Paul Hardy, 52, from Brighton, spent the first two decades of the 2000s looking for anything to make life easier for himself and his colleagues. Perhaps the drive to always find the simplest way to do things has made it a benchmark for digitalization. ServiceNow, which he has been dedicated to for the past 10 years, provides tools to build digital environments for governments and large enterprises such as Microsoft, Veolia and the Aston Martin F1 team.
An avowed surf fan, he spends his days navigating the challenges of a corporate world that has become all too quickly obsessed with artificial intelligence (AI). Mr. Hardy praised the technology, which his customers had no idea where it would lead to, and said in his current job it often serves as a lifeline to keep executives from blowing away millions of dollars for no reason. Recently, his company has pioneered the development of AI agents for business applications. This is a tool that promises to transform work as we know it. In an interview with EL PAÍS, the executive commented that AI will destroy jobs, just like electricity and the internal combustion engine. However, he believes that a new era will emerge from this revolution, with new horizons that humanity has not yet discovered.
listen: What does innovation mean to you?
answer: Technology is changing a lot and innovation simply means doing something different tomorrow. For large organizations, optimizing a single process can change the way they do business.
question: Which current technological advances do you find particularly exciting or disruptive?
answer: The idea of technology that works exactly when people need it seems very important to me. One of the world’s greatest achievements is that people can carry around their phones and install applications that suit them, or uninstall them if they don’t like them. Technology must function similarly in a business environment. We’ve always had tools that work more or less well. But we are now firmly on the cusp of a stage where new technologies such as artificial intelligence and platforms can do exactly what is needed. We do what needs to be done at that exact moment and adjust to create value.
question: You mentioned AI earlier. Do you think companies should balance technology and human capital?
answer: We need to learn how to use tools correctly and let our employees explore the possibilities they offer. Humans are and always will be the key to business, but we have to figure out how. There are basic tasks that none of us want to do. When people make mistakes or get bored, they want to avoid them. So why not automate it? Then people can spend their time developing ideas that truly create value. One of the things we’re doing is streamlining and simplifying so that people can see if they’re spending their time doing things that they think are meaningful or important. Some of the companies we work with are so large that they have lost touch with people.
question: There is more and more talk about AI agents. How do you think they will change things in the coming years?
answer: I think they affect everything in our daily lives. As I said before, I think these technologies will help us with all the things we don’t want to do. These allow people to do things better and focus on innovation and imagination. There are many aspects of work where AI agents need to be able to perform better than humans. Will this affect my job or role? Of course. But over time, those people will be retrained into different roles and jobs, just like when trains came and people drove horses and buggies. This is a revolution, but in the meantime, I think the roles that will be affected will be the ones that people don’t want to do anyway.
People are and always will be key to business, but we need to think about how to retain them.
question: What do you think humans will do if AI can do everything we don’t want to do?
answer: We will grow and be able to do more. That’s the vision. It allows us to think about our environment, our planet, and the communities in which we work. Many of these things are relegated to the background as we focus on products and results. I think this will give us more freedom to think about how we can have a bigger impact in the future.
question: There is currently a debate going on in Europe about competitiveness.
answer: yes. I think there are many solutions. Innovation is a tool for increasing competitiveness, but it requires a strategic approach. We have a lot of technology, but in Europe we need to first understand and solve problems, not just automate them. Otherwise, you will be giving your opponent an advantage. For example, in the automotive industry, manufacturers are no longer just manufacturers, but digital companies. With electrification on the horizon, we need to understand how to enable these traditional businesses to continue to develop. Of course, you are not going to change them completely, but removing some of the noise will help them grow and achieve their goals.
question: What barriers do you see to implementing these innovative technologies in the private sector?
answer: I think the biggest challenge is getting people to understand that each case is unique. Everything was very fast. ChatGPT came out and people panicked. Bosses began demanding that people look for something so as not to be left behind. They wanted to appear to be leaders in this field. Now people are relaxing. They are thinking about how to develop a true AI strategy.
question: With many companies using the term AI superficially, how can we recognize its true value?
answer: The simple answer is through AI strategies. A true AI strategy doesn’t focus on artificial intelligence itself. It’s value to the business and that’s the key. Many organizations believe that AI is limited to the IT department, but that’s not the case. It is a business tool that can fundamentally transform the way companies think, act and operate, ultimately creating future value.
question: With all the information being generated today, how can we differentiate between what is important and what is useless?
answer: Using machine learning models and long language models, AI is getting closer to being able to run on its own. It is clear that not all data is perfect. We need to start with what we know works, what we have confidence in. It’s important to analyze the data you connect and understand what it is and where its value lies. But in the very near future, our systems will understand which data is bad and learn to ignore it.
question: In a world dominated by information, is it possible to strike a balance between data and human intuition?
answer: Risk is becoming an everyday issue. You need to know how to evaluate it so you don’t make random decisions. In this sense, when we look at information, we are controlling and balancing risk. Platforms and data serve the purpose of making informed decisions. In today’s world, competitive markets and climate change are forcing people and businesses to improvise, diversify and do things differently. Risk is a part of life and business, but data presents an opportunity for people to understand the situation and decide what risks to take.
question: Do you think quantum computing will change the current situation?
answer: We are doing a lot of research on this topic. In fact, our Innovation Department has spent a lot of time over the past six to eight months investigating where quantum computing can add value. Potentially it will be about safety, speed, pace and how fast you can work. Additionally, data and its understanding will exponentially increase, enabling better-informed decision-making.
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