In the final blog in my series on The Art of Influence in the Age of AI we are in the last quadrant of my Pathfinder Model, Make them Believe.
(You can find a brief overview of my Pathfinder Model in the second blog in this series, Finding Your Pathway to Influence in the Age of AI.)
It’s easy for me to tell you to Make Them Believe. But how do you do that? The answer is: Through incredible credibility.
Let’s start with the three key elements to credibility:
- Perceived expertise,
- your adaptability, and,
- above all else, trust.
Expertise has now become less about “knowing the answer” and more about knowing what to do with the answer. Because AI can now produce fluent summaries, options, arguments and counterarguments quickly, a person may appear more expert than they are. What now matters to you is your ability to frame the right question, spot weak assumptions, test AI output, know or sense what matters in context, and explain why a recommendation is sound.
Adaptability, as I explain in Chapter 6 of my book Persuasive Advising, is about your ability to read the room, be adaptable to their needs and adaptable with your advice by providing options. Not ‘my way or the highway’. In this new world, how your advice lands depends on the fit between the AI adviser, the human decision-maker, and the decision environment, which means your influence must adapt to context better than ever before.
And now to Trust. Today, trust in advisers is being simultaneously raised and weakened by AI. It can make advisers faster, better prepared and more comprehensive. But if the advice feels obviously AI-generated, generic, over-polished or detached from the real situation, it can reduce trust – just ask some of the high-profile consulting firms that have been caught out!
When you are across the Make Them Believe principles from Chapter 6, ask yourself the following questions to help you firm up your approach to your upcoming influencing conversation, so you ooze incredible credibility:
- What has AI already helped them think?
- What has it caused them to overlook?
- Where might they be overconfident because AI gave them a polished answer?
My tip: Again, go deep with these questions and work on understanding your strengths and weaknesses across perceived trust levels, expertise and how you can be adaptable with your advice.
My Focus: I’m now about halfway through my holiday. It’s still people, culture, scenery and more!