Interview: Scania's Patrik Hedljung on Human-Centric AI Adoption

In an era where artificial intelligence is reshaping industries and redefining leadership, AIMS International brings you an insightful conversation with Patrik Hedljung, Manager of AI Adoption at Scania Group. This interview, conducted by Göran Arvidson, Owning Partner & Executive Search Consultant at AIMS International Sweden, delves into the complex interplay of AI, leadership, and human resources.

Göran, with extensive experience in talent acquisition and organizational development, discusses Patrik's unique "human perspective" on AI implementation. Patrik shares valuable insights on navigating the AI revolution, offering advice for management teams and boards.

Read below for a fascinating discussion, guided by Göran's deep understanding of business and technology, and Patrik's insights on AI adoption, the evolving role of leadership, and the strategic challenges facing organizations in the age of artificial intelligence.

Göran: I have followed Patrik for many years and his work in organizational and leadership development. The step towards AI and its neighboring areas feels both interesting, in some sense logical and at the same time perhaps not an obvious choice.

Nice to meet you Patrik, this time in the context of an interview about AI and leadership! You have been Manager AI Adoption at Scania for a few months now. What does your role entail and what is your mission?

Patrik: You could say that my role is to be an HR voice in an IT world. I usually distinguish between AI in HR and HR in AI. The former involves using AI to streamline and develop HR processes. That part is ongoing, largely driven by service providers and their products. My focus is more on the latter - having an HR perspective in the AI transformation. It's no longer about using ChatGPT to sort CVs or implementing people analytics platforms. Instead, it's about planning for, thinking about, and initiating projects to develop the skills of all your employees. What different AI competencies do we see in the short and long term that we need to attract, retain and develop? How do we formulate an AI policy that aligns with the company's core values and meets the concerns that many feel about the development? How do we support management teams around the organization who sense that they need to better understand AI but do not know where to start, how AI should be represented in their organization and not least - how much do they themselves need to know and understand to lead the business? These are the questions I work with.

Göran: I like your motto: Driving AI adoption with a human perspective. With extensive experience in both leadership development and organizational development, what made you take the step towards a more technology-driven focus?

Patrik: I don't know if I have really taken a step towards a more technology-driven focus. At Scania, we have a large organization with many talented engineers, not least in AI. But I soon realized that thinking about leadership and organizational development issues as an AI expert was not obvious. So I try to connect as much as possible to those who understand the technical aspects and contribute with my perspectives, skills and experience. Because I am convinced that we need to lean into this issue, from all possible angles, in order for one to be successful.

Göran: One area that is highly affected is HR. What are the biggest challenges for HR going forward?

Patrik: On the one hand, I think it is not to stare blindly at what AI can mean for HR, but also to understand and value what HR can contribute to the AI implementation. I am convinced that the biggest challenge will not be technical but human. And HR can and does contribute to the human aspect in important ways. But this also requires HR to take an interest in the issue, to learn as much as they can so that they can begin to anticipate and discuss the consequences of AI at a strategic level. Most white-collar jobs will undergo major changes. Not to mention leadership, the role of the leader will look very different in a few years... for those who keep up.

Learning and development as well, I hope the time will soon be over when I have to sit through a lot of irrelevant training situations that do not concern me as an individual. We are still in a phase where we mostly discuss how AI can streamline our existing processes but soon we will need to take the next step and see how we can radically change the way we work and create value as individuals in an organization. I recently listened to Erik Brynjolfsson at Stanford University who compared it to the electrification of industry. He says it took 30-40 years before people started to see the big benefits. This was because they only replaced the large steam engine in the middle of the factory with an equally large electric motor but kept the rest of the configuration. It took a while to realize that you could instead put a small electric motor at each machine and thus design the work in a factory in completely new ways. Apply that to AI and our traditional work processes that are largely based on analogue conditions.

Göran: What advice would you give to a management team or a board to best equip themselves knowledge-wise to understand the challenges ahead linked to the technological development that is underway in particular in AI?

Patrik: For the management team, it is crucial to integrate AI into daily operations. Or at least create the conditions for it. They need to understand how AI can be used to improve processes, increase efficiency and create new business opportunities. The management team should focus on creating an AI strategy that is aligned with the company's overall goals and ensure that there is a culture of continuous learning and adaptation. To equip themselves knowledge-wise, there is no shortcut and they must start by increasing their own understanding of AI. Attend trainings and seminars, preferably ones that combine technical and strategic understanding. It is important to focus not only on the technical aspects, but also on the ethical and organizational implications. Make sure to include different perspectives in the discussions, not only from the IT department, but also from HR, legal, and business development. Build a cross-functional team to work on the AI strategy and make sure you have people who can translate the technical possibilities into business value. And above all, don't be afraid to experiment and learn from other companies that are already further along the AI journey. And again - don't leave the AI question to IT.

The board, on the other hand, needs to have a more comprehensive and long-term perspective on AI. They should ensure that the company has a robust strategy that can address future challenges and opportunities. The board should focus on governance, risk management and ethical issues, and ensure that the company's use of AI is transparent and accountable.

Göran: What do you think your mission will look like in 12, 24 and 36 months?

Patrik: Wow, it is very difficult to predict AI's development even in 6-12 months. I hope that in a year's time I will need to spend less time arguing about the importance and potential of AI and more time contributing to discussions about long-term implications and strategies where all perspectives and functions are needed. I hope that by then we will have realized that AI is not just an IT issue. With all certainty, the technology will have developed a great deal in 1-3 years, in ways that are difficult for most of us to foresee today. At the same time, people and organizations will not have had time to change at the same pace, not by a long shot. That is where the battle will be fought. And my role will probably continue to be to bridge that gap, using the means at my disposal.

Göran: Can you share some trend insights on leadership and AI?

Patrik: I believe that leadership will undergo very big changes in the coming years. And it will be important to navigate that change correctly so that we both take advantage of the opportunities of AI while not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Generative AI is trained on endless amounts of human communication and leadership is in many ways a matter of communication.

I can, as an employee, already have weekly meetings about both performance and development with ChatGPT that are better than those I have with my boss. And my boss is not bad, that’s not the point.

The manager is an enabler but also a bottleneck and the more employees you have, the greater the challenge. What we have previously seen as an unreasonably large number of direct reports may well change simply because we can relieve the manager of many conversations. At the same time, AI does not yet have as good a knowledge of the context, the organization, internal politics, etc. so the leader will continue to have an important role there, in the more strategic. And so far, most of us feel that a human conversation is more empathetic than a dialog with ChatGPT. So that's why I think leadership will and needs to develop even more in those parts. The transactional aspects of leadership we can decouple the leader from.

Göran: Who in the organization should be responsible for an AI policy and why is it important?

Patrik: I am strongly convinced that several functions need to be involved in designing an AI policy, we need many perspectives. Definitely IT, legal, HR, Finance and Communication. Depending on the business, I think an AI policy needs to look a little different. For a company like Scania that also develops its own AI, an AI policy needs to have a greater breadth than a company that only buys and uses external AI services.