Then you can’t do the job with tech.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you can’t do the job without tech, then you can’t do the job with tech.

All tech does is automate tasks and workflow processes and allow you to speed them up by a factor of 10 to 1,000,000 plus (depending on the tasks and workflow processes).

It doesn’t make tasks or processes better or worse (unless you Gen-AI, which typically makes it worse) — just faster (unless, of course, you change the process when you implement the tech and make the task or process better or worse).

Now, you’re probably asking why it’s not enough to design the process and simply install the tech. That’s because there’s a difference between designing a process and executing a process. Anyone can design a process at a high level given a highly set of requirements. Not anyone can execute. Among those, even less can execute it effectively.

Only those who can execute it effectively are fit to do the job, regardless of what tech the organization has or does not have. That’s because, if you don’t know how to do the job without tech (and certainly without AI), you don’t understand what the job really is. Business was conducted for thousands of years without modern tech, and computers only became generally available in big business in the 80s and mid-size businesses in the 90s and small businesses in the 2000s. That means everything you do today with modern tech was once done without modern tech (and, 150 years ago, without any tech that we would consider modern at all).

That understanding means you understand the core of the function. You know what has to be done, how, where the time suck is, what can be automated, how, and why. You also know how to verify correct automations has been implemented, and where the results require human interpretation, review, and decisions — and, if necessary, make those interpretations, review, and decisions.

Without that understanding, you can’t properly make use of tech and you definitely can’t make use of AI. Sure some tasks might be 10 to 1,000,000 times slower (and sourcing optimization will be out of the question, just a few bid comparisons), and you shouldn’t do them by hand unless necessary, but the point is you need to be able to — otherwise, you can never judge what the system does. Iin the age of hyper-fast LLM hallucinations, only good human decisions will allow your organization to succeed.