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AI is a marmite issue for many; you either love it or loathe it. But whichever it is, the certainty is that it’s here to stay – HR Grapevine asked the experts about the best ways to work cheek by jowl with (for some) the ‘frenemy’ of the office – artificial intelligence.
The ‘how’ is the only real question
Mark Cole, Director of Radical OD says that generative AI is becoming the modern day fixation of business. “I cannot deny that something like ChatGPT has the potential to be a powerful tool and potentially to impact significantly on the world of work and our presence in it as human beings. But, as with all tools, one needs to be mindful not of its essence but of the way in which it is being used: a hammer is a perfect device to drive home nails, of course…but somewhat grimly it can also be used to cave in someone’s skull,” he says.
Of course, to decipher just ‘how’ to wield the thrills and disappointments of AI is to develop an understanding of how it works in the first place. Yousef Khalili, Global Chief Transformation Officer & CEO MEA at Quant AI Inc says the starting point is talking to employees about how it will change their lives and jobs. “Leadership has an ethical responsibility to create an environment where their current workforce can be educated on the future of their industry, the effect AI will have on it and getting them prepared to leverage this technology to benefit themselves.”
He adds, “An ancillary benefit to this approach is it is a way to maximise ROI on your technology investment. It is far more revenue friendly to maintain and retrain staff to become experts in technology use than it is to recruit, hire, and train new employees.” That is of course if the tech doesn’t replace the human and of course, for many the USP of being a living species on this planet is that for all the AI in the world it hasn’t as yet outwitted us when it comes to thinking – or has it?
