The Skills Your Employees Need to Work Effectively with AI - 0 views
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In fact, it is the human ability to understand context — which AI tools lack — that necessitates the need for greater human skills
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specific qualities to look for in talent: “People that can be creative and innovative in the way they find solutions — problem solvers.” Broader research backs this up: A study of 1,700 global companies found that companies that excelled on human capital metrics were four times as likely to have superior financial performance.
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One of the greatest values of experienced workers is domain expertise — deep knowledge of one’s environment. As AI takes over more tasks, there is a significant danger of atrophy of skills and loss of this kind of knowledge.
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Further, generative AI is shown to be more useful as a co-pilot for senior employees that can sift through AI “hallucinations” — inaccurate information presented as fact — and take the output as an aid. Inexperienced employees, however, may not be discerning enough and need a path to develop this knowledge. The sentiment was echoed by Ted English, former CEO of TJX Companies and current executive chairman of Bob’s Discount Furniture, who told us leadership requires “a lot of instinct, experience, and knowledge. Some of it you can’t get from a machine. Technology reinforces and allows you to make a more confident decision.”
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The first layer of the framework is intentionality. In this context, we mean that a company’s business model should be purposefully designed around AI capability, rather just applying AI to existing processes. Spencer Fung, president and CEO of Li & Fung, a global supply-chain and logistics company, gave us an analogy: “Companies acquiring AI without a new business model is like a company digitizing a horse and carriage — while the competition has created a digital automobile.”
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Next comes integration across all functions of the enterprise, with horizontal communication and AI as the enabling layer — in other words, getting rid of silos.
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The real challenge, however, is implementation. Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion, has written that winning performance does not come from combining the best technology with the best people — but from the best process of combining. To achieve this, talent must be familiar with AI capabilities and know how best to utilize them.
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However, AI is an evolving technology, and that necessitates a business add slack to the system to allow opportunity for learning.
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Competitive advantage cannot be achieved without humans in the loop. Rushing to replace talent with AI is a huge mistake. Why? First, AI is copyable. What is not copyable is a unique business model, processes, and thoughtful integration of humans.
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Second, AI is based on historical data that may not hold true in a volatile global business environment.
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Third, AI is subject to hallucination and “drift,” where output is either fabricated by the AI or simply inaccurate.
