Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
I recently attended an artificial intelligence conference hosted by the University of Florida. I decided to attend this event because I wanted to learn more about artificial intelligence (AI) and I wanted to hear what people outside of the human resources profession were saying. While I love a good HR conference, sometimes it’s good to hear what people outside the profession are saying (and not just about AI). If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it.
This event was focused on bringing AI into the classroom and I thought it would be interesting to hear how educators are planning to use AI in developing and delivering to students. My thought is that the ideas could be adapted to the corporate learning environment.
One of the first terms I learned during the event was “technological singularity”. It’s defined as “a hypothetical point in time when technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable consequences for human civilization”. Just typing the definition gives me dystopian novel vibes. My takeaway isn’t the end of civilization but rather that this is what organizations go through when they’re trying to decide if something is a fad or a significant trend.
We do this all the time in our personal and professional lives. Personally, we have to make decisions like, “Are these sneakers in style? Or am I going to regret this decision in a couple of months?” Professionally, people have to decide if getting a specific certification will really help their career or is it just the “in” thing to do right now?
Organizations are no different. Remember when social media started appearing more often in the news? Some people said, “It’s a fad.” Other companies said, “We don’t believe it’s a fad and we’re going to be early adopters and hire a social media team.” Over time, organizations that might have originally tagged social media as a fad changed their mind and followed behind the early adopters. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But let’s go back to artificial intelligence. Are we at that point where AI is mainstream and therefore, a permanent part of business? I think the answer is yes. This doesn’t mean that AI won’t evolve over time. Organizations will find new uses for it. Because AI isn’t going away, individuals and organizations have to keep setting goals to learn more about AI and the best way to use it.
- Organizations need to figure out how they will upskill and reskill current employees in the proper and ethical use of AI.
- It could make some sense to identify some AI evangelists who could encourage employees to use AI tools. This could be a combination of managers and line employees.
- Find ways to bring AI activities into company learning events such as on-the-job training, microlearning, internal webinars, and podcasts.
I totally believe in the concept of self-efficacy. It’s the idea that if people believe they can do something they will try to accomplish it. It’s not about something being easy. But if people feel they can’t accomplish it, then they might not try. That’s why I mentioned the term technological singularity. If people feel that they’re so far behind the AI learning curve that they can’t possibly catch up, then they might not put forward the effort to learn.
Organizations and individuals need to keep setting self-learning goals where artificial intelligence is concerned. Yes, AI seems to be a part of everything. That doesn’t mean we can’t learn how to use it and have it positively benefit our personal and professional lives.
Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby after speaking at the Flora Icelandic HR Management Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland
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