AI is making headlines everywhere you look. People are rightfully approaching it with equal parts of optimism and suspicion. Both are valid. As tools become more widespread, your team will start taking more advantage of AI’s capabilities. Proactively thinking about how this will impact your business will help you get ahead of any surprises. Addressing the AI elephant in the room with your employees now will help ensure your team is clear on how they can safely and effectively incorporate AI into their work while continuing to ensure your clients have a good experience. Here are our thoughts on the Risks and Rewards of AI in Your Business:
RISKS:
Inaccurate Information: AI generates content and data that it has pulled from an array of sources across the web. But unlike traditional journalism, there is no fact checker on staff. This is one of the most important elements of instilling a healthy amount of wariness into your team when it comes to verifying information. Always remind your team to apply a human touch (like logic, fact checking, and critical thinking) to any AI generated content to ensure information is validated, logical, and referenced in the best way.
Security: Tread carefully when considering sharing proprietary company information, client data, or employee data with chat bots and AI tools like ChatGPT. There is still so much that we don’t know about AI and that often includes where that data lives, who has access to it, and who can share it.
Plagiarism: Since AI can automatically generate a response based on the parameters you give it, this means many people may be asking it to write content or answer questions about the same subject…and they may phrase their questions in exactly the same way. Regulations here are still very much in a gray area, but there is undeniably a potential risk of plagiarism. Coach employees to be mindful of this because while AI can be a great way to get a project started, further research, writing, and editing should be done by a human.
Bias: This has been a very hot topic recently because data sets that AI references can often incorporate the intentional or unintentional biases of their original human authors. Make sure your team is aware that this problem exists so they understand the need to examine sources more closely and to be mindful of this when they are reviewing and editing work where AI generated research or data is used.
REWARDS:
Increased Efficiency: AI generates information very quickly, which is particularly great when you need to analyze a large amount of data or when you need to start building the framework or outline for a bigger project. AI can be a great partner that helps us save time, work smarter, enrich existing projects and services, and improve efficiency overall.
Better Process Automation: Don’t recreate the wheel when you have a high number of repetitive tasks being done by multiple people. Automation gives your team more time to focus on strategic areas that require more customization and focus. And it can also bring much needed consistency between teams.
More Effective Brainstorming: Often when starting a new project or initiative, we struggle with knowing what initial questions we should be asking and how to effectively plan for potential problems we may encounter. Using AI as a shortcut here can be a great way to think through potential roadblocks, challenges, and questions that will be valuable to consider earlier in the process. It’s also a great way to bring different ideas and perspectives forward.
Better Communication & Engagement: AI can be a great way to make complicated information and messaging more simple, and to help your team improve their communication and messaging skills. Whether it’s figuring out how to explain something, how to say something more directly, or how to word a sensitive issue, AI can add real value to the way you communicate to your employees and clients. Engagement and collaboration remain highly valued at work, and better communication and messaging is directly related to your ability to be successful there.
Understanding the pros and cons of using AI into your work will help you work smarter and minimize risk. There is still a lot we don’t know about AI. You can certainly develop a formal policy, but even if you just begin to talk more openly with your team about the risks and rewards of using AI…you’re ahead of the curve and you’ve taken an important first step. Continue to monitor the news as it evolves and this will help you gain clarity on the latest benefits, limits, and risks of AI so you can draw clearer lines around how to use it the best way at your business.
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