How to better manage your humans in the age of AI

Getting staff buy-in and hiring people with a continuous learning mindset is critical to thriving in the AI age. This, according to speakers at the annual Practice Management Conference.

Your organisation’s success at using AI depends on how open-minded your staff are, according to speakers at the Practice Management Conference held in Sandton yesterday. 

“I can spend millions on a very fancy platform only to find that when I go to the accounting department, people have gone back to the old ways, not using our tools to their full functionality,” Thilen Pillay, a director at RSM South Africa, told the audience at the CIBA event. 

“You usually encounter this resistance to change when you don’t have enough support, and there is more of a top-down approach, and you don’t include your staff at all levels,” Pillay said.  

Nicolaas van Wyk, CEO of CIBA, says that accountants are traditionally viewed as conservative. CIBA, which owns Accounting Weekly, embraced ChatGPT early on, and staff are increasingly using it. 

Embracing curiosity and constant learning

“The key thing is a constantly curious mindset. You need to test for that stuff in your interview process,” Themba Chakela, Chief People Officer at BlueSky told the audience. “You need to see how people respond to new things in the office.”

Pillay told the audience, “You have to be able to attract skills and individuals that have mastered this art of learning. With the advent of all of these technology platforms, that’s not something that's nice to have. It’s an absolute imperative. 

“If individuals are reluctant to this change, unfortunately, the hard truth is yes, you may be left behind,” Pillay told the audience. 

Dr Ndivhuwo Makondo, AI Research Scientist, IBM told the audience that accountants who embrace AI will replace those who don’t. 

“The tradition of CPD and university learning is kind of falling by the wayside, it's a challenge to all of us to become curious,” Van Wyk told the audience. 

Edzai Zvobwo, COO of Acalytica, bemoaned education and learning standards across the board. “As long as our math and accounting is bad in primary, high schools and TVET we’re going nowhere because how can I discuss AI from first principles with someone who doesn’t understand probability?”  

Zvobwo also believes that research and development is key not only for individuals but also for large South African firms. “We have to accept that we’re behind technologically because our corporates in South Africa are importers of technology. They don’t innovate, they don’t have a R & D budget.”

Zvobwo points out that Google and other large international firms spend a large percentage of their budget on R & D (Research & Development). 

“We have to make sure that “R & D is done.”