Marisa Monteiro Borsboom: Essay on Leadership Blindness on AI and Its Impact on the Digital and Human Transformation - Do We Know What We Need to Know?

Yes. Thank you so much. So regarding today, the, the, we start immediately with a little bit of teasing in, in, in the choice of, of our topic regarding the blindness on AI and its impact on digital and human transformation and the main question of humanity of things and, and my own. Do we know what we really need to know? And of course, a brief, a presentation of myself that I already provided to you. I am as many of you in, in the audience today, also a business woman.

So I understand the, the different approaches that we all need to have as humans primarily, but then as business people and as humanists. So knowing that I understand also the business mind, this is not a criticism. This is actually just an attempt to increase awareness of, of what we all need to, to, to know. And it's an ongoing quest for all of us. So that's, that's, I don't believe really there's experts in any room. We are all learning with this fast paced development.

Very, very quick for all of you that do not know humanity things, our core question rely on the concept of literacy. And how does literacy is, is seen in the 21st century from the reading and writing ability to the basic understanding of the four vectors of knowledge of digital and technological literacy and human and planetary literacy. So we believe that with the four vectors, you will have a basic knowledge of what you need to actually survive in the 21st century.

And, and in our agenda today, I'm going to, to be a little bit also traditional and go for the normal points. But as you understand, the, the time that I have to really go in depth in any of this we'll need not 17 minutes, but 17 days in the minimum. So let's go just through very briefly what I would like to leave you as a guiding message.

And of course, I'm here always to, to discuss deeply with any, any of you that would wish I, I start this with, you have so many quotes on leadership nowadays, and of course in one side you have the very, very practical MIS or Maxwell saying that leaders know the way and go the way and show the way. And this is a very pragmatic idea of leadership and very traditional as well. And I think Ms. Maya Angelou focus here, of course, about the self knowledge. And I understand a little bit about the greatness of the, the element of the human element of a leader.

So I, I see in this two quotes almost also as a shift in paradigms of leadership. And, and we are seeing that nowadays, what, what is really a leader when we are talking about developing technologies in worlds that we do not understand ourselves where they are going. So a leader is the one who knows the way I would say that the leader would be the one that is also honest enough to say that in this times we don't really know the way, but we know that we go, that we'll continue our, our tasks in, in understanding this, this new world.

So the abilities of good leader, I think it's more a summary. What we do not, we should never forget.

And it's, it's about strategy myself in my, in my business, MQM legal center, we have three mottos and, and, and one is strategy. And the other innovation in technology, so strategy is really, really important. And it it's, it's also a mix with the intuition of the litter itself. So when you don't know so well, what the world is expecting, what the businesses are expecting. The pandemic showed us a big lesson of humility that everybody needed to readjust very fast.

And I think the ones who did readjust very fast and, and successfully was also based in strategic thinking self-managing skills, of course, it's, it's imperative, you know, it's it's so you need to, to guide your, your own path, understanding how can you be effective in managing yourself before you manage others? And communication is very, very important. So digital is now a very interesting channel of communication, but it's not so effective as we always wish. And it rises concerns to be a little bit more proactive in this area, the, the traditional problem solving and, and clear goals.

This is the, the traditional of course, and we all know that the fostering innovation is, is, is always there. I, I, I wanted to give you of course my own understanding, because I think it's important to, to, to talk about what we really know. And innovation is across all sectors and industries, the legal sector is one of them.

So it, we are not living the same era as we did previously. We have many tools available AI tools for legal departments, ones with more quality than others. And for sure many of them not adjusted to the market itself, that would be another conversation. And of course we have many concerns in, in, in, in our industry regarding the use of AI. So this is also common to all of us. What can we do? What can we not do? Is it violating any regulations?

How, how are we manage compliance? How are we manage potential liabilities, even in our own legal sector, but this is common to all industries. So this will be for sure something to, to consider and never, never take your eyes off of this. So I think if we are, if leaders are not with their eyes wide open and with, with great understanding, not of the technical AI, but the importance of AI, you don't need to understand how to operate and you don't need to understand, you don't need to be a technician, but you need to understand how important it is.

