How big is your team? This question can be a Trojan horse, but it doesn’t have to be.
Either way, I would be careful with a number. The question isn’t necessarily meant to be double-edged. But what the interviewer wants to know goes far beyond a number. The question tests two things at once:
a) how you lead and
b) how well you have understood what AI is doing to your team.
😉 3 answers the interviewer wants to hear:
1. What impact will AI have on the size of your team? A CFO candidate recently said in an interview: 12 people in controlling, 16 in accounting, and so on.
When asked “What will it look like in 18 months?”, he was taken aback at first.
2. Which decision have you already made with the support of AI? Not: “We are currently testing forecast scenarios with Gemini.” Better: “Supplier assessments in 30 minutes instead of three days.” Verifiable.
3. Where will AI get decisions wrong, and how do you catch that? AI hallucinates. It adopts biases. Data sounds convincing, even when it is off the mark. Anyone who cannot name this amid the pervasive AI euphoria has not seriously understood AI.
Nobody has to explain how AI works. I talk to computer scientists and experts too. (The most convincing explanation I have found so far is still the German children’s programme “Die Sendung mit der Maus”, watched together with my kids 😊)
What the interviewer wants to know: How do you lead a team that is getting smaller but delivering more? Fewer heads, more leverage.
That calls for a different kind of leadership than headcount administration.
👉 My advice: Prepare an answer to all three questions for your next interview. With a real decision you have made with AI. And a case in which the AI got it wrong.
