Member Reviews
Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of The AI-Savvy Leader by David De Cremer. This book is a timely and essential read for any leader who wants to stay ahead of the curve in the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence.
De Cremer's writing is clear and concise, making complex topics easy to understand. He provides practical advice on how leaders can leverage AI to drive innovation and create value for their organizations. He also addresses the ethical and social implications of AI, and how leaders can ensure that AI is used responsibly.
One of the most valuable aspects of this book is De Cremer's focus on the human element of AI. He emphasizes that AI is not a replacement for human leadership, but rather a tool that can be used to augment human capabilities. He provides guidance on how leaders can build a culture of trust and collaboration between humans and AI.
Overall, The AI-Savvy Leader is an excellent resource for any leader who wants to understand and harness the power of AI. It is a must-read for anyone who is serious about preparing their organization for the future.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about AI and its impact on leadership.
The author with his research and experience of AI, is well positioned to provide advice on working with AI. With clear examples of how business leaders can take charge of making decisions with AI instead of waiting for data teams to analyse data and come up with solutions, the author shows how AI should be used as a lever. There are also examples of how leaders model vulnerability of sharing their knowledge gaps with something as vast and emerging as AI, driving their employees knowing that they can get better from clueless state.
It's super easy to follow and makes a compelling argument that AI is here to stay. The author emphasizes the importance of using AI thoughtfully to enhance our workgroups and organizations rather than making drastic, mindless changes. It provides practical insights and strategies for integrating AI in a way that benefits everyone in the workplace. Highly recommend this for anyone interested in the future of technology and work!
This is a book geared toward people who are only contemplating putting a toe into AI. It has good ideals and standards for where you want to go. Read this before jumping in to the murky world of AI and you will be prepared.
THE AI-SAVVY LEADER by David De Cremer is an excellent book on a complicated subject – so well-organized and not afraid to name the elephant in the room: too many leaders do not understand AI and are abdicating their responsibility for managing its adoption. De Cremer is dean of the D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University and the founder and director of the Centre on AI Technology for Humankind (AiTH) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School. He subtitles his text "Nine Ways to Take Back Control and Make AI Work" and after explaining what AI is (computational systems with a self-learning ability), proceeds to devote chapters to topics like inclusion and balance. For example, he recommends that leaders "build a flat communication culture" thereby ensuring quicker communication flow and promoting feedback and information exchange. He uses bold typeface and boxed material to stress key points as in chapter 5 (Vision) where he says that holistic communication and showing empathy "gives employees confidence that AI adoption is not an end in itself but a means to an end with full recognition of the interests of the workforce." He describes the importance of getting buy-in from all stakeholders (employees, customers and society). In addition, he devotes an entire chapter to emotional intelligence's soft skills ("curiosity, empathy, communication, and critical and proactive thinking"). Yes, learning about AI is important, but De Cremer notes again and again that emphasizing employees' value and "portraying AI as a useful and supportive coworker" is essential to "turn AI into the tool that creates the value that you as a leader want to create." Notes and an Index represent between five and ten percent of this text published by Harvard Business Review Press.
"The AI Savvy Leader" arrives at a crucial time, offering essential guidance for leaders across all sectors. This book is not a technical manual on generative AI and other tools; instead, it serves as a compelling call to action for leaders to integrate the strategic vision of their businesses or institutions with the opportunities presented by emerging technologies. De Cramer challenges leaders to engage directly with AI decision-making processes, rather than deferring these critical decisions to tech experts. Highly recommended for middle managers and above in any industry.
A must read for leaders (or really anyone) working with AI, LLMs, ML or automations.
Not technical but focuses on what leaders can do to make their teams feel comfortable with AI tools in the workplace.
Change management, treating humans as humans and communicating are big themes here.
It seems as though AI is everywhere at the moment, and everyone has an opinion on it. Many are warning of the potential dangers to humankind, including some of the experts who had a hand in developing it, whereas others stick their heads in the sand dismiss it as a new toy that won’t affect them. In this author we have a guide who urges leaders to get stuck in and educate themselves about the potential uses of this new technology. This doesn’t mean taking a crash course in computer science, but just using it themselves and reading books such as this one to become aware enough to be able to purposefully and strategically guide the organisation’s use of AI.
David De Cremer warns of the dangers of letting an organisation be led by what AI can do, rather than maintaining a human-centred focus. He dismisses the hype (there are no claims that AI will eradicate humans as you can find in some over-enthusiastic articles!) but strongly argues that AI is rapidly improving and will offer new opportunities to businesses and organisations that they would be wise to take advantage of. He looks at the importance of stakeholder buy-in and ethical considerations whilst always adopting a human-centred approach to integrating AI into an organisation. This transformative techonology should augment employees’ roles, not automate them, he argues .
This is a level-headed and important book that I hope all my future employers will read now. The technology is developing rapidly and this book helps us arm ourselves with certain key principles, and use it effectively whilst focussing on what matters: people. AI is here to serve us, not the other way round.
Right, I’m off to play with ChatGPT to see how it would improve this review!
This was an excellent book. AI is on the rise, and this book proves it. Be informed about it and take advantage of it.
At present, when everyone is talking about Artificial intelligence, this book is very handy. There is a bunch of good information to digest and reflect on. It is important to understand what is artificial intelligence and what is not yourself prior to pushing all the resources to use it. Upon understanding, it is good to be clear what suits your organization and its needs, rather than following the hype. Communication is key like in any project and undertaking, this integration of artificial intelligence tools require the same approach. People need to understand, but in the benefits and get trained to support the efficiency of their jobs. With those simple steps it is possible to make strategic decisions to help your business grow and thrive.
Good orientation to the AI world and the opportunities and companies will face and do face. It's a great outline of what's to come, what to do and how to manage. Thanks for they opportunity to read...
An interesting consolidation of some of the current dialogue about a business approach to AI. Contains examples from companies and focuses on the leadership elements of embedding use of AI in an organisation. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for a DRC.