Ep. 71 – The Future of Work – Embracing AI

But before we get to today’s episode, a quick update.

So a while back, I told you all that I’d started some training as part of my ongoing skills development. I can’t believe I am still working through the second B Corp training course. I had to stop for a while because my dance card for life and work got a bit full this quarter. But as work for me, typically slows down in December, that gives me more time to study too. So I am confident I’ll be completing it before the year is out. And I’m really looking forward to having this new bow of knowledge added to my quiver of arrows.

So what else is new?

Well, as mentioned during the last episode, my new portfolio of coaching programs, talks and workshop options are now live at creatingcadence.co/cadence-services. The focus of these training and learning opportunities is on helping leaders and teams to transform how you work in a variety of different ways.

We look at taking your work culture, your work styles, your workflows, and work processes into account. And then we look at enhancing leadership and self-leadership skills, building your resilience, supporting your digital wellbeing, boosting your productivity and aligning your business goals with positive, sustainable impacts. The aim is to future-proof you and your business in a way that will help you, your people and the planet to thrive. Not just now, but in the long run too.

These sessions and services start in January 2025, and spaces are limited. As a special Christmas offer, if you book your talk workshop or coaching package before the 15th of December for programs starting in January, you’ll get 15% off the list price on the site. Find out more at creatingcadence.co/cadence-services. And you can email me at hello@creatingcadence.co if you’ve got any questions or you want to book your place. I’ll pop those details in the podcast show notes and on the transcription page, too.

And my last bit of news is also super exciting.

I know that some of you have been waiting patiently for interviews to return. And the good news is that my guests are back again in January, 2025. It’s just around the corner and I have got a fantastic lineup of people coming onto the show next year. From experts in sustainability and B Corp business owners, to entrepreneurs, leaders, leadership, coaches, authors, and marketers, all people who are focused on environmental and social impact, and regenerative ways of working and doing business.

We’ll be talking about ways to create more cadence in your days, a better rhythm in your work, more intentional approach towards being productive, and how to future proof yourself and your business from a variety of sustainability-focused perspectives.

But before we get there, we have today’s episode, the final episode for this season.

In this episode, I’m considering how AI is shaping our future of work. And the role that AI can play in helping us to reduce our carbon footprint and support environmental goals, so that we can future proof our businesses.

Now, as I’ve mentioned a few times during this season, I’m not a carbon consultant or a technical sustainability expert. Instead I’m sharing what I’m learning as I progress on my own journey towards building a more sustainable business based also on the patterns and connections that I’m seeing in relation to what I do know about the fields of productivity, wellbeing and the future of work, which are areas that I’ve been focused on for the past seven years. As always I’ll share links to companies and resources that I reference on the episode’s transcription page on the creating cadence.co website.

The Future of Work Part 2 – Embracing AI

[00:04:40]

So if you’re ready, let’s dive in.

We’re quickly learning that AI can be a super-powered assistant that can handle repetitive tasks like organising files, managing schedules, or analysing data, leaving us more time to focus on creative or strategic work, whatever that looks like in your business. These tools are popping up across all sectors and industries from finance, insurance, and legal to aerospace, agricultural, or medical fields and everything in between.

So let’s look at a few of their applications in a bit more detail.

First and most obvious they can streamline routine tasks.

AI is handling those repetitive tasks, freeing up our human workers for complex, creative and strategic work. For example, in industries like finance automation can handle large datasets and provide analysis in seconds.

One of the most common places we’re finding AI and automation are in marketing tech and creative landscapes. That’s my background too, so I’m going to share a couple of well-known examples used by SMEs that you may recognise. And these are tools that I’ve used myself.

The first is HubSpot, which is known for its comprehensive marketing and CRM platform and their software now incorporates AI to automate and personalize marketing tasks, such as lead scoring, email segmentation and workflow management. This streamlines repetitive marketing tasks, allowing those teams to focus more time and energy on things like strategy.

The next example is Notion, a productivity and project management tool that for many has completely replaced separate artifacts, such as documents, spreadsheets, task management, software, or web pages and landing pages, because Notion can do it all. Integrated within the Notion app, Notion AI assists with knowledge organisation, task management and content creation. It can automatically summarize notes, manage your task lists, organise documents and help users to create outlines, simplifying project management tasks.

I also use AI tools specifically for helping to produce, edit and publish my podcast. For example, Headliner creates auto-posted YouTube videos for me.

