Who to hire for your AI Team?

One of the most common questions I get from CEOs of both startups and large established businesses is what type of talent to hire as they try to bring AI into their organizations.

The answer of course depends on their goals, but it seems that 3 personas work best in this time of the Great Commoditization of AI: the Tinkerer (or hacker), the Scientist, and the Architect (or the systems builder).

The Tinkerer

The tinkerer, or the hacker as some would refer to this person, is someone who downloaded the OpenAI Developer Kit as soon as it became available. Within weeks this person built an AI assistant to help manage their email, or to automatically order groceries when the fridge is running low, or an app to help their kid get better at math, or trained the AI to tell silly jokes at their weekly all-hands meeting. Regardless of what they built, identifying the tinkerer is easy because they can't wait to show off their project.

When hiring this person a fancy degree is not a priority, maybe it can even be a hindrance. The most important thing is that they are a true tinkerer and bring both that aptitude and passion for playing and building to the team.

*and if this person is concerned with titles or gaining direct reports or with speaking at board meetings, they are probably not really a tinkerer.

Management Advice - don't put this person in a box but act as their compass. Sic them on a business opportunity or operational challenge and show them the right direction to run. From there it's all about rapid iterations and lots of real-world feedback.

Organizational Best Practice - if speed, learning, new insights, and rapid iteration are the goals, build an AI Insights and Prototyping team made up of 3 - 7 tinkerers and grant them access to product and business leaders.

Mistake to Avoid - Do not let yourself or one of your executives turn this team into their personal pet project squad. Give the tinkerers freedom to follow their instincts.

The Scientist

The Scientist wants to understand deeply, wants to dig deeper, and wants to set up experiments that can be measured and slowly iterated upon. Unlike the tinkerer who is happy to connect things at will and see how it goes, the scientist wants to be precise and thinks deeply about the data sets, their bias, the order of operation, and so much more. It's easy to identify the scientists by the way they speak and the time they take to examine all the possibilities. Trust me, it is not possible to confuse the scientist and the tinkerer.

This person is likely to hold and benefit from advanced degrees and time working in settings outside of business. This person will likely seek colleagues who want to think critically and deeply about topics and should never report directly to a tinkerer or fast-talking business executive.

Organizational Fit - the scientist is the best fit for a company that is committed to a long-term innovation strategy and whose position in the market as a technology leader is critical to business success. Scientists need the time (and budget), space (and tools), and environment (access to data and things they can manipulate) to be successful.

Management Advice - like the tinkerer, do not put this person in a box and do not put them on a product schedule. The scientist's value will not come in equal increments but will come in large batches as their work turns into deep differentiated insights and opportunities.

Mistake to Avoid - Remember, this is a scientist, not a doctor nor an architect.

The Architect

The Architect seeks elegant long-lasting solutions. Unlike the scientist, the architect is a problem solver, not a researcher. And unlike the tinkerer, the architect is methodical, patient, and precise. The Architect is a unique technical talent a mix of engineer, designer, system manager, and art director. It is the elegance and thoughtfulness of their designs that enable the architect to stand out above the rest in the world of business.

Like Steve Jobs, the architect utilizes a variety of disciplines, skills, and tools to accomplish their work.

Management Advice - This type of talent needs to be able to see and deeply understand both the big-picture vision and the operational details of the business. Unlike the others, the architect can work alone but needs to regularly engage with people of different skillsets and areas of responsibility to keep in the right direction.

Organizational Best Practice - If your business is ready for AI Primetime, not for a test nor pilot, but rather for building critical AI systems/capabilities that need to last then a team of architects is what you need; perhaps working closely with a group of tinkerers to combine their skillsets. These architects must work intimately with business stakeholders and product management.

Mistake to Avoid - Hiring this type of talent too early when the business or its leadership is not ready. Compared to the tinkerer and scientist, the architect requires the highest level of business readiness for AI to effectively do their work.

A few more thoughts...

If I could only choose one hire in this current era, for me it's a no-brainer, tinker away!

Existing team members with the right mind frame and deep domain knowledge make the perfect colleagues and partners for these new hires. Giving existing team members a shot at joining these new AI teams and working groups is a great idea both practically and from an HR/management perspective.

There is one more persona I did not include here and that's the Innovator or Entrepreneur; or I guess the Intraprenuer. When setting up these teams, especially if there are multiple AI efforts going on at once adding an entrepreneur to the mix can be of great value. Many Entrepreneurs live at the intersection of product, tech, and business and have a bias for action which is often exactly what is needed to make progress in an uncertain field. Thus, creating a Corporate Entrepreneur in Residence or outside advisor role can be a valuable accelerator.