FeatureAI Isn't Perfect. Don't Wait Till It Is

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) at work has led to no shortage of debates recently. Most of this is centered on using Generative AI (GenAI) to create code, write email messages or develop other work products.

Advocates point to productivity gains, but there is broad pushback from people about AI’s tendency to hallucinate, or invent inaccurate facts. However, it is clear the technology has arrived to stay. While adopting AI may include risk, avoiding AI now only sets you and your organization up for failure in the long term.

You Cannot Wait to Learn AI

AI tools are problematic in many ways. They require compute power that demands energy and cooling, which means more freshwater consumption. Additionally, every week a new story about GenAI creating false details and presenting them as facts appears in the news, such as AI-generated legal briefs citing legal decisions that don’t exist or generated code inserting code libraries with malware.

Despite these challenges, the world is moving towards AI. At some point, people will realize AI cannot replace a workforce, but once the right use cases are mapped out, organizations that have already incorporated AI expertise into their organization will be ahead of the game.

Education is critical, and not just on how to use AI properly. People need to understand AI tools, how they work and their deficiencies. Organizations should provide their staff AI tools within that context to help them learn and use AI. 

AI as a Catalyst

One trap that many people fall into is using AI to create the entire product. That allows false data to creep into the final product and users’ skills atrophy from lack of use. Instead of doing all the work, AI should be used as a catalyst. 

When trained on a relevant data set, AI can generate an outline for what needs to be created. Asking the AI system what references were used, and checking those references, helps the author craft a solid product, with information from sources that they may not have considered before. GenAI can create functional code and grammatically correct sentences, but it does not think or apply judgement.

AI is also useful in the edit stage. People  are using AI tools to help them sound more “professional.”. When used for editing, the AI tool is only using the ideas and facts the author provides. AI now helps people present those ideas in a way that hints at years of experience, giving those ideas more heft to the reader.

Younger Staff Want to Use It

When in doubt about the future, look at young people. They want to use AI and know how to use it to get results. Providing AI training and encouraging its use helps attract, recruit and retain young talent, which makes any organization stronger.

However, resist the temptation to outsource your team’s brains. Overusing AI limits skill development. Establish and follow guidelines. Can AI users explain what they produced? If not, how do they know it is correct? This helps develop critical thinking–a difference between a junior and senior employee.

As always, striking the right balance will be important.

Don’t Get Left Behind

Some organizations go all-in on using AI. Many will go too far, make mistakes and fail to recover. Others will decide AI isn’t ready and wait until it is too late to catch up with everyone else. The rest will invest, take a steady approach and leap forward when new advances make AI more economical and reliable.

There are a lot of claims about the efficiencies AI generates in business today. Those numbers vary widely by industry. However, even a 5%-10% increase in net productivity is a competitive advantage. 

If you aren’t investing in the future, your competition is. Sitting still is not an option.