#14: Leading With AI: Empowering Tech Managers

  Hello, everyone. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Priyanka. And you're listening to unleash your leadership. You're here to learn, to grow and to elevate your leadership skills. And that's what we are all about. I'm excited to start a whole new series of episodes here. In this season.

And I'm looking forward to talking to you. Talking to many leaders and talking about all the current subjects at hand. Including AI.  Today we are embracing the future. You're talking about AI. Yes. Artificial intelligence and how it can empower. Many different roles.  I want to start by talking about how we can empower technical program managers or TPMs.

And we'll dive into some other roles as well.  So sit tight and let's delve into this exciting and innovative world.

First since I come from a technical program management background, I want to start off with a quick refresher on TPMs. They are the bridge between technology and business. The managed complex technical programs. , keeping them on time within budget and aligned with business goals. It's no small task.

Not imagine if they had a tool that could enhance communication, streamline processes and improve productivity.  That's where AI comes in.  Specifically OpenAir has checked GPT. 

Chat GPT has been a rage since a few months, as you all know. If you are.  Not.  Knowing what it is. You're living under a rock.  Let's unpack this GPT or generative pre-trained transformer is a language prediction model that uses machine learning to generate human, like text. It can understand context, produce responses, translate languages, and so much more. 

So let's start by considering an example. Let's say there's a TPM at a major tech company.  We can call her Liza.  And Lisa is responsible for overseeing the deployment of major software upgrade across her company. With so many stakeholders requirements and deadlines. It's a massive job.  But GPT 4 could be a game-changer for her. 

First think about the communication.  Lisa spends a lot of time writing emails, drafting documents, and, and possibly recording meeting notes. With GPT 4, she could automate much of this process. 

GPT can understand the context of a discussion in gender detailed, clear, and professional communication. This could save Liza hours every week, freeing her focused on strategic planning and decision-making. 

How many times have we all been in a meeting? And felt like.  Who's going to take notes or I don't feel like taking notes or taking notes. Distracts me.  AI could be that note taker. And not only does it take notes, it can quickly summarize the action items. And even give you  a post-meeting summary that you can send on to everybody who attended the meeting and anybody who did. 

This is the easiest way to incorporate AI.  Now let's say Lisa also needs to keep track of her deadlines and tasks. This is where GPT can act as an AI assistant. Again, provide reminders, even anticipate potential roadblocks based on project data.  Think of the time and stress, this could save.  There's so many ways to incorporate AI, to plugins and other mechanisms, and a lot of companies that are actually developing specialized apps for this kind of productive work. 

And you can leverage it too. 

Training and onboarding is another area where AI could help Liza. She often has to train two new team members, for example, are good. Have to train them are, you know, onboard other stakeholders onto the technical aspects of the programs. Is there spending hours explaining the same concepts. A TPM. 

Could use GPT to create an interactive onboard experience. New hires could ask questions and get instant, accurate responses. Imagine the time it would free up.  Lisa or another TPM like her so that they could focus on leading the team and driving the program forward. 

So here's the thing. You are all leaders, and this is important to understand that the.  AI and the future of AI, isn't about replacing human jobs with AI. It's about augmenting our rules. Taking on the reputative mundane tasks and giving us more time for the things that really matter.  If you're a TPM like Liza or in a similar role. 

Then about how you can leverage AI and GPT.  Of course, there's a learning curve. You need to understand the technology. And stay updated on the latest trends.  You'll need to figure out how to tweak. Certain ways of prompting AI. And what gives you the responses that feel most natural to you?  A word of caution is not to just take everything as is and put it in. 

Into wherever you might be sending off new communication.  You aren't always still smart about it. And.  Make sure that you give it a read through.  And incorporate it in a way that feels most authentic to you. 

And if you do that, the payoff could be huge, not just in productivity, but in job satisfaction and leadership group.  As leaders, we're all about improving, innovative and inspiring.  And embracing new technology like AI and GPT is part of the journey. 

So don't fear the unknown and explore the possibilities.  Be a pioneer. 

And here's a secret that I'm going to tell you. 

Most are watching her today.  From me.  Was generated by GPT 4. 

Of course, I added my flavor in there. And I went in corporate at additional sentences. 

But majority of the gist was given to me. By GPT 4.  I input exactly how I wanted this podcast to come out. What I wanted it be about.  And asked it to refine certain sections. 

So for example,  I don't want to just limit in this conversation to technical program managers.  So this is a space for all leaders. And even other roles like product managers, operations managers, strategy managers. And other people are entered. Roll.  GaN utilize this technology and I'm sure a lot of them are doing it already. 

So I want to look at these additional areas. And tell you about. For example, a product manager could do with AI.  So if we have it product manager, Let's call them Raj working on a new software product.  He has a market research, data, user feedback and competitive analysis. There's a plethora of information. 

And analyzing all of it. That's a daunting task.  Here is where AI can step in. Using AI, Raj can process and analyze large volumes of data. Identify patterns and gain insights that could influence product strategy.  This way. Raj can focus on decision-making rather than data crunching. 

Another way to think about it. This customer interactions.  With the advanced language, understanding GPT can be employed to analyze customer feedback reviews and social media mentions. To understand user sentiment and needs.  This real time detailed analysis can help a product manager make more user centered decisions. 

It also becomes much more easier to correlate this data. Fine teams.  Faster as opposed to doing it at a human speed. 

Roles like operations managers. Good. Also ensure smooth day-to-day operations from scheduling to resource allocation to process optimization. An operations manager. Can really get a lot of their plate. Addressed. With AI.  It can help automate routine tasks like scheduling, issuing reminders, similar to what was mentioned in the TPM side of the role.  

You can also analyze operational data or identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies and all of this saves valuable time. 

What about strategy managers or somebody who's thinking about the business on long-term goals?  Analyzing market trends and making forecasts is something that AI can help do.  Yeah, I can really provide in depth analysis and even predictive modeling. This can empower strategy operations mat or strategy manager. 

Julie make informed strategic decisions and set goals. Based on how they anticipate the market changes to come. 

So in each of these cases, as you can see AI.  It's not necessarily replacing the human roles, but documenting them. It's freeing up time and helping these people focus on other high value work. And I always talk about doing high value work as a way to scale yourself up as a way to become more of an influential leader. 

So let's continue to invest in our understanding of AI and embrace AI.  In this journey. 

I really enjoyed talking to you about this topic here. And I would love to hear from you on what are your experiences with via. What questions do you have about AI? And how are you leveraging it? Are, you know, maybe you have some fears about AI. Let's talk about all of those things.  But just keep it coming. 

And I am really thankful for y'all spending the time with me here today. Thank you for tuning in. I just want to remind you to stay curious, stay inspired and keep leading until next time on unleash your leadership. Bye.