In just a few short months, Artificial Intelligence (AI) – particularly through the recently renowned chatbot ChatGPT – has already disrupted how people and organizations work across every sector and industry.
“I was impressed by how quickly it took off,” said Fredrik Odegaard, associate professor, management science at Ivey Business School.
Fascinated by the vast potential of AI, Odegaard introduced ChatGPT to his EMBA class in December 2022, demonstrated it, led discussions around its implications, and soon pitched the idea for a workshop on ChatGPT to Ivey Academy’s executive director Bryan Benjamin.
“We wanted this workshop to be engaging and hands-on, and we wanted to ensure participants walk away with an action plan of what to be mindful of with respect to AI, and design ideas for how they could implement AI in their work in future.”
The new Ivey Academy workshop, Accelerating Leadership with AI, offers leaders the opportunity to begin thinking about how they can implement AI solutions into their organizations, discover best practices for ChatGPT prompts and personal approaches to AI, and explore strategies for managing people, processes, and culture in an AI-driven future.
The inaugural session, which ran late spring, was comprised of 50 leaders across several industries – from finance, academia and communications to agribusiness, utilities and healthcare.
This workshop, offered in two two-hour sessions and led by Odegaard, is just one of the ways Ivey is helping leaders to prepare for the evolution of work, which is one of the critical issues facing business and society identified in the Ivey Next strategy.
Learning to Lead with AI
Leslie Kellen, EMBA ’20, partner and director of operations at XYZ Storage, first heard about the Accelerating Leadership with AI workshop through his co-worker and fellow Ivey graduate Niki Kanani, HBA ’17, marketing lead at XYZ Storage – and both jumped on the opportunity to participate.
“For the last six months, we’ve been trying to bring ourselves up to speed as quickly and robustly as possible on the AI curve,” said Kellen. “Our team has been considering: How are people using AI? What tools are they accessing? What are the implications for our organization with respect to how we’ll use it, but also, what should we be aware of to avoid pitfalls and issues of morality?”
A key takeaway for Kellen was from conversations with Odegaard and the participants around moral implications of AI and programs like ChatGPT, while still in their infancy.
“The implications across the business unit are profound,” said Kellen. “There are opportunities for AI application in finance, underwriting, benchmarking, marketing, operations customer service. There isn’t a part of our business where we can’t find enhancements through AI, either now or in the very near future.”
“I applaud Ivey for being a thought leader in the AI space,” added Kellen. “We certainly feel it’s worth the investment.”
Registration is now open for the second session of Accelerating Leadership with AI,running Sept. 14 and 21, 2023.
