At a recent lunch, an entrepreneur friend of mine turned to me and asked, “Lorraine, am I being left behind?” This statement reflects how many people currently think about artificial intelligence.
The excitement is certainly high. Artificial intelligence will help us solve problems big and small, from diagnosing cancer to fighting climate change or simply by helping us be more productive.
But alongside this excitement there is also fear. Fear of not understanding the technology. Fear of making a mistake. And, as in the case of this entrepreneur, fear of missing out.
If you have compassion, you are not alone. In a recent survey only 32% of business leaders said their company had already implemented AI on a large scaleWe’re all still trying to figure out how to bring the benefits of AI to our teams – and what success looks like.
If I’ve learned anything in my 20 years at Google and 30 years in advertising, it’s that we shape technology by the way we use it. And that process isn’t linear.
When it comes to AI, we’re all still testing and learning how to translate this technology into value, so now is the time for anyone to experiment and play around. AI tools are already available—and no advanced training or coding skills are required to get involved.
But right now, not enough of us are doing that.
It starts at the top. As leaders, we need to take action and use AI tools at work – and in our personal lives. We need to experiment with as many different use cases and solutions as possible.
AI tools can now find that one email from my kids’ school with all the important dates, summarize entire work email threads, give me feedback on how our creative work is being received, or gift me with a brilliant line of poetry.
We also need to give our teams permission to innovate. Ideas come from everywhere, and often from where you least expect them. Encourage your teams – whether in operations, marketing, sales or development – to try out different AI tools.
At Google, we strive to foster a culture of curiosity where people try things, fail, and try again—and regularly share what works and what doesn’t. Our Dogfooding program is one way we encourage everyone to use early product features. At a hackathon we recently hosted, people assembled teams from across the company and imagined entirely new ways to use AI.
There’s no wrong way to experiment. For example, a company can start by identifying a specific pain point—whether it’s an e-commerce retailer using generative AI to write product descriptions at scale or a graphic design platform using AI to speed up video creation.
To inspire others, we recently published a list of how over 100 companies use AI. We have also just a course to help everyone from small businesses to nonprofits and governments embrace AI.
Like many of us heading to Cannes Lions, I’m particularly interested in how AI will change marketing. Some believe that AI will threaten the very nature of creativity. I disagree.
Creative people have long embraced major technological changes. They use them as an opportunity to try new things, often long before others, and ultimately fuel our imagination. When creativity and technology come together, we can achieve extraordinary things.
I’m lucky enough to work with some of the best creatives in the world. Even they will tell you that a blank sheet of paper can be terrifying. So leave the terror of that first terrible design to an AI. Spare yourself that. And then be brilliant.
AI can also save marketers countless hours. At Google, we use AI to create multiple versions of an ad in the time it used to take to create a single version. And we use AI to translate ad copy and deliver campaigns in 150 countries.
Like any tool, AI has its limitations. That’s why humans are still essential. When we use AI to translate ad copy, a real person reviews each piece before it’s published. AI can enhance the brilliance and judgment of our teams, but it can’t replace them. It can help us do better work, faster and at scale, but not without strong human judgment.
So what would I tell my friend who owns a business today? That this is just the beginning.
The future of AI is not fixed. It will be shaped by our actions today. It is up to all of us to be curious. This curiosity is what drives us to amazing creativity and makes our work great.
It is rare that we have the chance to shape the future together. Today is one of those moments.
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