear ineffective.
2.) Using unsecured tools with confidential data.
3.) Deliberately ignoring and not reporting security risks.
Frightening, but what is causing this? At its core, this is a lack of good leadership and management.
The root of the problem
The main reason employees do this is because they are not sufficiently involved in their organization's AI strategies and have no idea what it means for them personally. In addition, many leaders see AI as a means to replace staff, rather than a tool to support them.
For years, many organizations have operated under the assumption that "more people" leads to "more sales. Hire 10 more salespeople because the numbers show they are profitable. This model, while working well in the past, is no longer sustainable in a rapidly changing market with new competitors. AI is not the problem; the problem is the excessive overhead that many companies have created.
Vision, leadership and shareholder value
A successful strategy, and not just in the field of AI, requires strong leadership and management. In the Netherlands, with historically low unemployment, it is disastrous if employees believe AI threatens their jobs. If that happens, something has gone wrong structurally and can have serious consequences in a tight labor market.
Ultimately, the success of any AI implementation depends on one thing: strong leadership. A good leadership team understands that they must lead by example and create a culture where AI is seen as a way to enhance individual contributions, not as a means to achieve corporate goals alone.
However, let's be realistic: many senior leaders only think about the short term, creating profits and shareholder value. So what exactly is shareholder value? It refers to the value a company creates for its shareholders, usually expressed in:
- A rising share price
- Dividend paymentsTherepurchase of shares.
The idea is that a company is successful if total returns to shareholders increase over time. A key feature of shareholder value is that it is not just about short-term profits, but also sustainable, agile and flexible growth. This requires long-term vision and good leadership. Unfortunately, this all too often goes wrong in many companies.
A recent example is the CEO of Astronomer, who was caught with the Chief People Officer at a Coldplay concert. This is not just a slip-up, but symbolizes what goes wrong structurally with many senior leaders and how laughable corporate leadership has actually become. Too often the boardroom is all about power and politics, while some of us still see these people as strategic geniuses. The role of HR in all this I don't think I need to explain further.
A successful AI strategy starts with leadership with integrity, with the right people in the right place, who have a clear vision and want their employees to accelerate. Doing more with the same people!
