How the tables have turned…
Just about everyone has spent at least some time wondering if their jobs are at risk of being automated away by artificial intelligence.
But the group that seems immune to those concerns — CEOs — is primed for being usurped by robots, writes Ed Zitron.
Ed's argument is straightforward: CEOs get paid a lot despite not providing much value for their companies. For all the talk of CEOs being transformational leaders full of business ingenuity, many are nothing more than figureheads. They don't have any responsibility or accountability, and their job boils down to boring media interviews and regurgitating ideas from consultants.
(I might be inclined to apologize to CEOs reading this, but the bad ones are too busy preparing their next TED Talk or drafting an uninspiring LinkedIn post.)
Maybe you don't entirely buy the idea that AI could do a CEO's job.
It's true that a lot of being a CEO is buzzword bingo — "Let's nab a quick win by doing a deep dive on synergies that can unlock efficiencies in our workflows!" — but it still seems like they do something, you say.
And if nothing else, you need someone at the top who will shoulder the blame when things go wrong, right?
So about that…
Last year was undeniably a bad year for most industries. With that in mind, one might expect leadership changes.
In reality, it was the exact opposite. The number of CEO exits last year (1,235) was actually down 8% from the previous year, according to a report from executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Not only that, but it was the lowest CEO turnover number since 2017.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting the role of CEO is entirely useless. (Neither is Ed, who previously wrote about how the modern CEO job is just broken.) But I don't see any harm in the boss realizing tech could replace them.
After all, if they're willing to do it to us, they should know the same could be said for them.
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