Leaders must overcome a cultural resistance to artificial intelligence

Alfred North Whitehead, a noteworthy mathematician and philosopher throughout the industrial revolution once said that "Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them." Interestingly, even though they were made over 200 years ago, Whitehead's comments are as relevant today as they were when they first helped shape the course of modern industrialisation. Today, society is on the precipice of a new era of digital disruption. Powered by artificial intelligence and intelligent automation, the AI-first world promises to bring about powerful opportunities and capabilities to those who embrace it early. However, while new Avanade research shows that 86% of global business leaders believe their organization must successfully deploy intelligent automation solutions in the next five years to be a leader in their field, an overwhelming majority (79%) of these business leaders agree that internal resistance to change is limiting the implementation of AI technologies in their workplace.