Latest news with #Lütke
CNBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Tech companies are requiring employees to learn and use AI at work—here's the best way to do that, experts say
Using artificial intelligence on the job is becoming increasingly common across the U.S. Some bosses — particularly at tech companies — even require it, for either some or all of their employees. E-commerce giant Shopify, for example, is in the "all" camp, co-founder and CEO Tobias Lütke wrote in a company-wide memo, which he posted to social media network X on April 7. "Using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify. It's a tool of all trades today, and will only grow in importance," Lütke wrote. "Frankly, I don't think it's feasible to opt out of learning the skill of applying AI in your craft; you are welcome to try, but I want to be honest, I cannot see this working out today, and definitely not tomorrow." Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufmann similarly told employees and freelancers to "study, research and master the latest AI solutions in your field," in an internal email he posted to X on April 8. "AI is coming for your jobs," he wrote. "Heck, it's coming for my job, too. This is a wake-up call."Duolingo co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn joined in, too. "Duolingo is going to be AI-first," von Ahn wrote in an email posted to Duolingo's LinkedIn page on April 28. "We'll gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle. ... Headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work." Plans to foster an AI-empowered workforce could be timely: Tech luminaries like Bill Gates and Mark Cuban say that AI will greatly change the way many people live and work, potentially as soon as within the next 10 years. But encouraging AI at work — in a way that's actually helpful — may not be quite as easy as simply requiring that people start using it. Here's what good bosses can do to get their employees interested in using AI, according to leadership experts. The most important lesson for any leader, says Rohan Verma: If you mandate or heavily encourage AI, you need to teach employees how to use it in ways that'll specifically benefit your business. Verma, who runs San Francisco-based executive coaching firm Arbor Advisory, says he worked with Microsoft-owned GitHub to help implement the parent company's Copilot AI tool across the organization. "[Microsoft] rolled out a pretty formal coaching program, specific resources and proper onboarding. They didn't just say 'Use the tool.' They gave a set of options on how to thrive with it," he says. If you want to get more people around you to use AI, start by gauging how much they already know about the technology, recommends Kalifa Oliver, an author, executive advisor and global director for employee experience at Ford. Then, if you have the budget, "invest in the infrastructure" to help train your colleagues on AI tools that are new to them, or advanced ways of using familiar systems, says Oliver. This could include access to online courses and learning platforms, mentorship programs or assessments to gauge what employees already know about using AI and what they need to be more efficient, she adds. Don't use AI primarily as a cost-cutting method, automating tasks best done by humans or even replacing human headcount, warns Oliver. Even the most advanced AI models make factual errors, and if the wrong human is out of the office, those mistakes could go unnoticed and create problems, she notes. "I think CEOs will start taking an all-in stance because it sounds good, unfortunately. Do I think that it's a stance that CEOs should take? That's a different story," Oliver says. ,
Forbes
23-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Leadership Challenge Of AI: How Leaders Can Address Fears Of AI
AI And The Leadership Challenge: How Leaders Can Address Fears Of AI The impact of AI continues to be felt in the workplace. Much of the attention has been on either the 170 new jobs created or the 92 million jobs displaced by AI by in 2030. While understanding the impact of AI on the future of work is important, leaders also need to understand the human side of AI. This means listening to the concerns and fears of workers as AI expands across the organization. It is these human challenges which change workflows, job expectations, the composition of work teams, and are causing fears and concerns among workers as AI expands in the workplace. I recently spoke at the Ecosistema Formazione Italia – EFI in Rome, a conference bringing together 2,000 senior leaders in HR, Talent, and Training from European countries, to share their views on innovations in the workplace. It did not take long before the discussion focused on how workers and leaders were adapting to the expansion of generative AI at work. Five themes emerged which focus on the importance of developing a human centered AI adoption strategy where leaders understand worker concerns and take action to create an optimal human and AI collaboration. Attendees at the Ecosistema Formazione Italia (EFI) expressed concerns about the implications of using AI at work. One of the biggest concerns around using AI in your work is identifying how much of your job can be automated and how this might result in job loss. This fear of being replaced by AI is behind the Slack research of 5,000 knowledge workers found that 20% were using AI at work but not disclosing this to their team or manager. Around 55% use AI at least a couple of times a week, but 74% don't actively share about their use or encourage others to use AI. The reason: fear of being displaced by AI once your manager sees how much of your job can be automated by AI. While one could argue this fear may not be based on reality, it is a human reaction to exponential change in the workplace and must be addressed by leaders. To successfully manage how humans and AI work together, leaders need to understand the cultural change, and emotional intelligence of the workforce. The second fear discussed was the possible consequences of not using AI and how that may lead to either stalled careers or can impact one's performance review. In the case of