Dr Lollie Mancey is a specialist in anthropology and innovation education. A futurist by nature, her work focuses on the changing cultural landscape in Ireland, including how this is shaped by technology. Dr Mancey believes AI is driving the next phase of the cognitive revolution.
Dr Mancey says that in order to thrive in this changing landscape, individuals need a critical thinking mindset, something she encourages her students, the next generation of innovators, to cultivate.
“Adopt a playful, critical, curious mindset,” Dr Mancey advises. “It’s not replacing human insight, it’s helping us frame it in a different way.”
The key is to explore the ways in which AI can enhance human potential rather than replace it.
“What’s going to excite and delight your customers?” she asks. “Is it a chatbot? Probably not. Putting an AI solution in where a human could be isn’t always advantageous,” she concludes.
Business leaders need to be strategic as to how AI can support their goals. “The answer is not just to sprinkle some AI on it and make it happen,” she says. “It’s got to work in designated areas... It’s got to benefit you, but also keep you productive and keep you working and at the top of your game.”
Transparency and ethical use of AI is also important to maintain trust with customers and ensure that businesses are putting systems in place that will work in the long term. “I think it's really important to differentiate between the fact that ethical AI isn't just a nice thing to have. It's a business imperative.”
A big fan of using AI in her own work, Dr Mancey outlines its benefits and encourages other business leaders to start small, looking at how they can adopt the growing range of available technologies.
“In my writing, it helps me refine ideas, structure arguments, pushes my creativity, sometimes gets me off a blank page. It frees up my cognitive space for deeper, more strategic thinking.”
As a third-level educator who specialises in future studies, Dr Mancey highlights that the education system is struggling to keep pace with the progress of new technologies and their ethical implementation. This has a knock-on effect in the workplace, where skills gaps and a reluctance to evolve could mean Irish companies fall behind.
“Future proofing, ethical decision-making, and responsible AI integration are all the relevant skills coming from education into business,” Dr. Mancey says.
Now is a critical moment, and we have the power to harness this change. Upskilling the next generation could be the solution to bridging this knowledge gap so that Irish companies can lead and innovate in the space. Dr Mancey says there are opportunities to expand AI learning in the workplace as well as in higher education.
“It’s not about working faster, it’s about working smarter,” Dr Mancey says, echoing the phrase that has become the mantra of the digital revolution. This is just the next phase.
Dr Mancey’s advice to business leaders can be summed up in five simple points:
- Don’t chase AI, chase value
- Invest in AI literacy
- Build diverse AI teams
- Think long-term, position for the future
- Put ethics at the heart of your strategy
“AI is not replacing human insight, it’s helping us frame it in a different way.”
– Dr Lollie Mancey, Anthropologist and AI Ethicist