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Gen AI: Slow your roll

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FOUR OF OUR BEST NEW IDEAS FOR THE C-SUITE

Curated by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities

New and powerful technologies like generative AI are always a thrill. But what comes next? It’s never just about the tech: companies need much more—like strategy, talent, risk management—to get real value out of their shiny new objects. That’s especially true when building a new tech-based business. In this edition of the CEO Shortlist, we highlight four articles that preach the gospel of caution. We hope you enjoy the read.

—Liz and Homayoun

An image linking to the web page “False friends or good ends? The CIO’s four-point guide to navigating technology trends” on McKinsey.com.

What’s new

Trend with caution. Lots of IT executives have likely fielded excited calls in recent months from their C-suite colleagues, who’ve read somewhere (maybe here!) that gen AI is the next big thing and want to implement it right away. But chasing trends can be a fool’s errand. The smart tech exec relies on a clear set of parameters for evaluating new trends—and responding appropriately.

Walk before you run. Learn how with “False friends or good ends? The CIO’s four-point guide to navigating technology trends,” a new article by Oliver Bossert, Klaas Ole Kürtz, and Gérard Richter.

An image linking to the web page “Implementing generative AI with speed and safety” on McKinsey.com.

What’s now

It’s not all sunshine and lollipops. Gen AI can be fun. But new risks are cropping up every day, with more on the way. Hallucinations are one thing. Deepfakes, intellectual property theft, and gen-AI-powered malware are another. Are you ready for the dark side of gen AI?

Go on defense with “Implementing generative AI with speed and safety,” by Oliver Bevan, Michael Chui, Ida Kristensen, Brittany Presten, and Lareina Yee.

An image linking to the web page “New business building: Six cybersecurity and digital beliefs that can create risk” on McKinsey.com.

What’s next

Nobody ever created a unicorn by having another meeting. But as companies rush to take new businesses to market, risk management and cybersecurity tend to be afterthoughts. That plays right into the hands of hackers and bad actors.

It can happen to you. Build your defenses early with “New business building: Six cybersecurity and digital beliefs that can create risk,” by Justin Greis, Ari Libarikian, Patrick Rinski, Joy Smith, and Marc Sorel.

An image linking to the web page “A generative AI reset: Rewiring to turn potential into value in 2024” on McKinsey.com.

What’s needed

Gen AI isn’t a gold rush. After a flurry of initial excitement, executives are starting to realize that capturing value through gen AI is going to be a long game. Employing gen AI effectively in the long term requires what we call organizational surgery: a broad set of changes to the way work actually gets done.

Scrub in with “A generative AI reset: Rewiring to turn potential into value in 2024,” by Eric Lamarre, Alex Singla, Alexander Sukharevsky, and Rodney Zemmel.

We hope you find these ideas inspiring and helpful. See you next time with four more McKinsey ideas for the CEO and others in the C-suite.

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by "McKinsey CEO Shortlist" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 04:23 - 22 Mar 2024

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