Introduction
2023 dawned with a bang! Yes, with ChatGPT! In mainstream media, social media, podcasts, both in print and digital magazines, newsletters, etc.. everywhere the hot topic is Generative AI and ChatGPT!!!
How to react to it?
- Can we dismiss just this as a hype and new buzzword that is not so important, like a fad that will fade into obscurity?
- Should we fear that our jobs will be replaced or at risk, or will it become an existential threat to humans?
- Rather should we get excited that another tech revolution is coming to disrupt the world order?
All these reactions are valid and undeniable. Disruption always initially shakes up the ecosystem and brings in change that creates impact. The invention of the car and television are some examples of tech disruptions that had a similar impact.
ChatGPT has reinstated the fact that Artificial Intelligence is here to stay and its future implementations are to reshape the world we live in, thanks to globalization and digitization.
Never before in the history of humans, machines have been so responsive to humans. It is for humans to harness the benefit for the larger good. While AI will radically alter how work gets done and who does it, the larger impact will be in complementing and augmenting human capabilities, not replacing them
Collaborative or Augmented intelligence
Organizations that deploy machines solely to replace humans through automation will fail to realize AI’s full potential. Humans and machines must work together since what one does naturally does not come to the other. People succeed at talents that machines do not, such as leadership, teamwork, creativity, and social skills. Machines, on the other hand, are significantly more advanced in terms of speed, scalability, and quantitative analysis.
To take full advantage of this collaboration, we must understand how humans can most effectively augment machines, how machines can enhance what humans do best, and how to rethink this partnership. Going forward there might be scenarios where humans will do the majority of work supported by machines and in certain scenarios, machines will do the maximum work supported by humans.
Humans Augmenting Machines
Humans need to perform three crucial roles.
- Training the machines – Humans use labeled datasets to initially train the machines on the new algorithms to become smarter and more confident to kick start the learning process.
- Explain the outcomes – When a machine makes decisions that are counterintuitive or controversial, humans are expected to perform an analysis of the event to figure out what caused the behavior and how to fix it while ensuring that it does not recur in the future.
- Sustain the responsible use of machines – Humans are in charge of ensuring that AI is used correctly. They monitor and guarantee that AI systems are functioning properly as expected, assisting people in their work and making their lives easier. They will also set restrictions or override judgments to prevent tools from harming humans.
Machines Augmenting Humans
Artificial Intelligence is helping humans expand their abilities in three ways.
- Enhance human cognitive abilities – AI uses information provided by users to cater to their needs by enhancing their cognitive abilities to improve their decision-making skills and minimize human biases with data-oriented choices.
- Free humans for value-add tasks – Machines can help humans with repetitive transactional tasks like routine calls, data entry, report preparation, and logs that often consume the majority of their time, freeing humans to focus more on strategizing, planning, etc.
- Extending human physical capacities by embodying human skills – AI-enabled machines with their sophisticated sensors, motors, and actuators, can now recognize people and objects to work safely alongside humans in plants, factories, and laboratories.
Core Guiding Pillars of Collaborative Intelligence
It may be hard for companies to move through the rapid changes happening in the ecosystem. Yes, AI will change how we work, and job descriptions will likely change as roles and responsibilities shift. The big picture, the opportunity provided by collaborative intelligence for technology and human interaction, is that AI enhances rather than replace human talents.
Optimizing the interaction between humans and artificial intelligence is advantageous to businesses. The outcomes or benefits vary from business to business, the guiding principles to achieve collaboration intelligence for any business are
AI Strategy
Organizations will have different reasons to adopt AI. However, AI strategy relates to the company’s overall strategic goals. The AI strategy should identify areas of human-machine collaboration to reduce operational costs, enhance productivity and attain business goals and objectives. Some companies may use it for forecasting in supply chain management, others may use it to improve customer engagement and boost sales. AI strategy can also be as simple as helping a company do a set of tasks better than before.
Reimagine business processes
For significant gains, we need to look beyond making existing processes more efficient and try to reimagine business processes completely starting from scratch. The focus should be more on innovation and imagination leveraging technological advancements and reimagining new roles required from humans and machines.
Introduce change management strategies
It is imperative to implement change management strategies including training employees to work in tandem with AI. The objective is for humans to function well with machines at a time when business processes are being reimagined. These recently developed skills—like rehumanizing time, normalizing responsibility, and integrating judgment—enable efficient work and better results when people and machines work together.
Data collection and feedback loop
No one knows how far AI is going to shape the future. It will be an ongoing iterative process to modify the business process. We should constantly collect data points and make required modifications to the business process. For continuous improvement, the business process should be designed as flexible and agile.
Future-proofing Employees for an AI-First Work Environment
Future jobs for companies will be redesigned on the desired results of new processes, and organizations will increasingly be structured around various skill sets rather than conventional job titles. Implementation of collaborative Intelligence requires a significant commitment to developing employees with skillsets that enable them to work effectively with machines.
Employees should understand how to blend their unique human abilities with AI to produce results that neither could achieve alone. Employees must be able to educate intelligent agents and teach them new abilities in order to operate effectively with AI-enhanced processes. Humans and machines must collaborate closely to complement each other’s capabilities through collaborative intelligence.
Human-AI collaboration is becoming more common in daily life, education, science, technology, and even politics. Human collaboration with smart machines and programs generates innovative solutions well beyond our vision, resulting in valuable life-enhancing products, services, and experiences!
