Three questions are keeping top leaders up at night right now.
Especially since the uncertainty that haunted us last year continues into 2024.
From my conversations with many top leaders in the US, these are the questions that run on repeat for them as they fall asleep –
- How do we stay relevant in a future that’s quickly evolving?
- How will our people compete with AI?
Here’s what I tell them and what I am sharing with you. The change they are sensing is very real, and it’s not an overreaction. Their concern is on point because they know that their very future depends on how they handle the current changes.
No industry, size, or even geography is immune.
Before we go into the new rules, let’s look at WHY NOW? What’s happening right now to make these old rules obsolete?
Three factors are converging to create monumental, once-in-a-lifetime changes.
Workforce Changes:
By early 2024, more Gen Zs will be working full-time than Baby Boomers. While millennials still make up the biggest part of the workforce now, think about what an inflection point that alone is. Whom you sell to is bound to change and how you sell to them must follow. Just ask Stanley.
Let’s add to this what we know based on LinkedIn’s data as they have the best career path data on the planet. What they find is that every four years, around 40% of members change their industry, seniority, function, company size, and company. For anyone in B2B sales, this means new potential clients with changing levels of influence in their organizations.
Let’s combine those two things alone.
A newer, younger, and much tech-savvy workforce combined with folks moving industries and roles more rapidly than ever before.
Those great relationships that historically may have been the backbone of your business will shift.
So, how do you influence the new powers that are or will certainly be in the near-term future? Especially as they embrace AI as part of their decision-making process, which brings us to the second factor.
Competing with AI:
AI will become an interface between us and the world. It’s not a “thing” we use but the ecosystem we must thrive in.
While many leaders are faced with competing with AI, they don’t fully understand it.
AI isn’t a tool. It’s not a tactic, a platform, or a thing you layer or use.
The best way to think about AI is as an interface and a cognitive partner.
It will be the lens with which we inquire and engage with the world.
Bill Gates says that AI is one of only two revolutionary technologies that he’s witnessed in his lifetime.
The other one? GUI. (Graphical User Interface.)
Our current work routines, once seemingly cutting-edge, will soon appear as quaint as carbon paper copies, fading into the sepia tones of technological obsolescence.
Imagine you wake up and AI has already summarized all your emails, negotiated your latest SAAS renewal, and has a pre-response already written for all your Slack messages. You need to confirm or edit as needed. Oh, and it’s already ordered flowers for your anniversary and recommended an outfit for the evening.
This will be the future, and make no mistake, it’s an AND equation.
Information and knowledge will become incredibly commonplace. The internet made information accessible. AI will make it applicable.
This raises some scary questions if you are in the business of selling knowledge. How do we convince clients that our expertise still matters? How do we influence them when the players are changing?
Since the beginning of time, human beings have had two assets – intelligence and human connection. While AI gets smarter, it can never replace human connection. The empathy. The boots on the ground. For any good salesperson, this will become an even stronger superpower.
AI can have expertise, but it can’t provide experience.
A simple peek at the chart above will show you the staggering adoption of ChatGPT.
Add to this our next factor, and you’ll see why we need new rules for a new game.
Social Media is Evolving:
The social media that existed when I first joined Twitter at less than two thousand users and when I wrote the first book on the topic is dead.
Social and media have split.
We may consume “media” publicly, but we are “social” in private. This has massive ramifications for all your marketing and customer engagement strategies. It means that public engagement of your content is no longer a reliable metric of effectiveness.
Welcome to the dark social era.
If you can’t rely on your audience liking and commenting on your content publicly, how do you know what’s resonating with and influencing them?
The number#1 most used app on ANY person’s phone today is…a messenger app. It doesn’t matter if it’s WhatsApp or, iMessage or Slack or IG DMs.
So, what should you focus on instead? Consumption. Because consumption drives conversions.
Consumption IS engagement.
While workforce trends, AI, and the rise of dark social are distinct factors, their convergence, whether leaders can point to them individually or not, is causing this seismic shift.
Understanding what’s causing the metaphorical plates under our feet to shift is important. Knowing what to do about them is what will differentiate the brands that stay relevant from those that don’t.
Those who stay relevant will follow the new rules of influence and engagement because they are in the know.
Now that you have a clear framework of why new rules are needed, I’ll share what those are in part 2 of this article series, including a summary of the top five rules every leader must work to understand and then apply.
Be sure to subscribe so you get notified when it’s live.
Shama Hyder is the Founder & CEO of Zen Media, an international keynote speaker, and a bestselling author.
Fast Company calls her a “millennial master of the universe” and a “zen master of marketing.”
She’s a Forbes and Inc. 30 under 30 alum, and LinkedIn has named her a Top Voice in Marketing four years in a row.
To hire Shama for your next company meeting, click here.