Stop Competing with AI: Lead with Human Intelligence Instead

Alexey Korotich, the Vice President of Product at Wrike, shares his commentary on why companies should stop trying to compete with AI and focus on the human intelligence of their team teams instead. This article originally appeared in Insight Jam, an enterprise IT community that enables human conversation on AI.

The introduction of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has made a lasting impact on our world. Despite the technology’s potential to significantly improve how we live and work, most of the discussion hinges on competition—the idea that humans must now compete with AI to keep their edge, especially in the workplace.

This has left many organizations with the difficult task of understanding how AI can be applied across the business to create efficiencies while empowering employees with the right tools and education to instill confidence rather than fear. For many, this could feel like an insurmountable task, but I am here to shed light on a key perspective shift that will help organizations more effectively harness the power of AI-leading with human intelligence.

This shift requires both the right mindset and the right technology. Regarding the former, leaders must shift their thinking to understand how AI and human intelligence can work together (instead of pitting them against each other) to optimize the business and uplift the work teams are doing rather than replacing individual job functions.

Within my organization, we do this by building a culture around AI. This means taking the time to understand where it can most positively impact our business, promoting open dialogue amongst employees about usage, best practices, and limitations, encouraging internal knowledge sharing, and creating opportunities for upskilling. This helps to temper a central fear of “humans vs. tech” and allows teams to explore AI within a secure, trusted environment.

When it comes to technology, there is an opportunity for IT leaders to have a sizable impact on how AI drives the future of the business. This starts with sourcing tools that can decrease the number of applications employees are using on a daily basis. This may feel like a familiar task, as teams report actively trying to reduce this number last year. But now, with increased demand for AI tools, it’s important not to lose sight of progress already made to address app sprawl.

When evaluating AI tools, organizations should seek to add those that pair with existing solutions and connect cross-functional workflows rather than taking a piecemeal approach. A single source of truth, like a work management platform with built-in AI, can also help bring everything into one place.

Tying back to human intelligence, IT leaders must also seek out tools that draw on insights from how work is being done across their specific organization rather than relying solely on data from large language models (LLM). For example, we are in the unique position of using our own solution, which allows us to draw from a rich and sophisticated data model.

Our interactions with AI are informed by 500 billion historical data points and support for connected work structures, counting 100K items and more. This means that whether a marketing team is using generative AI to develop copy or a professional services team is relying on automation for staffing their client projects, they can have peace of mind knowing that AI is applying knowledge from their work patterns and behaviors, in addition to what an LLM might recommend.

And I would be remiss not to point out security’s role in this conversation. Entrusting a partner with your data—especially if the technology is learning from how your teams work—must be backed by enterprise-grade security and a rigorously enforced ethics policy. In our case, we’ve invested in leveraging ML, GenAI, and automation to develop intelligent capabilities since 2017, so this level of diligence is part of our DNA.

The proliferation of AI has opened the door for IT leaders to have a measurable impact on the business. Setting the tone for how both leadership and employees interact with the technology is essential to building a culture of AI that fosters partnership rather than competition. It also creates an opportunity to deliver and implement the right tools for the business, which is crucial for building trust among employees and senior leadership.