Cloning the Manager? An AI-Based Self-Experiment

Artificial intelligence is not only changing how we work, but also how we approach our tasks. At a time when AI is increasingly being integrated into everyday working life, managers can benefit considerably. Whether through more efficient communication, the automation of processes or innovative approaches to team leadership. Artificial intelligence offers numerous opportunities to redefine the role of managers and effectively support their everyday work. Immerse yourself in the world of AI for managers and find out which tools can really enrich the way leaders work.

Performance Reviews Including AI Coaching

Communication is important and should not be rushed. It matters to me to get it right, so I relied on AI-based speech generators to coach me ahead of difficult conversations, often during long train or car rides. Based on my prompts, the AI tool simulated the discussion style of my scheduled interlocutor. It provided me with ideas for creating a motivating atmosphere and asking questions in a productive way. I have also made available the knowledge I shared in my books to colleagues and clients through an AI-based chat bot.

AI Tools used: character.ai, Pi.ai, HalloSophia.

Leadership 2.0? Meetings Without Me

A great deal of my time used to be taken up by online meetings where my subject-specific expertise was not really needed. More and more often, I took to simply submitting my agenda points and an AI clone ahead of meetings instead of participating in person. My human colleagues discussed and developed solutions and assigned tasks to the various team members – all in my absence. An AI-based summary of the meeting and the task allocation were sent to me within minutes after the meeting had ended.

AI Tools used: Fireflies, Sembly, MS Teams and Copilot, Apollo.ai.

Using AI: Drafting Speeches, Concepts, and Presentations Much Faster

Whenever I had a good idea for business, I recorded it on my smartphone and had an AI tool transcribe it to text. I subsequently used perplexity.ai to help me with more detailed research of the topic. This tool provides a web link with every proposal it puts forward, which allowed me to easily check the source and the proposal’s accuracy. I then defined the content and uploaded it to AI tools such as Gamma.ai or to PowerPoint using Copilot, which saved me between one and two hours per presentation or speech.

AI Tools used: Sonix, Perplexity AI, Gamma.AI, Microsoft Copilot.

Doing Away with Data Silos: Building an ERP System on a Sunday

My team joined forces with a logistics company to tackle the challenge of rebuilding our order and delivery system using AI. It took us just one Sunday to configure a rudimentary ERP system using openAI’s ChatGPT. It was able to communicate delivery times and product availabilities to customers. And it could even make suggestions for alternative products based on inventory levels. When we deliberately split up data across three databases to make the task more complex, the Generative AI was still able to answer customer queries correctly. Such “Synthetic AI” harbors great potential for finally doing away with data silos in companies.

AI Tools used: ChatGPT.

Welcome to the Digital Transformation: Does Team Building Work with AI?

There’s a lot to be said for building rafts to cross some pond, but this time, we opted for an AI-based team-building activity instead. We turned ourselves into Marvel-style superheroes in short videos that even came with a matching AI soundtrack. This boosted not only team spirit but also AI know-how.

AI Tools used: Midjourney, Runway ML, Suno.

Beware of "CEO Fraud"

To explore the topic of AI-based fraud, I presented my deceptively realistic AI avatar featuring my cloned voice at workshops at the WU Executive Academy. The workshop participants had to pick which videos featured the real me and which were fakes produced using my avatar. Even though video conferencing systems have upped security measures related to identification, in the end, it’s always up to us to discern whether we are talking to a real human being or an AI-powered impostor.

AI Tools used: HeyGen.

AI for Managers: Can Leadership Be Replaced by Artificial Intelligence?

While AI was not able to replace me, it definitely caused my productivity to soar. Even though the systems used are not (yet) perfect, they helped me save an average of five hours a week throughout last year. This is time I can spend working for my own company or with my family. It will be many moons before AI will make managers fully redundant. But it’s already doing a good job with some management tasks.

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