Empowering AI, Executive conversations, Interviews

Transforming Business Communities with AI: A Conversation with Franz Gilbert

Lorenzo Meriggi / June 30, 2020

In continuation of Querlo’s HR interview series, Fransesco Rulli, Global CEO of Querlo, spoke with Franz Gilbert, GPHR at Deloitte Consulting, about the challenges and opportunities COVID-19 has created and the role of Artificial Intelligence in the future.

Deloitte is a multinational professional services network that provides services such as audit and assurance, consulting, risk and financial advisory, and risk management to its clients. As a part of the consulting team, Franz has the role of bringing emerging products to both consulting teams and clients.

Franz began by discussing the impact that COVID-19 has had on the business community. In the first stage, the response stage, people were scrambling to figure out how this was going to affect them and their business. In the recovery stage, businesses are trying to reimagine themselves and how they will conduct work in this new era. Finally, the stage that is starting to emerge now is the thrive stage, in which people are beginning to plan for how the new economy might look both from a future board standpoint and with the digital transformation we’ve seen over the past few months. One of the silver linings that has emerged from working virtually is an acceleration of the movement of future work.  Due to this rapid shift to remote work, organizations have begun redesigning how jobs were done and what jobs could be done virtually. Business models have also been changing quickly to adjust, leading to this acceleration of the movement of future work. 

Looking to the future, Franz sees Artificial Intelligence playing a profound role in businesses. One thing he noticed is that his company has been spending a lot of time on what they call “super teams,” which is a combination of human and Artificial Intelligence. In a survey sent out to organizations, while only 12% said they are thinking about how Artificial Intelligence would replace workers, 60% said they are looking at using Artificial Intelligence to assist rather than replace workers. Franz believes this concept of incorporating Artificial Intelligence alongside workers is going to be the biggest change we will see in the future. He also noted that it’s important to figure out now only how to reallocate work using Artificial Intelligence but also how teams start working with it in a way that it almost becomes a part of their team. 

To learn more about Deloitte Counseling, you can email Franz directly at frgilbert@deloitte.com or find him on LinkedIN. Additionally, to learn more about the company’s super teams, you read this article on Deloitte’s website.