ChatGPT can help workers, instead of replacing them

Since November’s unveiling of OpenAI’s AI chatbot, ChatGPT, almost 70% of workers fear losing their jobs to artificial intelligence, according to a recent Resume study.

While the anxiety of robots and automation taking over may have been something of sci-fi movies in the past, now, many are seeing the effects in real time. BT, for example, announced in May that it was to replace 10,000 of its jobs with AI, and IBM said it was to pause hiring and replace roles with AI, too.

In the case of ChatGPT, those in the study are still sceptical about how it could replace humans, particularly writers and engineers. Although the AI’s writing and planning is remarkable, it has proven to lack accuracy and a human-like tone of voice.

Nevertheless, writers, engineers, and C-suites alike are still weaving the AI chatbot into their workflows and using it to their advantage.

Chetna Mahajan, chief digital information officer at digital analytic firm Amplitude, says she expects to see CIOs leveraging the AI tool to generate documentation on business processes, develop technical design and training, insert code comments, and create test cases.

“This will not only accelerate delivery, but also reduce time-to-value for businesses significantly,” Mahajan enthuses.

She adds that the tool can also be used to build knowledge base articles for IT Helpdesk agents. So, rather than taking the time to write up instructions on how to fix an IT problem themselves, ChatGPT can write a simplified explanation for them.

“This not only helps agents troubleshoot problems faster but also encourages self-service support for employees,” she adds.

Plus, customer support and success can benefit substantially from ChatGPT by using it as a front-of-house customer help tool.

“Teams should first test the use case internally to ensure the platform is ready for external use. Once clearly identifying a phased launch plan, the business can roll it out to customers and measure impact,” the CDIO explains.

At edtech platform Degreed, chief transformation officer Janice Burns says everyone at all levels and functions of the organisation are encouraged to experiment with ChatGPT.

“Because of privacy concerns around ChatGPT and to avoid the risk of sharing proprietary information in the public domain, we mostly use ChatGPT to ask for information, suggestions, and to summarise content,” Burns explains.

While at business training firm, RADA Business, services director Charlie Walker-Wise is actively experimenting with the AI to automate its programmes that help train up firms.

“I recently asked ChatGPT to design a RADA Business programme, just to see what it produced,” he says. “It obviously looked at what exists of our work on the Web and created something that was not a million miles away from what we might write down.”

While Walker-Wise admits it’s not something he’d feel comfortable sending to a client, “it wasn’t terrible.”

“All the evidence suggests that as AI learns more, and if I had repeatedly improved the prompts I gave it, it would get better and better at this. Maybe even good enough to share with a client. For now, it serves as a great starting point for inspiration.”

Staying on top of AI

Generally, those in the AI community are not concerned with the idea that robots are going to take everyone’s jobs.

“The process of organisational change will always have humans, and human behaviour, at its heart. And I don’t know if AI will ever be able to do that,” says Walker-Wise.

However, Burns stresses that employees must keep on top of AI and collaborate with it wisely in order to strive.

“AI will change the skills needed in certain roles, and it will eliminate a handful, but primarily people will be left behind if they lack the ability to work with AI and ChatGPT,” she says.

For Burns, learning to collaborate with the technology is more crucial for employees to keep their roles, but at the same time, she worries people will depend too much on it.

“Long-term, I do worry about what human capabilities may get lost in the AI gold rush,” says Burns. “Especially among the younger generation that are using AI during their fundamental learning years.”

When ChatGPT enters education, “we cannot be certain what skills [students] will lose, or gain, through using tools like ChatGPT for essay creation.”

As the CTO details, those younger than their mid-thirties likely never had to practice the skills of writing in cursive in school so they cannot write or read it – “AI may do the same thing for our abilities to create first drafts, manually research a topic, and more,” she says.

As companies and schools alike explore the potential of AI, Burns says it’s essential to keep a watch on the human abilities we don’t want to lose in the next decade.

“We need to keep practising those skills, even though AI makes it easier for us to simply click and submit,” she stresses.

For example, Walker-Wise revealed that, recently, a professional services firm recently used AI to generate content for a high-profile speech to external stakeholders.

“The tone was good, but the structure was off,” he says. “It laboured minor points, skimmed over more important areas, misrepresented stats, and it suffered from a lack of nuanced insights.”

With this, he argues that human creativity and research are essential, and business leaders should not depend on AI.

“Politicians often have a whole team of speech writers who extensively research a topic, the audience, and the key messages, before then coaching on the delivery of the speech,” he explains.

“Business leaders also need to put thought into these aspects of their speech and gauge the tone that’s best suited – whether they’re tapping into emotion, confidence, persuasion, or empathy. This is where AI can fail, and we must retain focus on humans and human behaviour,” Walker-Wise concludes.

In agreement, Burns says that Degreed realised early on that human oversight and critically assessing the outputs of AI will be a vital skill for all employees.

“In the case of ChatGPT, sometimes its writing isn’t accurate, so being able to prompt it in the right way and evaluate its results has become a sought-after skill.”

Plus, Amplitude’s Mahajan, argues that it is important that workplaces consider the use of generative AI in a responsible way – “keeping legal compliance, security, and social implications in mind,” she says. “Starting out with low-risk, internal use cases for IT seems like a great next step to leverage ChatGPT for businesses.”

With this, Burns emphasises that AI “really reinforces the need for lifelong learning.”

“AI is accelerating the need for continuous learning and HR needs to get on board, quickly.”