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Will AI Solve or Create Wicked Problems?

Writer: Deborah (Ellen) Wildish
Deborah (Ellen) Wildish
4 days ago
4 min read

Will AI solve or create wicked problems

This article’s title poses a critical question: will AI solve or create wicked problems?


Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber (design theorists) have defined wicked problems as large, complex problems that are messy and have multiple interrelationships across systems and sectors. This renders such problems extremely challenging to solve. AI can integrate vast knowledge (e.g. diverse human expertise, etc.), analyze competing root problems and test the impact of variables or potential solutions across systems and sectors.


Humans tend to focus on a single system or sector that matches their expertise or experience and relevant to where they work or live. However, a focus on one system or process cannot fully comprehend or address the complexities of wicked problems. Components of such problems cannot be studied in isolation because pressure exerted from other systems must be captured. For example, insufficient income to afford safe housing results in food insecurity (insufficient access to healthy food) and these two social determinants of health increase emergency room visits and length of hospitalization. Not only does this impact cost but it also places the health and well-being of communities at risk.


An interesting characteristic of wicked problems is that there are different ways to define and approach them, along with an infinite number of potential solutions. Thessen, Bogdan and Patterson (2021) reviewed the need to move “from reductionism to reintegration” to address society’s most pressing problems, utilizing a complexity approach that is grounded in systems thinking. Dr. Michael C. Jackson is a systems researcher with numerous publications. The common theme is “creative holism” that he describes as a “critical systems approach to complex problem situations.”


AI holds the potential to solve wicked problems. But we have yet to fully harness AI’s ability to address major social issues such as affordable access to safe housing, healthy food and health care.


Now, let’s look at the flip side. It is well known that AI can assume mundane or repetitive tasks that humans perform. However, Agentic AI can do much more than respond to prompts. It can autonomously plan a project from start to finish with minimal human supervision. Consider what type of human work roles and how many jobs, AI can or will displace.


The overall impact of AI on human life can create wicked problems. What will humans do? One colleague mused that our brains may turn to mush without real responsibilities. I prompted Google Gemini to generate this image:


Aimless people lying idle in field

At first glance, it looks like people are relaxing on a sunny, summer day. But what if this scene depicts everyday life in the future? Humans with no purpose and nothing meaningful to accomplish. While people appear to be gathered together, individuals are engrossed in their own world and existence. Perhaps the concept of work-life balance may become irrelevant.


Cinder to Flame’s vision is to open the gateway to sustainable, quality living. The overarching goal is to help solve complex corporate and system challenges by aligning people for major innovation to promote well-being of clients and communities.


Let’s return to the critical question: Will AI solve or create wicked problems? (You likely knew the answer before you read this article!) AI has the capacity to help solve wicked problems but can also create them. Now is the time for humans to harness the power of AI and direct its appropriate usage.


Cinder to Flame helps Corporations solve complex challenges with strategic services that energize people, fuel a healthy corporate culture and ignite major innovation.

Reflect upon the situation and these two questions:


  1. Being passive during this age of AI is not an option. What action can front-line workers, teams, and leaders take in any public or private service or industry sector?

  2. Well-being is an umbrella term that captures health and one’s overall outlook on life. How can we support future human well-being?

First, refuse to delay action. Be a transformational leader who takes an active role in shaping AI usage alongside proactive human resource planning. A primary focus on people creates opportunities to expand your creative thinking capacity, develop critical skills for transformational leadership and explore how to bolster your corporate culture. Everyone needs to be aligned for AI (major innovation). Humans need to be fully engaged to identify and manage opportunities and risks.


Cinder to Flame offers you a customized solution and can help you build the human side of your AI roadmap to complement your technological planning. Your overarching goal is to keep the balance favorably tilted toward generating more solutions, than problems.


Discover more about Cinder to Flame workshops. Click on the link that best describes your corporate sector:


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© Deborah (Ellen) Wildish, Cinder to Flame 2022-Present. All Rights Reserved.


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