Blog | 24 Apr 2024
You don’t have to be an IT expert to lead on AI
Debra D’Agostino
Chief Capability Officer; Managing Director, Thought Leadership
The following excerpt was originally published as one of six perspectives by female leaders as part of the IBM report, ‘Forging the future of AI: Women can take the lead.’ Oxford Economics is proud to have contributed to the research that was used to inform the report and its findings.
The adoption curve for AI will vary across companies but, according to our data, it’s probably already in use in customer service and marketing—areas where women are more likely to hold leadership roles.
Women aren’t idling when it comes to piloting AI tools. They are more likely than men to have used AI to generate, edit, and summarise content, and nearly 40% have used it for graphic design, and image and video generation. What’s more, 40% of women say using generative AI has resulted in a greater than 10% increase in productivity.
Are any of these women IT experts? Maybe—but they don’t need to be. Understanding and anticipating how AI can best augment the unique needs and capabilities of your team is more important; then you can work with the right people in IT to make it happen. In fact, all of our research to date shows that the most important quality that leads to AI success is one that’s uniquely human—creativity.
For example, at Oxford Economics I am part of a global working group to help our economists, analysts, and researchers identify specific generative AI tools to amp up their productivity—from automating literature reviews and desk research to quickly querying large data sets and identifying trends drawn from qualitative insights. We are also testing ways generative AI can help our clients get deeper insight from our economic briefings and forecasts.
Author
Debra D’Agostino
Chief Capability Officer; Managing Director, Thought Leadership
Debra D’Agostino
Chief Capability Officer; Managing Director, Thought Leadership
New York City, United States
Debra D’Agostino is Chief Capability Officer at Oxford Economics, overseeing the company’s global human resources team as well as people-focused initiatives to support digital transformation, innovation and the adoption of best practices.
Based in New York, Debra joined Oxford Economics in 2011 to launch the company’s Thought Leadership division, which she continues to lead as Managing Director. She oversees a global team of editors, researchers and analysts who conduct ground-breaking research programs in partnership with the world’s most forward-looking organizations, on topics ranging from business transformation, emerging technology, diversity and inclusion, talent and leadership to risk management and corporate finance. She also serves as Co-Managing Director for Oxford Economics USA, and is a member of the company’s Board of Directors.
Debra joined the firm from the Economist Intelligence Unit, the research arm of the Economist Group, where she led the company’s business research department for the Americas. Prior to the EIU, she served as an editor and writer at CIO Insight, the award-winning business and technology strategy journal she helped launch at Ziff Davis Media in 2001. She holds a bachelor of science in journalism from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.”
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