Raphael John-Lall
Caribbean Corporate Governance Institute (CCGI) chairman Nigel Romano is warning that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can lead to a smaller workforce.
Romano, who is also a former managing director of JMMB among other managerial positions in the private and public sector, spoke on the opening day of the CCGI’s Governance week on June 22 under the theme “Governance in the Age of Generative AI.”
“The other problem that most people are afraid of is the impact on white collar jobs. We are also seeing it coming up very rapidly. Two days ago, Bloomberg shared an essay called ‘Silicon Valley tiny team era is here.’ One of the things that they emphasised is that these days bragging rights are going to entrepreneurs who keep headcount the lowest. The new holy grail metric is not a billion-dollar valuation but revenue per employee,” he said.
According to the Bloomberg article dated June 20, in the era of startup “blitzscaling,” which lasted roughly from Facebook’s IPO in 2012 until WeWork’s bankruptcy filing in 2023, market capitalisation and total capital raised were prized metrics. The ultimate milestone was reaching “unicorn status” — a US$1 billion valuation that was often accompanied by rapid hiring.
Bloomberg’s article continued by bluntly stating that that era is now over and these days, “bragging rights” are going to entrepreneurs who keep headcount the lowest.
Romano also said the international business news media is also churning out AI-related stories about the speed of its evolution and impact on businesses and the economy.
“Almost every email, every notification whether it is from Bloomberg, New York Times, Financial Times has something on AI. What struck me is not just the power of what exists today but the speed by which it is evolving. The kinds of power that we are talking about needs to be governed, needs to be controlled.”
New business model needed
Professor Bob Garrat, who is based in London, is a global consultant on corporate governance in the business world who also spoke, blamed Silicon Valley for developing a business model around technology that focuses on only maximising financial profits over everything else.
He said there needs to be a new and balanced business model.
“This is the business model that has been developed behind it and I have done some digging and frankly it scares me because the business model is all based on the monetisation of everything that is being done. There is very little ethical discussion about it, it is pure monetisation. It goes back to this notion, particularly but not exclusively, to Silicon Valley that it was okay to move fast and break things and that has become a mantra of that type of business. Unfortunately, breaking things is breaking the law which is breaking the rules and regulation of corporate governance.”
He spoke about how Intellectual Property rights are now being destroyed with the evolution of AI.
“What is being said in the business world is that we can steal anything, including intellectual property. We can crawl our way through that and take everything from it without any acknowledgement to the authors and designers who actually created that intellectual property. Companies are just beginning to realise that it applies as much to them as to authors and writers. There is beginning to be some panic there. I am very worried about their language learning models and at the moment there does not seem to be any regulation.”
He lamented that the idea of developing generative AI is to surpass human intelligence, which “scares” him.
“So, if we are building models fairly thoughtlessly, allowing big business, very big businesses, super businesses to run over us and on the one hand we are hoping that we can surpass human intelligence and on the other hand we can do that by theft of existing and future intellectual property then I think that this conference has a lot to think about.”
Digital divide
Professor of Computer Science, American University of Beirut, Lebanon, Dr Fatima K Abu Salem, said all stakeholders are now feeling an “AI burnout” related to job insecurity and a growing digital divide not only in society but among nations globally.
“Everyone is impacted including us computer scientists or academics. There is also a concern about AI supremac,y which is emerging classifications of nations such as those who are able to develop more of the talent and the finances and that deals with another trend of AI colonialism. This is about the reproduction of the trend of colonialism and we see it unravelling in the AI context. This is an era where decisions in boardrooms will be made by AI systems and everyone is panicking.”
She said generative AI is already in boardrooms of companies and businesses and what distinguishes it from traditional AI is that is now opening new frontiers in innovation, decision making and strategy.
In the world of business, she said AI is now automating content creation and customer services. It also reviews contracts and generates personalised marketing. Additionally, AI is now accelerating coding and software development.
“People have started to worry about how many jobs are at risk. There is the 2025 World Economic Forum Report which states that clerical roles, cashiers, administrative assistants are pretty much dying. But of course, a lot of other jobs are in demand such as AI/ML specialists, data analysts and developers continue to be on the rise.”
She predicted that the “scariest trend” over the next five years will be agentic AI which represents a major shift in AI and human collaboration to autonomous systems.
“It can execute complex workflows requiring minimal human input. They are better than generative AI in dealing with corporate values. They are more reliable than generative AI.”
Finally, she raised the question of how AI responsibility ties in with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
“I think boards need clear definitions and they need to be aware of the fact that it will always be an evolving landscape. AI systems are consuming electricity. By 2030 in the United States, AI data centres may drive 40 per cent of total new power demands. There is also the issue of AI workforce displacement and transition-planning. Massive occupational shifts are expected by 2030 as 1 in 16 workers may need a new job.”