And, and you have, I did like one of the recent articles that I read regarding AI in leadership for business. And I like the way pragmatic they start saying, don't ignore I, whatever you do. I think that's a good, real good tip for sure. The loss of potential of innovation, the inefficient in business, for sure, of course.

And, and if you can enhance your capacity of decision making, if good decision making, why shouldn't you try to pursue it for sure. And, and it's being competitive is it's also a key factor for any leader, but of course, any business leader and AI can be well, what, what can be the difference between success and failure in business as well?

I do, I do want to make sure that we know that the shift is not easy. And as I was introduced regarding also ethics on AI, when we talk about compliance and regulation, ethics goes a little bit beyond. So in the shift, when we have the siloed work and we go for a more interdisciplinary cooperation, I would like to, to, to really make clear that my advice for companies is to integrate elements of social sciences, not only the legal department, but people that would be able to have ahead of thinking. And that would also be concerned with ethical aspects of, of any of this shift concerns.

And then of course, we need more data driven decisions making at the frontline. But with, with this base of this interdisciplinary corporation, data alone is not enough and, and be agile, experimental and adaptable, even knowing that sometimes we'll bring you a lot of headaches, but how can you, how can you really innovate without experimenting and without failing, even as we all know, it's, it's common sense. Of course.

So the, the advantages are clear, are well known and well documented and from performance to higher value work to productivity, the, the, the advantage are many. So of course in the other side of scale is also the risks, but the advantages are clear. And we do believe that when you have also that the sea level executives are, are reported, that AI technologies will most impact leadership activities by for instance, operational excellence or ability to be more agile and responsive. This goes exactly to the, the previous slide. And I think also shows that it's it's, this is getting more common.

The understanding is getting more and more there. So I think it's also why we, we should be able to focus now, not so only in this objective discussions about the, the advantages and disadvantages from the pure business perspective, but also to be able to be a little bit more, the discussions go a little bit more in depth, and that's why you need to bring the element, not only of the regulation and the compliance, but the ethics. It's not just because it's not illegal that you, the, the companies and also their social responsibility should not be an element innate to good, good leadership.

And I think in, in the current scenario, ethics and the development of, of the proper tools that do enhance the digital transformation with, with the human positive impact is, is a concern of all of us. So I think conversations need to go a little bit to this, to this questions and not so much for what we already know. I keep seeing the conversation focus to what we know, and I will really advise that we all focus a little bit more in what we do not know for sure. And since I want to be able to finalize in time, last time was not, I was not so successful in that.

I will leave you with some, some notes, some, some, one very personal. And one from one of my colleagues that is someone that works directly in AI is the, the, the, the technical side of AI. And as you see, Mr. Bobby Boff CEO of AI lab, one says that AI is a tool creating as much value for businesses and society as did the adoption of electricity. We for sure can see that he's an optimist.

And, and we should, of course, those who are too slow and reluctant to make use of it are putting themselves in a competitive disadvantage. This is the traditional business mind mindset. I understand it.

We, we need to focus of course, on, on this, but I could not also do leave without doing the parallel that we tried to do with Mr. Maxwell and Ms. Angelou in the beginning, that of course information is the key. And I remember the, the, the first time that I start studying and, and, and going to event regarding for instance, big data and that, that very catchy phrase of the new oil.

And then I start thinking that information and data can also be very close to a dentist Inferno, because the truth is if some know, very well out to use it and have the capacity to, and to use it for good, some don't know how to use it, or they cannot, or they will for sure use it in a, a non common goal, a good way. So a true leader is a seeker in my mind of great understanding of the information that he receives and how he can use it for the benefit benefits of his purpose.

And of course, the benefit of his company, we all understand the profit and the for profit mentality that we need in any company, but without forgetting the, the important and key role that we all have at this present point to design the future that we want for us, for, for humanity and, and for, for business as part of humanity itself. And that's all. And thank you so much, some credits for my Schoff that help develop this nice presentation as well.