Will artificial intelligence provide significant relief from what some call “decision distress? Maybe.
Decision distress is said to be the psychological and emotional discomfort leaders and people experience when making important decisions. And the flood of data now available to organization leaders likely doesn’t help.
Some 72 percent of business leaders say overwhelming data has prevented them from making decisions altogether, while 91 percent report that the data deluge limits their organizational success.
And some 85 percent of leaders have experienced decision distress, questioning or regretting their choices, which erodes their confidence in making timely decisions.
According to Oracle, 74 percent of people say the number of decisions they make every day has increased 10 times over the last three years, while 78 percent face more data availability than ever.
Fully 86 percent say the volume of data makes decisions in their personal and professional lives much more complicated. About 59 percent say they face a decision dilemma--not knowing what decision to make--more than once every day.
Some might believe AI will take care of many big decisions leaders currently make based on “gut feeling” rather than analysis of data. But some of us suspect, even with better data, decisions will still involve a large element of choice, risk and judgment, despite the additional insights data can provide.
Coaches can incorporate statistical probabilities into decisions to kick a field goal or go for a first down (and hopefully an ensuing touchdown) near the red zone. But there is risk, either way, no matter what the statistics suggest “should” be done in that situation.
Better insights from data are a good thing. But AI is unlikely to be a substitute for big decisions that are inherently risky. For that reason, it might remain unclear how much AI actually can reduce feelings of anxiety about making big decisions.
Perhaps not so surprisingly, given those statistics, 70 percent of survey respondents say they have given up on making a decision because the data was overwhelming.
At least in principle, AI should help, to a degree, by organizing and drawing conclusions from masses of data. Will that lead to more confident decision making? Again, maybe. If leaders trust the conclusions drawn from the data; the data sources; the AI tools making recommendations and their own instincts.
Nothing is going to help an indecisive leader. And it stands to reason that AI will more commonly be relied upon to make small decisions with limited downside or upside.
The really-big decisions are still going to be surrounded by anxiety and concern. They are, by definition, decisions with huge personal and organizational implications.
Still, AI should help--not by making decisions risk free--but by providing an additional layer of information and insight.
Some of those areas might include strategic matters, such as forecasting market trends, opportunities and risks. AI might likewise aid in financial areas such as resource allocation and other financial decisions.
Competitive analysis; product development and risk management are other areas where more conclusions drawn from AI analysis of unstructured data, for example, could be helpful.
Less controversial (because it often is less risky) are AI assistance for operational efficiency improvements; human resources; compliance tasks or customer service.
Where AI will not help is freeing leaders from the responsibility for making big decisions and the consequences of those decisions, even if some fancifully believe AI can replace the functional role of CEOs, for example.
Such arguments essentially reduce the CEO role to that of “making decisions.” One suspects that is only partially true. Organizations are full of humans. And that means the CEO role also includes a whole lot of non-rational “leading, creating meaning and dealing with humans” functions that AI can't replace.
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