A core component of every company’s value proposition is its unique expertise. “But we now have evidence that generative AI is lowering the cost of expertise,” says Harvard Business School professor Karim Lakhani. “And if the cost is dropping, then that changes the very core of what the firm is.” That speaks to a crucial challenge leaders face in the AI era: maintaining their organization’s competitive advantage when expertise is no longer a key differentiator.
Lakhani has spent his career researching and teaching digital transformation, and he has a vital question for leaders who are integrating AI into their organizations: are they just trying to use AI to do existing tasks more quickly, or are they trying to imagine how the technology can—and will—transform their whole industry?
Lakhani joins the WorkLab podcast to share insights on how leaders can succeed in an era of abundant expertise, how they can avoid “falling asleep at the wheel” with AI, and what they can learn from the generation of AI-native MBA students who are about to enter the workforce.
Three big takeaways from the conversation:
WorkLab is a place for experts to share their insights and opinions. As students of the future of work, Microsoft values inputs from a diverse set of voices. That said, the opinions and findings of the experts we interview are their own and do not reflect Microsoft’s own research or opinions.
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