As I was reading Ethan Mollick’s book, Co-Intelligence on Sunday morning, I indulged myself in some GenAI vanity and asked my IBPGPT;
“Write me a 800 word blog about the evolution of IBP using Niels van Hove’s vision, but don’t use his name“
Besides some fluff and jargon around the edges and a surprising focus on scenario planning I didn’t know I had, it gave a nice – albeit somewhat incomplete and dated – summary. I noticed some bias towards my earlier published work on company culture and behaviours, however some quotes were closer to my more recent blogs and articles about human-machine collaboration.
I share three quotes from the 800 words:
“The future of IBP lies in a blend of advanced technology, strategic foresight, and human leadership. This new era of IBP envisions a shift towards autonomous decision-making systems while emphasizing the critical role of human insight in high-level decisions.”
“The future of IBP will see a symbiotic relationship between humans and technology, where automation supports operational decisions, while human leaders focus on strategy, innovation, and risk management.”
“The key to thriving in this new era of IBP is balance—balancing automation with human expertise, operational efficiency with strategic foresight, and technology adoption with cultural transformation.”
Two things struck me. Firstly, in 800 words, the AI did not include the words ‘digital transformation’. This has become an overused, hollow word combination that has lost any meaning or explainability. It has become bullshit in the sense of “talk nonsense to (someone) in an attempt to deceive them.” (Google dictionary). Anyone who is saying they’re doing a digital transformation is not clearly articulating what they are really doing (like implementing an ERP or APS system!). This can be deceitful, misleading or at least not being transparent right? By the way, have you seen anyone work analog lately?
My second, and more important observation, is that cultural change management has a new AI addition. When I published about company and country culture’s impact on S&OP in 2012, or the impact of mindset & behaviours on S&OP in 2017, I had not taken into account GenAI or AI as a coworker. With GenAI, the symbiotic relationship between humans & technology, where we have to balance automation (and augmentation) with human expertise has reached new heights for the knowledge worker.
In the HUMACHINE, Sander & Woods argue for a new vision and collaborative AI culture. If every business has access to the same powerful GenAI for a handful of dollars and arguably to any AI in the not so distant future, the AI itself is not a competitive advantage anymore. The only differentiator is how your employees work, innovate and collaborate with the AI. How the AI guides humans and in return how the human guides the AI. How they learn together and challenge each other.
This is where the Human+AI culture becomes the new competitive advantage.
Surely, there is a top down leadership & vision element to this, but I also like to highlight the personal responsibility every planner (or employee) has, as I’ve mentioned in my two most recent articles:
AI technology adoption has to include Human-AI cultural and mindset change to be impactful. In a way, AI has got me full circle focused on writing about culture, behaviours & mindset again. It’s where I started 15 years ago
As Ethan Mollick’s says; “invite AI to the table in anything you do”. This is everyone’s responsibility. It requires a cultural transformation at a company level and needs a personal transformation to become AI-collaborative. As digital transformation has become bullshit, it is time to start talking about Human-AI transformation!
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