Part IV: The Pay-off – Why Putting People First is Great for Business

The idea of putting people at the heart of AI isn’t just a nice thought; it’s a smart business strategy with real-world proof. Companies that design AI to work with their human experts, instead of just trying to replace them, are seeing amazing results

AI IN BUSINESS

Konrad Pazik

6/28/202515 min read

Part IV: The Pay-off – Why Putting People First is Great for Business

Proof That It Works: Human-Centred AI in Action

The idea of putting people at the heart of AI isn’t just a nice thought; it’s a smart business strategy with real-world proof. Companies that design AI to work with their human experts, instead of just trying to replace them, are seeing amazing results. They’re becoming more efficient, producing higher quality work, reducing risks, and sparking more innovation. Let’s look at some inspiring examples from different industries.

Case Study 1: Geisinger Health System – Better Health for Patients and the Business Geisinger, a large healthcare network in the US, is a brilliant example of human-centred AI in action. Their whole strategy is about giving doctors and nurses AI "superpowers," not replacing their judgement. For example, they use AI to predict which patients are at a high risk of getting sick from things like the flu or a stroke. But the AI’s job is just to raise a flag; it’s the human care teams who then step in to help those patients. One of their star programmes, called STAIR, uses AI to scan thousands of radiology reports to spot tiny lung nodules that might be missed. The AI finds the potential risks, but a team of human specialists then creates the care plan for the patient. This is a perfect example of a Human-in-the-Loop (permission-based) model.

The results have been incredible. On the health side, the STAIR programme has cut the waiting time for a follow-up on a lung nodule from 112 days down to just eight, and they haven’t missed a single case of cancer among the patients in the programme. Their AI for predicting colorectal cancer risk made screening 12 times more effective. And on the financial side, their AI-powered work has saved the company over £32 million and reduced unnecessary A&E visits and hospital stays by 10%.

Case Study 2: Bain & Company’s "Sage" – A Super-Assistant for Top Consultants In the world of high-level business consulting, where human expertise is everything, the consulting firm Bain & Company has created an amazing AI assistant called "Sage." Sage is powered by GPT-4 and is designed to help, not replace, Bain’s consultants. It’s built right into the tools they use every day (like Microsoft Office) and helps them do time-consuming tasks—like analysing data or creating the first draft of a presentation—in a fraction of the time. The whole system is built around a "Human in Charge" model. Every single thing Sage produces is checked and improved by a human consultant, and a special AI Governance Board makes sure everything is safe and private. This is essential when the advice you’re giving is worth millions.

The pay-off for Bain is huge. The most obvious benefit is a massive boost in efficiency. Tasks that used to take hours now take minutes, which frees up the consultants to focus on the really clever strategic thinking and talking to clients. This is a big reason why the firm expects over half of its income to come from AI-supported work by 2027. It also gives them a big strategic advantage, showing clients that they are leaders in AI and even creating new ways to make money by offering some of their AI tools to clients.

Case Study 3: KPMG’s "Clara" – A New Era for Auditing In the world of financial auditing, where being accurate and trustworthy is everything, KPMG’s "Clara" platform shows how AI can transform a profession while keeping people firmly in control. The idea behind Clara is that it’s "AI-enabled, people-powered." The AI does all the heavy lifting, like checking huge amounts of documents and data, while the human auditor guides the process, investigates anything unusual, and makes the final professional judgement. AI agents in Clara automate routine checks but are designed to flag anything that looks odd for a human to review. This lets the auditors focus their brainpower on the most complex and risky areas.

The result is a huge improvement in both the quality and efficiency of an audit. Instead of just checking a small sample of a company’s transactions, the AI can check 100% of them, giving a much deeper and more reliable insight. This is leading to great financial results. A study by KPMG found that for companies leading the way with AI, 57% said their return on investment was not just meeting, but beating their expectations.

Looking at these success stories, a clear pattern emerges. The amazing results don’t come from AI working alone. They come from a powerful partnership where AI brings the speed and scale, and humans bring the context, judgement, and ethical oversight. This partnership isn’t just additive; it’s multiplicative. At Geisinger, the AI’s predictions are useless without the human care manager. At Bain, Sage’s drafts are worthless without the consultant’s strategic input. At KPMG, Clara’s data crunching is unactionable without the auditor’s investigation. In every case, taking the human out of the loop would make the whole system fall apart. This proves that putting people first isn’t about sacrificing results for the sake of ethics. It’s about designing the best possible team to achieve incredible outcomes that neither a person nor a machine could ever achieve on their own. The human isn’t a cost to be cut; they are the essential ingredient for success.

The Next Adventure: What the Future of Work Looks Like

The human-first approach we’ve talked about in this guide isn’t just a plan for today; it’s an essential skill for navigating the future of work. The AI we have now is just the beginning. Over the next few years (from now until 2030), AI will get even better at handling complex thinking tasks, which will continue to change our jobs in big ways. And looking even further ahead, the possible arrival of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)—AI that can think and learn like a human across many different areas—presents an even bigger shift. Building our human-centred skills today is the best way to prepare for this exciting future.