Shopify, the expectation of using AI daily is a baseline expectation at the company. A recent memo Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke sent to the Shopify workforce asks this question of his workforce: 'What would your function look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team?' Lütke elaborates by saying that before asking for more headcount or resources, teams must show why they cannot get what they want done using AI. Finally, Lütke shared that AI usage will be factored into all performance reviews at the Shopify. By doing this, Shopify is moving from encouraging employees to 'tinker with AI,' to changing how they work in partnership with AI. What are your strengths in a world where AI is universally available? This was an interesting question posed at the Ecosistema Formazione Italia (EFI) and very relevant for those in the content creation/communications area. What if your strengths are writing clearly and concisely? If AI creates your first draft, what strengths do you develop to 'stand out' on your team? Using generative AI to create a first draft is now so pervasive that it's made its way into AI products, including as core feature in Copilot for Microsoft 365. In a world where AI is universally available and there is an expectation for daily AI usage, workers need to focus on developing skills in human creativity, emotional nuance, strategic thinking, and importantly, AI oversight of the output. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke not only talks about AI in weekly videos, town halls, and podcasts, but last year he used AI agents to create a talk and then presented about his experience. This needs to happen for all CEOs: usage by example and then share the results. Since usage of AI is the most rapid shift to how work is done, this is a skill that all workers need to develop and that will only happen if it becomes integrated into the workflow. Building transparency is key to widespread adoption of AI. While understanding how to use AI involves self-learning, leaders must create a culture of sharing back what you learned, and how this impacts your job, your team, and the organization. Leaders can do this by including AI integration into monthly business reviews and product life cycles. Employees should be encouraged to share their best practice use cases on Slack and Teams. As trust is a key barrier to widespread adoption, leaders will need to empower their teams to learn when to trust AI and how to validate or challenge outputs to ensure final decisions align with the strategic goals of the organization. In addition, transparency of using AI needs to be celebrated for all employees, starting with the CEO and leadership team. The speed at which today's technology is changing means that leaders will have to consistently re-evaluate and optimize what can best be accomplished by humans, by AI agents, and by humans and AI working together. Finally, one of the interesting questions for leaders is how will the partnership between HR and IT evolve as generative AI expands across enterprise? Moderna is taking this to a new level by integrating IT into the HR function and re-framing its top HR leader as Chief People and Digital Technology Officer. This is an early example of how AI is starting to be viewed not just as a technology tool but as a co-worker where humans and AI evolve their work together. What is your company doing so humans and AI collaborate in as seamless a way as possible?
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Reid Hoffman praises Shopify's Toby Lütke for his recent memo on AI
Reid Hoffman said every leader should be using and integrating AI at work. The LinkedIn cofounder highlighted Shopify CEO's recent internal memo as a model. One tip: Hold regular AI check-ins with your team. Tech billionaire Reid Hoffman highlighted Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke's recent internal memo as a model for how leaders should think about AI. The LinkedIn cofounder said on Wednesday's "Possible" podcast episode that the memo is an "open-source management technique." In an internal memo Lütke shared last week, the e-commerce CEO wrote that AI usage is "now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify." "Before asking for more Headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI," Lütke wrote in the memo, which he posted on X. "What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team? This question can lead to really fun discussions and projects." Lütke added that AI usage questions would also be added to Shopify's "performance and peer review questionnaire." "This applies to all of us, including me and the executive team," he wrote. On "Possible," Hoffman said that every leader, whether they're running a five-person startup or a giant company, should be baking AI into their teams' work. To ensure AI integration happens, Hoffman recommended a simple management approach. Hold weekly or monthly meetings for everyone to share something new they've learned about using AI — whether it's helping them do their job better or helping the whole company run more smoothly, he said. Hoffman and other leaders agree that AI is no longer just for technical staff. In an episode of Lenny's Podcast published last week, OpenAI's chief product officer, Kevin Weil, shared how the company's chief people officer "vibe coded" an internal tool. The executive used AI to rebuild a system she missed from a previous job. "If our chief people officer is doing it, we have no excuse," Weil said. Vibe coding, a term coined in February by OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy, describes giving AI prompts to write code. As he puts it, developers can "fully give in to the vibes" and "forget the code even exists." The rise of vibe coding has shaken up the way people think about software development, and some engineers wonder if AI could put them out of a job. It has also sparked debate among investors over whether technical skills are still a must-have for startup founders. People should be "vibe coding" everything instead of using static design files, Weil said. "That's totally possible today, and we're not doing it enough," the product chief added. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Reid Hoffman praises Shopify's Toby Lütke for his recent memo on AI