And I also used Descript, which is a totally genius tool that has completely revolutionised my podcast production workflow. Simply put, I love it to bits. Links to those in the show notes too.

One final example here is my favourite tech tool ever. It’s the design software called Canva.

Canva’s tools can suggest layouts, fonts and colour schemes based on your project type. And it can automate social media sizing, photo enhancement, and more, freeing up creators designers and marketers from repetitive tasks.

As a busy solo entrepreneur this has been a lifesaver for me. I’ve been using Canva since I started my business and I use it practically every day. Over the years, the various AI driven design features implemented in Canva have assisted me in creating tons of different kinds of visual creative content with minimal manual work.

Now I have no affiliation with Canva, but I absolutely love the software for its ease of use and the flexibility and creative freedom that it offers me as a creative person who has never had the opportunity to train to use complicated software like Adobe Photoshop.

As someone who deliberately chooses to be a solo entrepreneur without a full-time team, AI has become the ad hoc team members that I need to support me on occasion.

But it’s important to remember that with AI, it’s what we put into it that determines the quality of what we get back. You are the driver behind the tool and you need to take responsibility for what you put in, how you manipulate the output, and what you do with that output. It’s never a copy paste job.

I’ll cover AI ethics a bit later on, but the bottom line here is don’t assume that AI will solve all of your problems and do all the work for you.

You still need to oversee, curate and control. The final decision is in your hand. So see it as an assistant, a sidekick, or a team member, not as your replacement.

As my friend and AI marketer, Karen Kanakanui says “…in the world of AI-powered marketing, YOU, not the technology, are the true driving force.

Incidentally, if you’re an experienced entrepreneur or small business owner over 50, but a newbie to AI. Karen is running a free 31 day video series in December on her YouTube channel, which is called AgeWise AI. Her aim with this free series is to help people learn simple practical AI tips for marketing. I’ll pop the link to her channel in the show notes, in case you’re interested.

Right, what else can AI and automation help us do in our workday?

Well, this next one is quite a biggie. It’s enhanced decision-making.

AI helps leaders and teams make data-driven decisions by providing predictive insights, helping them to spot trends and flagging risks, which can benefit industries ranging from healthcare to logistics.

For example, Watershed is a company that provides large organisations with AI powered enterprise software to help them track and manage their carbon emissions. The software helps companies to set climate goals and simulate emissions reduction strategies to aid them in strategic decision-making that will ultimately help them to accelerate their corporate decarbonisation efforts.

AI can also help with cost savings, time savings and targeted impact.

A good example is Benevolent AI, a company that uses AI to speed up drug discovery, making medicine research faster and more accessible. AI in this context, can help identify trends and patterns; help improve accessibility and affordability of healthcare; and personalised treatments that have a targeted impact on positive health outcomes.

Now, I know a lot of people aren’t fans of big pharma, but with the cost of healthcare and medicines being what it is, there are definite benefits and opportunities here to make the right type of pharmacological support more accessible.

For example, I’ve read about how an AI model called TxGNN has identified suitable drug candidates (all that means is ingredients), from existing medicines that may help to treat more than 17,000 diseases, 7,000 of which are extremely rare diseases, and many of those 17,000 diseases are with out existing treatments. Isn’t that incredible.

Another example is Path AI, which uses AI technology to assist pathologists in diagnosing diseases like cancer. By analysing pathology slides, the platform can help detect patterns and anomalies that may be challenging to identify manually, leading to faster and more accurate diagnoses.

Given the terrible delays in NHS waiting lists in the UK, not just for people awaiting treatment, but also on getting test results back, this is one area that AI could really help to speed up the testing feedback process and ultimately save lives.

AI can also have cross industry applications.

For example, in manufacturing, AI powered robotics and technology enhance production efficiency, quality control energy management, supply change management, and predictive maintenance. Every major manufacturing corporation that works across industries from Siemens and IBM to Intel and GE and thousands more are already using AI in their processes.

And what about customer experience?

AI driven personalisation has been shown to improve customer experience across industries.

Organisations already using machine learning technologies to enable a more personal experience, whether that’s chatting with a more empathic chat bot to reduce the friction of these experiences, to getting hyper specific product and service recommendations, when you’re on Instagram or searching Google or visiting a brand’s website. This is a step beyond those trousers that follow you around the internet?

