4 Important Concepts for Using AI in the Workplace

Speaker: JD Dillon, CLO at Axonify & Founder of LearnGeek

4 Ideas to Guide the Application of AI

There are four key concepts I want to talk through before we dive into your questions and comments. These four ideas, they serve as the foundation for how I approach the application of AI (artificial intelligence) in the workplace.

Whenever I'm working on an AI-related project, whether it's building technology, talking about strategy, implementing different types of technology, this is how I think about AI.

Using AI Concept #1: We Don’t Get to Decide

Number one, we don't get to decide if we're going to use AI specifically as learning and development (L&D).

When we say AI, first of all, to level set, we're generally talking about the theory and development of computer systems to be able to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.

AI is this buzzy term. I don't think anyone really looks at it as artificial intelligence, but that's the word that people use. That's the letters that people use.

We're talking about a computer's ability to perform tasks that typically humans would perform.

Using AI Concept #2: We Are in a Transitional Period

Number two, we're operating right now what I refer to as a liminal space (transitional period). We're in this transition moment. We're on the threshold, we're on the verge.

We're riding an escalator right now. We don't know what's at the top of the escalator, and it's uncomfortable. We don't know exactly what our function is becoming, we don't know where our role is potentially heading, depending on what you do in L&D.

That's why if you read any article, you listen to any thought leader around L&D and AI, they say things like what the tech will be able to do, because we've never been here before.

We don't know exactly where we're going. Today, we have to have these conversations so we can start to find the value in the noise.

I like to liken where we are today to when the iPhone dropped in 2007. If you were around, you remember how many apps you used to go get, and how many different applications that were very specific and very nuanced, and you had dozens or hundreds of apps on your phone?

Then over time, we came to rely on a set of core applications that kind of took care of the key pieces of what we need to live our lives through technology. We're in that transitional moment.

We're in the beginning of the app store, where there are just these ridiculous applications all over the place, and we don't know what's real, and what's valuable, and what's just hype.

That's where we are right now (using AI). That's why right now is an important time for experimentation and education.

What I recommend to every team out there is that you make time to have this conversation within your team, within your organization, and make time for learning about this. One of the worst jokes in L&D is that we don't make time for our own learning and development.

This is a time where we need to start doing that and start exploring what these tools can do for us, and questioning where do they fit within what our organization needs us to do to help people do their best work?

We're in an uncomfortable moment right now in this kind of liminal, intermediary space, but this is a time for learning and conversation before decisions get made without us taking part.

Using AI Concept #3: AI Will Change Workplace Learning Forever

Number three, using AI will redefine workplace learning. This is a meaningful change. I don't believe this is just another tool that we're going to use to do our jobs more effectively.

Often, the biggest problem with L&D is that our tools are over there, and the work takes place over there. AI is going to accelerate that consolidation and make learning part of work in meaningful ways.

To show you a quick visual on what do I mean by how AI is going to transform what learning and development is in the workplace. Here's a very rough representation of today.

Learning and development playing kind of the middle person role, where on the left, you have the people who are providing expertise and information, subject matter experts, management, executives, HR, project leaders, all of these different folks.

On the right, you have the audience, different groups within the workforce. In the middle sits learning and development.

Yes, there are back channels. People can go around us in various ways to provide information and training directly to audiences without our support.

Maybe the audience is using open-source materials or generating their own content. Generally speaking, we sit in between the people who know and the people who need.

Using AI Concept #4: Values Outweigh Features

Number four, values are more important than features in this conversation. I think that's a critical thing that we often miss when it comes to tech and L&D and broadly in the organization.

We get distracted by what technology can do. We have a legacy of all, again, allowing technology to happen around us and to us, but it's not about what the tech can do.

It's about how tech helps people do the job. People are solving the problems, not technology. When we make decisions based on features, based on bells and whistles, we end up with a lot of white space.

We get distracted by what technology can do, and we make decisions without having a core set of values to guide that decision-making.

That's why I think right now it is critical for us as L&D (practitioners) to work with our peers within our organizations, to determine what are the guiding values we're going to use to make decisions when it comes to how AI is applied, and how using AI informs the experience of work.