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Leadership by AAMEE in the age of AI hype-fealty

I'd like to introduce you to Amy, or AAMEE.

AAMEE was born in my head and has worked with me for a while now. AAMEE is a reality-based counter reaction to the AI psychosis happening on LinkedIn and in the general business discourse. I wanted a simple framework to help leaders ask the right questions despite all the hype-fealty around us.

AAMEE is really very very simple. And while it might seem like common sense, leaders have proven that it’s far too easy to overlook what matters when everyone around you is shouting.

AAMEE brings attention back to where it belongs and supports the type of leadership where exploring, evaluating and imagining possible outcomes is desirable. And yes, in the process AAMEE saves you from becoming an AI hype merchant.

AI is fantastic in many ways. And rubbish in many others. The first fact is super easy for leaders and practitioners to champion on LinkedIn without thinking twice. Everyone wants to be seen maxxing one thing or another when it comes to AI.

The fact that AI can be rubbish, or even a bit meh, doesn't inspire the same amount of content creation.

I don't agree with those who point to laziness, group think or fear as driving factors behind uncritical AI cheerleading.

My view is that it comes down to an outdated way of working at the management and leadership level. One that favours "initiative" and "progress" with an eye on "output". In that context AI hype-fealty makes perfect sense. "Look! I made new!"

Apart from being a bit silly, hype-fealty has real-world consequences. A London-based client of mine recently cancelled their firm's €1 million per quarter strategic design agency contract. The agency was not able to advise on aspects of AI in a level-headed way. It was "all AI positivity all of the time", no critical thinking.

Others pour millions of € into tools before they have any idea what they are going to use them for.

It's good for all of us to take a step back and remember that AI is not the transformation. Just like the metaverse, NFTs, the gig economy or apps weren't.

Transformation is as ever about humans and our ability to interpret, evaluate and imagine. That's where AAMEE comes in.

AAMEE consists of five lenses. Each bringing a specific aspect (in brackets below) into sharp focus when applied to business decisions.

Like I said, very simple.

Here's a real-world example of AAMEE in action, applied after a failed Gemini roll-out at a boutique insurance company (minimal use, no measurable impact, fear of being fired, constant management demands to show "AI powered efficiencies and results").

The company acknowledged that AAMEE should have been used earlier, but made sure to use it for their do-over.

Here is what they saw through AAMEE's lenses. (These edited recap notes are published with the approval of the company's Managing Director.)

. . .

Aspiration
"We want to process insurance claims quickly to minimise the impact on customer's daily life, and to mitigate fraud in order to increase our revenue."

Ability
"We know what the problem is. (Our people need to manually cut and paste incoming data into three different legacy systems to process a claim. The error rate is 8-10%!) We've already changed how the boutique insurance world works, we can do it again. We have a dedicated training team. Many of our employees are over-qualified and should be invited to use more of their skills."

Motivation
"It's not an exciting job processing claims, but it needs focus and a clear mind. Annoyance and a high fear of failure isn't conducive. And the longer a claim takes, the less money we make."

Experience
"The rollout hurt and we're still learning from the fall-out. What will lessen the ongoing pain is our past experiences. There is so much business, product and leadership know-how in this room. We know how to catch issues and resolve them. Just because we're talking AI we can't forget everything we know."

Empathy
"We don't want to drop anything on our employees out of the blue again. We need to make the case for where we are going, and how it will boost and grow our people. And make it clear that no one is being replaced by AI."

. . .

Would the client still have chosen Gemini if they'd AAMEE-d up front? Maybe. More importantly they would have addressed what they saw through the AAMEE lenses before doing anything else. Based on those outcomes they'd have a highly relevant set of insights to guide their work and AI investment decisions. (And that would've been something to shout about on LinkedIn!)

So far a dozen major businesses have added AAMEE to their internal toolkits. The lenses have proven their worth at all but one of them. That's a pretty good hit rate for something so simple.

Feel free to invite AAMEE, or me, to your next leadership session. You'll be happy you did. Reach me on LinkedIn or at studio@orvet.se

Thanks for reading.