The story of AI with Aleksandra Przegalińska

In our recent You’re MarketingKind gathering we explored with Aleksandra Przegalińska why we need to set the story straight on AI.

We have seen how unregulated AI hype has created a backlash.

As a result we may now have more realistic expectations of what AI can do.

But it is changing how we work and how we relate to ourselves and others.

And as a society we need to innovate in response.

Aleksandra is a futurist, philosopher, author, Vice-Rector at Kozminski University, Senior Researcher at Harvard's Center for Labor and a Just Economy, and she was recently appointed by Donald Tusk to his Future Council for Poland.

We covered the impact AI is having on career starts and how university education may need to change to help students better prepare for employment.

We explored how AI is reshaping our relationships with ourselves and each other, for instance its use in therapy, tutoring and dating. 

She has created her own AI digital double, which has been well trained on her slides, lectures and her thinking to help her students to prepare for exams.

She shared why AI is a breakthrough tool for marketing insights. People are more honest and open in AI marketing surveys because they don't feel they are being judged. They will in particular be more honest about sharing negative feedback.

There are some areas such as IT where we are seeing big increases in efficiency, but there are many others where there is no productivity increase. For instance, a recent study from MIT Sloan Business School showed that most AI trials in businesses are not successful.

Her team at Harvard has done a lot of research on how marketers are working collaboratively with AI. Where there is a smart division of labour, with AI being used for research and humans doing the copywriting for instance, it can lead to an impressive 40% spike in productivity. 

She and her colleague recently used AI as a critical collaborator to provide feedback when writing their bookConverging Minds and they found it to be a very valuable tool.

In her role on Poland’s Future Council she is bringing a perspective on the differences in the labour market in the US vs Europe.

Europe is criticised for moving slowly on AI, but Aleksandra believes this is protecting us to some degree. Europe is gradually building its techstack and this is important for security. Over-reliance on US tech is a threat.

Aleksandra encourages her students to take a pluralistic approach. To be open and try and test different AIs, which can trigger creative thinking. 

She said that we need to think critically and be aware that AIs are not benign tools, they have been programmed (each with their own agenda). 

She wants to see more open forums of discussion around how we are using AI and what has worked and what hasn't worked.

You can listen to the full conversation on our podcast here or watch an edited version below.