The value of artificial intelligence lies in its ability to make predictions: to fill in the next word in a sentence that has already begun, or to provide an answer to a question by compiling relevant knowledge from the internet. Artificial intelligence uses available information to generate information that does not yet exist.
With the massive technological leap currently underway, the way work is organized and carried out will undergo fundamental changes in the coming months and years. Thanks to large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini, we can become more efficient—and this at a time when we are lamenting the shortage of skilled workers and the impending retirement of the baby boomer generation. Please ask your managers to develop solutions that will generate a measurable return on investment (ROI) over the next two years, consisting of a 20% reduction in fixed and variable costs. Solutions utilizing artificial intelligence may be one option.
- Accounting: We are entrusting our accounts receivable management to artificial intelligence.
- Financial Reporting and Planning: Let artificial intelligence generate and calculate financial reports and budget plans, and present them in Excel and as charts by specifying the relevant variables, entering information, and defining the formatting.
- Critical Sparring Partner: After we’ve prepared a presentation for a client or the next board meeting, we ask the artificial intelligence: “Put yourself in the shoes of our client, who has the following characteristics: …, or in the shoes of the chairperson: Where are the presentation’s weaknesses? What question comes to mind that I haven’t considered? What arguments support my proposed decision or solution? What arguments speak against it?”
- Office Management. Starting in 2026, even with the default settings of Microsoft’s Co-Pilot and other artificial intelligence models integrated into the work environment, machines will be able to handle classic personal assistant tasks: travel bookings, scheduling appointments, and placing orders.
- Minutes: We use artificial intelligence to generate minutes for workshops—even from a large number of Post-it notes—and for meetings. The human effort is limited to a quality check.
- Meetings: Automatically generating pre-meeting briefings, agendas, and real-time meeting minutes (for example, using Granola AI) helps significantly reduce personnel costs associated with preparing for, conducting, and following up on meetings—with the important side effect that using artificial intelligence forces us to be disciplined: Why do we need this meeting? Who needs to attend, and who doesn’t? What level of prior knowledge will we assume for the meeting?
Even though a human quality check is required in all cases, the bulk of the work is done by the machine. The savings are in time and material costs, which can be quantified and measured in comparison to the current situation. Keep track of the measurable savings and review them after two years. By turning off the learning function, you can (probably) ensure that the data stays with you.
In the next newsletter from company companions, “Embracing Uncertainty” (#34), titled “It’s All Clear,” which will be published on March 9, 2025, we’ll be asking ourselves—and you—what this technological leap means for the transformation of our business models.
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