In the coming years, the work we do will keep changing. As AI "digital workers" get better at managing everything from writing reports to running entire projects, the most valuable human contributions will shift from doing the work to guiding the work. The most important jobs will be for people who can tell the AI what to do, check its performance, and ensure the quality of its output. This gives rise to a new type of leader: the "AI Manager," who is skilled at leading a team of both people and AIs. This means that the skills that make us uniquely human will become more valuable than ever: strategic judgement, creativity, emotional intelligence, and ethical thinking. The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2030, nearly 40% of a worker's core skills will have been affected by this change, so we all need to be ready to adapt.

The "dual-track" skillset we talked about earlier will also evolve. On the tech side, knowing the basics of AI will be expected of everyone, while more advanced skills like "AI collaboration"—knowing how to get the best out of AI agents—will really make you stand out. On the human side, skills like adaptability, critical thinking, and a love of learning will be the keys to success in a world that’s always changing.

Looking beyond the next few years, we need to start thinking about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). While today’s AI is specialised for certain tasks, AGI is the idea of an AI that could learn and reason about almost anything, just like a person. The arrival of AGI, whenever it happens, would be a game-changer for our economy and society. Unlike previous technology that mostly affected routine jobs, AGI could potentially do almost any job a human can. Some economic models suggest this could lead to a world with much greater inequality, where wealth is concentrated in the hands of those who own the AGI systems. This is a huge challenge that goes beyond any single company and will require us all to think differently.

Guiding such a powerful technology will require a whole new way of thinking about ethics. The rulebooks we write for today’s AI won’t be enough for the dynamic and unpredictable nature of AGI. Our future ethical frameworks will need to be more like a continuous conversation, where we work with AI to evolve our ethical guidelines together. The core principles of this guide—keeping humans in control, aligning with our values, and ensuring people are always accountable—will become more than just good ideas; they will be essential safeguards for our future.

This long-term view shows why the work we do today is so important. This human-first framework is more than just a plan for adopting today’s AI; it’s about building a future-proof organisation. The skills a company builds today—in ethical governance, in helping its people adapt, in designing great human-AI teams, and in leading change with empathy—are the very same skills it will need to navigate the even bigger changes of tomorrow. The challenges of today’s AI are a dress rehearsal for the challenges of AGI. By mastering a human-centred approach now, an organisation isn’t just solving a current business problem. It’s building the resilience, the maturity, and the adaptability it needs to lead the way into an exciting and transformative future.

Conclusion

Bringing Artificial Intelligence into our working lives isn't something that’s just happening to us; it’s a journey that we have the power to shape. We’re faced with a fascinating paradox: on one side, there’s this incredible potential for growth and innovation, but on the other, there are real worries and human risks that could stop us from getting there. This guide has offered a positive, human-first framework to help us navigate this paradox—not by choosing between technology and people, but by building a brilliant partnership between them.

Our journey starts with a heartfelt commitment to ethics based on our values, moving beyond just ticking boxes to actively building trust through fairness, openness, and accountability. This means being transparent with those who need to check our work and being explainable to those who are affected by it, while always having a proactive plan to prevent unfairness.

Our action plan then focuses on bringing people and AI together in our daily work. This involves thoughtfully designing how we collaborate, using different models to make sure human judgement is applied where it matters most. It requires a huge investment in our people engine, helping everyone grow with a mix of AI-savvy skills and timeless human "power skills." And, crucially, this whole journey must be led with a kind and structured change management playbook that turns anxiety into excitement and resistance into a shared adventure.

Finally, this human-first approach needs to be supported by strong governance and oversight. By setting up a clear risk management framework, creating a diverse AI Ethics Council, and being open about our commitments in a public Transparency Report, we build the guardrails that allow us to innovate safely and with confidence.

The stories from pioneering organisations like Geisinger, Bain & Company, and KPMG show us one clear thing: putting people first isn’t a compromise on results; it’s the very thing that unlocks them. The greatest successes happen not when AI replaces people, but when it gives them superpowers—when AI’s incredible scale and speed are multiplied by human wisdom and judgement.

Ultimately, this framework is more than just a guide for today’s AI; it’s a blueprint for building an organisation that is adaptive, resilient, and ready for the future. The next frontiers of technology, including AGI, are on the horizon. The companies that will lead the way in that future are the ones that, today, choose to put the human at the very centre of their AI strategy. They are the ones building the culture, the skills, and the governance to ensure that technology always serves to empower people and create a better, more sustainable world for us all.

Works cited

Part IV: The Pay-off – Why Putting People First is Great for Business

Part IV: The Pay-off – Why Putting People First is Great for Business

Proof That It Works: Human-Centred AI in Action

The Next Adventure: What the Future of Work Looks Like

Conclusion

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