“Leaders will look back on 2023 as one of the most pivotal years in human history,” says Angela Ahrendts, former SVP of Apple Retail and former CEO of Burberry, commenting on the AI-driven technological revolution and its transformational effect on the business landscape. “The acceleration and the pace of change and what AI will spawn isn’t dissimilar to everything that came from the iPhone,” added Ahrendts during our conversation at the recentin New York City.
In an age defined by intense disruption and rapid change, Ahrendts posits that the essence of effective leadership is undergoing a radical shift, with AI supplanting many of the"hard" skills that organizations typically prioritize within the executive ranks. She believes that creatives now have a distinct competitive advantage, because they bring qualitative attributes, such as passion, intuition, and empathy, things machines can’t replace.
Businesses that embrace this new paradigm of leadership are best positioned to thrive in an AI era, according to Ahrendts. She stresses the importance of harnessing human characteristics in an artificial world, skills that can’t be replicated by algorithms."We [humans] need to be an incredible complement to AI and, with it, bring in new minds and new ways of thinking," says Ahrendts.
For Ahrendts, the future of business lies in the synergy of human creativity and AI-powered technology. Those who can strike the right balance between the two will lead and define this next era of innovation. “You’d better stay curious and be a lifelong learner. The more you read, the more you're ‘inputting’ into this database, so your instincts are constantly being empowered. Then you can connect the dots,” says Ahrendts. “It’s no different than a large language model in AI.