From pandemic resilience to ethical integration — exploring the impact of artificial intelligence on our interconnected society.

In the world we inhabit today, which is far more interconnected than previous generations, the role of technology has been pivotal. The recent COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated this interconnectedness, with technology playing a crucial part in allowing life and work to continue despite global lockdowns.

Essential workers, like healthcare professionals and delivery personnel, became the backbone of our societies, and their roles were facilitated by technology — from communication platforms to logistics management and vaccine development. It was through leveraging artificial intelligence from foundational systems and learning from HIV research that Moderna and Pfizer were able to produce applicable vaccines in less than 12 months.¹

Learning is the engine of human progress and in today’s world, this process is supercharged by technology. Large datasets and machine-learning algorithms have accelerated the speed of development, enabling instant collaboration between researchers and employees worldwide. But it is the unforeseen application of technology that supports pivotal shifts in the marketplace. These shifts come from the “adjacent possibilities,” introduced by Steven Johnson, which explains how technological innovations pave the way for unforeseen developments. GPS, originally intended for airline safety, now underpins our logistics systems, which allowed for food and goods deliveries during the pandemic, while Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT and Llama 2 are reshaping our approach to learning, work and daily life. We can learn and comprehend faster now, using AI to obtain key takeaways from readings and research across many sources, then to dive deeper into key areas of focus, translating learning from passive absorption to interactive engagement, resulting in nuanced and rapid applications of newly acquired knowledge.

Understanding AI Beyond LLMs

AI is often confused with LLMs, but it is a constellation of technologies that includes machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, robotics and expert systems. AI has been instrumental in many fields, from space exploration to providing daily weather and traffic updates through digital assistants.

LLMs have made AI accessible to the masses, enabling interactions in a conversational style that was once exclusively human. They challenge us to reconsider the future of labor; if AI can assimilate vast amounts of knowledge and perform tasks efficiently, the need for human roles in research, writing and coding will need to evolve.

How much copiloting of AI’s collection will be enough? This will vary according to the people leveraging the capabilities and will require that we all peer review each other’s content.
How do we fact-check this vast amount of research that I formerly would have Googled or checked out in a reference library collection? This begins to question truth and fact and requires people to examine reality much more critically to siphon off fake or wrong rationalizations introduced by hallucinations or by nefarious contributors.

AI’s Role Across Industries

AI has a transformative role that extends across all industries. In health care, for instance, AI could lead to avatar driven telemedicine and robotic nurses providing care, revolutionizing patient monitoring and treatment, leading to technologically enhanced home care at lower costs.

AI also affects journalism, marketing, electoral systems and education. It raises the possibility of a new form of human interaction, where AI is a tool that can be used for great benefit or harm if not constantly questioned and checked. The risk of human adoption and autopilot of this technology is very high, as we can see in incidents caused by self-driving vehicles like Tesla. Drivers trust in technology, and the resulting switching off of the human brain’s natural instincts and awareness may have led to 17 fatalities and 736 crashes since 2019.²

These crashes were connected to Tesla’s Autopilot system and involved many factors, including driver unawareness. These incidents highlight that while AI is a significant convenience that can accelerate vaccine production in the most desperate times, it will continue to require responsible human oversight and critical thinking to ensure that output passes the “smell” test.

Implementing AI: Framework for Integration

Putting AI to use requires careful consideration. In education, rather than banning AI tools like ChatGPT, it is more effective to educate students, faculty and administrators about its power and risks.

Similarly, corporations need frameworks that allow for the secure and responsible use of AI, ensuring data security and preventing misuse. Employees will need to be able to understand AI outputs, compare them in reasonable frequency to validate them for accuracy, while applying critical thinking and implementing processes to ensure the validity of the output.

In terms of AI governance, an iterative process is required, involving data security and responsibility. Questions must be raised around the geographic regulations of data use and sovereignty on how data is used and stored. Continuously working to remove inherent biases that are introduced during development or singular thinking is critical. Governance methods should be developed to validate ethical data use as AI is implemented in employee management systems, customer care, product development and sales.

Corporate Spaces and Consumer Interactions

AI’s potential in consumer and corporate spaces is significant. It can improve the way customer care agents respond to inquiries with tools already available in Contact Center environments to help them find answers, as well as, listen to customer sentiment and advise them on how to respond. Or it can even prevent calls from being raised to agents entirely and provide a faster resolution to improve customer experience.

Customers will always want to speak to agents — the question is, will that agent still be human or an avatar, and will the customer be able to tell the difference? I think that is still a couple of years out, but with the pace of innovation, it is highly likely.

AI from an employee’s experience will change the way corporations assign projects or hire and retain talent. AI will be able to align employee skills, personalities and aspirations with organizational goals, fostering teams that align with a company’s vision and resonate with employees’ search for meaningful work. KeeperAI, for instance, uses psychometrics developed with machine learning to create profiles that align employees with projects matching their skills and motivations. This approach aims to improve employee engagement, reduce turnover and enhance productivity.

The CEO and founder of KeeperAI, Vishal Ahluwalia, recently spoke about the platform’s role in changing the workforce of tomorrow, where he said, “We use AI and computer vision to enable a more human way of working: Our platform can be used to empowers people to tell a story about themselves through imagery, interests and daily reflections, and by allowing users to highlight personality traits. The insights provide an intuitive and easy-to-understand profile presentation of themselves that help others get to know them in a world where we hop on and off video meetings and lack water cooler conversations. This light touch social media interaction expressing their affinity groups allow us to better align people to teams, projects and each other, simultaneously bridging team relationships so that they can move from storming to norming faster.”

While this is an excellent goal, it is important to go back to the adjacent possibilities where technology is introduced for a specific purpose but then is extended beyond the founder’s use or purpose. This can, like nuclear energy, have negative implementations, introducing discrimination through biases or promoting unintentional corporate policies based on the insights provided by the application.

Mr. Ahulwalia acknowledged the risk in this statement, “We adhere to regulatory requirements and partner with our clients to establish protocols during implementation of the platform. Still, like any other product, you put it out into the ether; you really can’t imagine all the ways folks will engage the insights or apply integrations to workforce management practices. We continue to be very careful and vigilant around the application of the insights by our customers and work with them in establishing frameworks that will limit harm or biases from the learnings. Our goal is to create a cohesive work environment where people thrive and feel safe to share their vibe.”

Conclusion

The rise of AI and technology is ushering in new implementations, professions, treatments and services. While there will be a need for prompt engineers for LLMs, computer vision and expert systems, there is also a greater need for individuals who can think about AI security, ethics, law, philosophy, health and safety. Ensuring that AI serves to enhance our humanistic values of liberty, equality and fraternity is paramount.

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of In the Lead magazine, from Stillman School of Business’s Department of Management and the Buccino Leadership Institute. The bi-annual magazine focuses on leadership perspectives from the field of health care, with content that is curated from leaders across the industry who share lessons learned from real-world experiences.