4 Ways ChatGPT Is Changing the Future of Work and How to Harness Its Power
ChatGPT and other generative AI (artificial intelligence) technologies have captured the public’s attention — and for good reason. It has irrevocably altered how people work in every sector, across industries, and globally. In fact, ChatGPT took just five days to garner over 100 million users worldwide.
My company, Centric Consulting, has embraced the technology’s functionalities and wide-ranging applications, and we’re excited about the opportunities AI presents, from improving client service to drafting content and assisting with data analysis and decision making.
That’s not to say that we haven’t carefully considered and created contingency plans for security and internal perspectives addressing a myriad of hypotheticals. We have, and we address some of these subjects in other articles. Still, we want to leverage this cutting-edge technology to drive innovation — and to do that, we must first understand its capabilities in the context of work.
Here are four ways you can use ChatGPT and other AI technologies to enhance the workplace experience and harness the power of AI at your company.
Get Creative
Using AI in creative fields isn’t new. Computer-generated art has been around since the inception of digital computers. The difference today is the sophistication and human-like output of AI programs. Over the past 10 years, AI in creative fields has gone from generating basic patterns and designs to creating unique photographs — and today — to generating logical, relevant and creative text.
Some creative ways to use AI include as a research tool, idea generator or for debugging code. Using AI to aid your creative process can inject efficiency into innovation and drive business growth.
Consider Google’s DeepDream. Launched in 2015, the AI image generation software creates imaginative images to share with “like-minded artists and explorers.” It showed people that AI could generate unique, visually interesting content beyond how it had been used in former rule-based systems. ChatGPT is another tool, albeit far from the only one, to enhance creativity.
In fact, a popular AI aggregator lists over 5,000 AI tools to help complete thousands of tasks. It’s used by more than two million people every month to locate the right tool to create presentation slides, search for jobs, generate text to video, get help with web design tasks, generate SEO content, brainstorm, conduct research and a myriad of other activities.
“As a result of these advancements, we have witnessed a shift from people perceiving AI as merely a tool to AI becoming a creative collaborator in business,” said Joseph Ours, Director of AI Strategy and Modern Software Delivery Practice Lead at Centric Consulting, in his blog, “How AI and ChatGPT are Fueling Creative Ideation and Advancing Business Outcomes.”
Boost Productivity
We’ve all heard the familiar phrase, “work smarter, not harder.” AI has the potential to enhance productivity at an individual, team and enterprise level by enabling people to achieve more with less — less effort, less time, and in some cases, less expertise.
You can use AI to track action items, provide status updates and summarize meeting notes. You can also use it to automate uninspiring, tedious tasks, effectively freeing employees from doing things they don’t love. What if an employee loves summarizing meeting notes? Then AI can automate something else they don’t feel strongly about to increase personal productivity.
It’s important to let employees play a part in deciding how to incorporate AI into their daily routines. Some will be elated to have their load lightened, while others may be apprehensive. We recommend implementing AI at a measured pace by identifying tasks that can be automated or augmented, slowly integrating tools into your daily routines, evaluating the effectiveness of AI and making adjustments, and then repeating the process.
Build Skills or Reskill Your Workforce
“To leverage productivity and creative gains from AI, we need a workforce that is prepared to use AI properly,” Ours said in his blog, “How to Build and Empower an AI-Ready Workforce with Reskilling and Upskilling.”
AI is a tool, not a replacement for human ingenuity and skill. The better people become at using AI, the more they will advance in their careers. The reality is that some employees will find AI can reduce or eliminate parts of their jobs. What some people may not realize is that new opportunities and roles will emerge, but some will require building skills or reskilling through training and organizational change management programs.
During this process, it can be helpful to break down job functions and tasks associated with each. To understand automation potential, tasks can be divided into creative, productive and repetitive tasks that must be completed efficiently and accurately.
Once you understand jobs and tasks associated, pinpoint challenges and inefficiencies and research technologies that could help address your specific needs. Carefully plan the integration, including running pilot projects, if needed, so it doesn’t cause undue disruption to other functions.
Focus on Governance, Security and Ethics
The most important aspect of any AI adoption is governance, security and ethical considerations. CIOs and business leaders would be remiss if they didn’t advocate for and pursue ethical, secure and responsible AI solutions that live up to their company’s values.
At Centric, we’ve outlined how to rapidly adopt a governance structure to manage AI in the workplace:
- Establish a cross-functional AI governance committee
- Define AI policies, guidelines and best practices
- Set up a clear decision-making process for AI implementation and use
- Ensure regular audits and assessments of AI tool usage.
Leaders must ensure they provide appropriate education, implement access controls, monitor tool usage, protect data and create or update incident response plans. External security experts can help with a number of these initiatives.
Finally, make sure everyone understands AI isn’t always accurate, along with how to fact check and verify information and proper attribution.
We list other governance, security and ethics dos and don’ts in our blog “AI Adoption: How to Navigate and Establish AI Governance, Security and Ethics.”
Digital transformation and change can be intimidating, but it’s also exhilarating. As AI continues to be introduced, implemented and refined, we’ll discover more ways to create and foster a thriving work environment and to define the future of work.
Centric Consulting is an international management consulting firm with unmatched in-house expertise in business transformation, hybrid workplace strategy, technology implementation and adoption. Founded in 1999 with a remote workforce, Centric has established a reputation for solving its clients’ toughest problems, delivering tailored solutions, and bringing deeply experienced consultants centered on what’s best for your business.