Reid Hoffman said every leader should be using and integrating AI at work. The LinkedIn cofounder highlighted Shopify CEO's recent internal memo as a model. One tip: Hold regular AI check-ins with your team. Tech billionaire Reid Hoffman highlighted Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke's recent internal memo as a model for how leaders should think about AI. The LinkedIn cofounder said on Wednesday's "Possible" podcast episode that the memo is an "open-source management technique." In an internal memo Lütke shared last week, the e-commerce CEO wrote that AI usage is "now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify." "Before asking for more Headcount and resources, teams must demonstrate why they cannot get what they want done using AI," Lütke wrote in the memo, which he posted on X. "What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team? This question can lead to really fun discussions and projects." Lütke added that AI usage questions would also be added to Shopify's "performance and peer review questionnaire." "This applies to all of us, including me and the executive team," he wrote. On "Possible," Hoffman said that every leader, whether they're running a five-person startup or a giant company, should be baking AI into their teams' work. To ensure AI integration happens, Hoffman recommended a simple management approach. Hold weekly or monthly meetings for everyone to share something new they've learned about using AI — whether it's helping them do their job better or helping the whole company run more smoothly, he said. Hoffman and other leaders agree that AI is no longer just for technical staff. In an episode of Lenny's Podcast published last week, OpenAI's chief product officer, Kevin Weil, shared how the company's chief people officer "vibe coded" an internal tool. The executive used AI to rebuild a system she missed from a previous job. "If our chief people officer is doing it, we have no excuse," Weil said. Vibe coding, a term coined in February by OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy, describes giving AI prompts to write code. As he puts it, developers can "fully give in to the vibes" and "forget the code even exists." The rise of vibe coding has shaken up the way people think about software development, and some engineers wonder if AI could put them out of a job. It has also sparked debate among investors over whether technical skills are still a must-have for startup founders. People should be "vibe coding" everything instead of using static design files, Weil said. "That's totally possible today, and we're not doing it enough," the product chief added. Read the original article on Business Insider
Forbes
09-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
What Shopify CEO Letter On AI Means For Staffing And Talent Platforms
At Shopify, AI readiness is no longer optional, it's a mandate We've just crossed a tipping point. Yesterday, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke published a letter that may go down as one of the first truly bold declarations from a major tech leader about the future of work in the age of AI. In it, he called for a radical reimagining of Shopify's workforce, one where human employees partner deeply with AI systems to unlock new levels of creativity, productivity, and scale. But he didn't stop at vision. Lütke anchored this future in action, tying it directly to hiring, performance reviews, and day-to-day operations. At Shopify, AI readiness is no longer optional; it's a mandate. Lütke's letter isn't just a company memo. It's a wake-up call for every executive, talent platform, and staffing firm: evolve now, or risk irrelevance. For years, we've discussed the future of work in abstract terms. Now, thanks to AI's explosive capabilities, the future is here, and the terminology is starting to take shape. Borrowing from chess grandmasters who learned to outperform computers and humans by partnering with AI, we're entering the age of Centaur and Cyborg workers. This concept, as outlined in recent research by Karim Lakhani at Harvard Business School, Ethan Mollick at Wharton, and a community of researchers, isn't science fiction—it's strategy. Centaurs use AI as a tool to extend their human capabilities. Cyborgs go one step further: they integrate AI into their workflows so tightly that humans and machines become indistinguishable from the outside. In both cases, the result is an exponential leap in performance. Lütke's bet is that these workers will be the foundation of Shopify's next era of growth. But here's the thing: these new archetypes aren't just going to show up on your doorstep. They have to be trained, cultivated, and deployed. That's where staffing firms and talent platforms come in. We are entering an era where platforms and firms can no longer match resumes to job descriptions. The new mandate is capability-building. Talent platforms must become not only connectors but enablers. They must become trainers of Centaurs, builders of Cyborgs. This is the moment to ask: Who will be the first CEO of a staffing firm or platform to publish their bold AI letter? Who will take the leap and reimagine their business not just as a pipeline for talent, but as a crucible where the next generation of AI-powered workers is forged? The opportunity is vast. Most companies are not Shopify. They don't have in-house AI research teams or cultures built for rapid transformation. These organizations are looking outward for help. They will turn to platforms and partners that can guide them through the transition. The first platform that cracks this, offering not just access to workers but also AI-ready teams, trained and augmented, will own a disproportionate share of the future. To step into this future, staffing firms must pivot in three key ways: We're in the early innings, but the game is accelerating. As Lütke's letter clarifies, the CEOs who embrace this future won't wait for a slow evolution. They'll re-architect their orgs now. So the question is: Which staffing and talent platform will do the same?