So here’s some stats to back all of this up. A Qualtrics report from January 2024, indicates that personalisation is necessary to stay ahead in a competitive market. And according to a recent Gartner NICE or N.I.C.E report, 86% of CEOs expect AI to help maintain or grow their revenue in 2024 to 2025. The top answer for how they expected that would happen was to ” improvement to customer experience and relationships”, end quote.

So here’s an example: Lettuce Financial is a US-based automated tax and accounting system for businesses of one. It’s a financial management system purposely built for solo entrepreneurs and those registered as S Corps for tax purposes.

But Lettuce also have an AI chat bot that has been specifically trained on data relating to solo entrepreneurial business scenarios and the challenges that solo business owners face. So that the chat bot can answer their queries about tax,, finances and accounting far more accurately, in a way that is appropriate and relevant to their situation.

The crux of all this rapid and radical change is that AI and automation are redefining what work and customer experience means and what our future roles will look like. Embracing these tools can drive productivity, but it also requires upskilling our workers. And organisations also need to address the fears that those workers have around job displacement.

This is where there are some admittedly big challenges and I don’t necessarily have the answers, but it’s something we all need to be aware of.

As the Chief Marketing Officer of MasterCard, Raja Rajamannar, recently pointed out in a Marketing Week article, the demand for developing these skills is outpacing the ability to train people fast enough. The article referred to a Marketing Week report from earlier in the year that shared survey findings involving 3000 brand marketers. The biggest skills gaps for marketing teams centred around a distinct lack of data and analytics skills. And the survey also flagged that there was a pressing need for these skills to be upgraded in relation to AI, and 48% of those marketers surveyed had not been offered the opportunity to up-skill compounding this problem.

Alongside this, the Chartered Institute of Marketing also reported this year, that 56% of marketers are worried about burnout in their current role, in part, because of the pressure to up-skill on the job. What often ends up happening here is that people are being forced to learn these skills outside of their current role, extending time spent on work-related activities to outside of work.

But this problem is not just happening to marketers. It’s happening across sectors. Learning how to use AI competently is an extra thing we all need to learn how to do, on top of our already pressured jobs. And the pressure to pick up those skills quickly is adding overwhelm to leaders, teams, and individuals alike. It’s actually causing burnout and overwhelm.

The key takeaways here are that introducing AI doesn’t have to mean our jobs disappear. It can revolutionise both the structure and impact of every facet of industry from healthcare systems to business processes. It also offers the opportunity to open up the space for us to focus on work that requires a human touch, things like big picture strategy, creative brainstorming, and relationship building.

But it’s important that we are realistic about training and implementation and the impact this can have on health and wellbeing. Because as we know, if we’re not, well, we can’t be productive.

So businesses need to empower and enable their teams to learn these skills in a more manageable way. It may mean planning for training days. Or reorganising your timelines for more realistic production and outputs, that also accommodate practice and implementation of these new systems.

AI & Sustainability

[00:16:13]

Now let’s look at AI and sustainability.

Here’s where it gets interesting, because although AI can be hugely energy intensive, it can also be a powerful tool in our fight for environmental sustainability.

I’ll be honest. I don’t yet know the solutions to curb the energy intensity of AI technology. It’s the same challenge we’re facing with things like cryptocurrency transactions. But some smart people out there are working on this and they’ll figure out a way to make AI more environmentally friendly from a carbon usage perspective.

But if we look beyond that challenge, how can we use AI to help reduce carbon footprints and support environmental goals?

AI tools are already being used to tackle climate change. From tracking icebergs and identifying pollution to predicting weather. AI is also been used to improve agricultural practices, and map deforestation, plus so much more. I’ll share the links in the show notes to articles from the UN Environment Programme and the World Economic Forum, in case you want to find out more about this stuff.

But here’s a few thoughts about how you may be able to use it in your business.

The first step is optimising energy use.

AI can monitor your energy consumption, helping you target the areas that need to be optimised. It can also help you optimise that energy consumption in real time. This is important, especially if you work in an industry with high energy demands, such as manufacturing and data centres.

But what if you’re a small business trying to cut down on energy use?

Well, AI can still help.

AI powered software can monitor your company’s energy consumption and analyse patterns.

Smart automation systems can do things like automatically adjust heating, or lighting based on need, helping you cut costs while saving the planet. It can be as simple as installing the smart thermostats.

The second thing to consider is that AI can help you reduce waste through predictive analytics.

