AI raised the bar for my own work
Will AI cut my job? So far, it has increased the amount of work I can reasonably expect from myself.
As an executive, I rarely made PowerPoint presentations myself. I might correct a spreadsheet formula, but macros were somebody else’s territory. When Power BI arrived, I was happy to have specialists who understood data connections, transformations and dashboards.
This year changed that. I can dictate an idea and turn it into a presentation in minutes. I can take a collection of spreadsheets and build an interactive dashboard to understand them. I can enter a board meeting having reviewed every paper, with summaries, questions and arguments prepared.
The standard moves with the capability
AI expanded what I can do with the time I have. I use that capacity to investigate more deeply, prepare more thoroughly and test ideas I would previously have left on a list.
That changes the standard I bring to a leadership team. A paper that once arrived unread can arrive with competing interpretations already explored. A first impression can be tested against another scenario before it becomes a recommendation.
The quality of those questions still matters. Generating more analysis is easy. Deciding which analysis deserves the room’s attention remains executive work.
Decide what the extra capacity is for
For a company, this creates a management choice. Use the capacity to improve customer service, shorten a decision, explore a new market or raise the quality of an existing product. Give it a purpose before filling the calendar with more output.
Ask each executive to bring one real piece of AI-assisted work to the next team discussion. Examine what improved, what needed correction and what became possible. Set the standard around the usefulness of the finished work.
That is the practical fluency we develop in the Executive AI Program: direct experience that sharpens leadership judgment.
The bar in my own work has moved. I expect the conversation around the board table to move with it.