The situation is similar in German entrepreneurship: although two-thirds of companies in Germany consider AI to be the most important technology of the future, only 15% are already using it, says Bitkom, the digital association of the German information and telecommunications industry. Awareness of the potential uses of AI is a first step towards a broader public debate on the appropriate role of AI.
To benefit from AI, companies need above all managers who understand the technology and can motivate their employees. Only when employees understand data and AI will the use of such technologies work.
Five types of AI managers
Every company should first ask what its focus is, says Henning Böhne from the personnel consultancy Kienbaum in an interview for the German business newspaper Handelsblatt. It is important to know which areas of the organization AI can enrich and in which development phase it is. The necessary management competencies can then be derived from concrete fields of application.
Another expert, Marc-David Rompf, has investigated which core competencies AI managers should have. He is a co-founder and partner of the consulting firm Digital Leaders Advisory. Together with the Hessian Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Rompf has developed five exemplary AI management types and assigned them key competencies. They are intended to show how different AI expertise in management can look and how companies can benefit from it.
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01 AI relations manager
Companies that have already implemented an AI solution or product neeanhe AI relations manager. Such managers understand the product, know the involved employees in the technical departments as well as the supplier,s and form an interface between the parties involved. They bring business and technology together.
02 AI Rainmakers
Companies that want to optimise their business with the help of AI need so-called AI gainmakers. This type of manager scrutinises processes, identifies problems that can be solved with AI and develops a long-term strategy for the use of AI. According to Rompf for Handelsblatt, it is also important to have a confident demeanour, a clear vision and the courage to dare something new.
03 AI engineer
AI engineers are trained in computer science and machine learning. Their task is to implement the company’s AI strategy with their team and to allocate the available human resources to subtasks. They are needed, for example, to further develop an AI product or implement AI applications in the company.
04 AI evangelist
Bringing the highest level of knowledge about AI, computer science and data science is the role of an AI evangelist. We are often talking about respected specialists who have a lot of experience in research. They are often found at institutes or in large technology corporations. One example is Yann LeCun. The head of AI at Meta has developed neural networks for image and text recognition, among other things.
05 AI ethicists
There are many ethical and legal issues that arise in connection with AI. For this, AI ethicists are needed in management. These advise companies on the impact of AI, taking into account the interests of government, employees and society. Among other things, they set up processes within the company to continuously review AI systems with regard to ethical risks. Thus, they prevent misinformation or misconduct by AI.
“You don’t need new AI managers,” Moritz Schröder, who deals with AI applications for companies at Merantix Momentum, tells Handelsblatt, “but the best managers need AI glasses.” Instead of recruiting new managers, companies should rather ask themselves how they can retrain their management. Good communication skills, strategic thinking and a general understanding of AI are the qualities that AI executives need to bring with them.