It can forecast demand accurately, which helps reduce waste in sectors like retail and food services by ensuring that only needed products are produced or stocked. Think about the company Too Good to Go, which I mentioned as an example in episode 69. They are using tech and AI to help track and save surplus food from restaurants and bakeries. Keeping it out of landfills and reducing food waste.

The third thing to think about is that AI can support eco-friendly supply chains.

It can help you optimize routes for transportation to reduce your fuel use, or help you prioritise sustainable suppliers, and monitor your carbon output. All of which help companies like yours to reach their sustainability targets.

Here’s why all of this matters.

As AI becomes integrated into business operations, using it sustainably aligns our tech progress with our environmental responsibilities. It can help us contribute to global efforts to combat climate change and save our planet.

AI & Ethics

[00:19:01]

Finally, we can’t do an episode on AI without talking about the ethical considerations.

With all this power, we need to be careful. AI isn’t just a tool. It’s also collecting data on people, patterns and behaviours. Do you know how the data is being used, both inside your business and further a field. Where does the data come from?

We all have a responsibility here.

We need to balance efficiency with integrity.

So as you build your AI tech stack, you need to address the ethical aspects of AI, like copyright privacy, data security, and the need for transparency in your AI driven decisions.

If you use AI, you need to be open with clients and staff about what it’s being used for, how it’s being used, and to what end? And where does that data come from? Do you have permission or the rights to use it?

If you’re building your own AI agents or chat bots to assist in your business in some way then consider the data you are training those tools on. How diverse and inclusive is the information you’re feeding the AI, because what you put in is going to affect what you get out. And things like gender bias and racism can be inherent in training data without us realising it.

Businesses need to adopt ethical guidelines around AI usage, ensuring that its use aligns with core values like transparency and fairness. This is important for building long-term trust and maintaining a good reputation with your customers and your team. As I’ve mentioned in previous episodes, your street cred is going to be affected by your approach to anything that has an ethical element, from carbon reduction and social impact, to how you use AI.

If you’re not sure where to start, do the research and take cues from companies that are leading responsibly in this area. But in simple terms, be transparent with the employees and customers about how you’re using AI. Ensure that you create policies and practices, which demonstrate that your usage aligns with your values.

I know I’ve said this before, but it’s so essential that I’m repeating myself.

So a key takeaway is that when integrating AI, think long-term and consider the ethical implications.

An example of this is a company like Ecologi.

They are a climate action platform that’s used by thousands of businesses to fund climate solutions, reduce carbon usage and implement positive social and environmental impacts. Ecologi believe in creating trust through transparency and they use technology to provide evidence that assures their supporters that every tree planted and every carbon credit purchased is tracked and verified.

So some closing thoughts from me.

As part of building a purpose-driven, impact-focused business, I encourage you to see the potential of AI as a supportive tool.

AI can help ensure that your business practices are sustainable for the long run. So consider how you can be using it as part of your workflow. This is about embracing new technologies thoughtfully, based on your core values. This is also an important opportunity to support, not replace, the human potential in your business.

Gabrielle Tenaglia, the Chief Marketing Officer of Lettuce, which is the company I referenced earlier, believes that using AI tools can help us become better at being the expert in our roles.

And Casey Newton, the American technology journalist and co-host of the podcast, Hard Fork, advises that we treat AI like our coach, not our CEO.

In other words, it can help us make decisions, but it is not the decision maker. We are. The humans at the centre of our business.

For me, as mentioned specifically in episode 67, it’s about people first. But tech-enabled people, who are skilled in using this tech mindfully will always be able to do things more flexibly, efficiently, creatively, productively, and meaningfully, than those who aren’t tech enabled.

This episode rounds out Season 11, which is focused on sustainable business in relation to the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit, and the future of work, and what all of that means in terms of creating cadence and a better rhythm of work that can also support our wellbeing and productivity.

I hope you’ve learned a few new things and been inspired to make some positive changes. If you have any thoughts on these topics, you’re welcome to email me: hello@creatingcadence.co.

So I’ll be back in the new year with an exciting lineup of guest interviews. I’m talking with dynamic action takers about all things to do with building sustainable, impactful businesses, and ways to work that create a better rhythm in our workdays.

In the meantime, I wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful, restful festive season, however you choose to celebrate.

Be well, stay safe, and spread the love. And keep moving forwards with courage, curiosity, and cadence.