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It would be nice to think we’ve reached peak AI hysteria, and that the clickbait stories forecasting humanity’s demise and the loss of millions of jobs would have subsided by now.
But then this billboard recently popped up in San Francisco recently as a satirical reminder that the doom and gloom stories are very much still out there. The billboard was put up by “The Only Honest AI Company” that believes “(h)uman flourishing is bad business,” according to a social media post.
Talk about art imitating life. Skeptical naysayers in human resources warn of the supposed dangers of using AI tools to hire, develop, and retain. Even after showing them hard proof of how digital tools are transforming their competitors’ talent acquisition and management processes, becoming an AI-first company is still a bridge too far.
These HR executives are abdicating stewardship of their organizations and surrendering leadership to someone else, as I have previously written about.
Since that article went live, it has become clear that people have been misinterpreting what I meant by AI-first. It doesn’t mean humans last. It means human focused.
Organizational leaders need to understand and redefine the value of human work. When it comes to AI, the talk has largely been focused on job losses. That’s unfortunate. It’s also not new. The fact is every innovation—from the invention of the car to cloud computing—has some impact on roles. It’s only natural.
“People shouldn’t put their heads in the sand,” said Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase, the largest investment bank in the world. “There will be jobs it eliminates.”
The bank has been using AI since 2012, so it’s ahead of the curve. The company spends a cool $2 billion a year on AI for all aspects of the business, including risk, fraud, and marketing. For every $2 billion in AI expense, JPMorgan is reaping the same amount in benefit.
“We’re getting better and better at it,” Dimon said. “If we’re successful, we’ll have more jobs.”
He’s right. AI gives all workers the chance to learn, grow, and redefine their value to an organization. It only requires participation.
HR organizations believe they have a choice in the matter. They don’t.
The path was set long ago by Alan Turing in the 1950s with his landmark paper, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” And so here we are.
AI is more human than other transformations because it is everywhere. Humans interact with digital tools hundreds of times a day without even realizing it. Why shouldn’t they be able to leverage it to their own advantage? Businesses have been doing it for decades.
IBM used AI to predict which employees would leave a job with 95% accuracy, saving hundreds of millions in retention costs. Traditional HR models were failing employees, so the company turned to machine learning to retain its people.
Here’s a quote from IBM’s then-CEO that proved to be prophetic: “I expect AI to change 100% of jobs within the next five to 10 years.” That prediction was made in 2019. It was true then, and it’s still true now: jobs will change, and work will be redefined.
The key difference now is that it’s the humans turn to benefit. People just have to embrace their own curiosity.
I once spoke to a group of senior corporate HR leaders at the Kennedy Space Center, the motherlode of innovation. That site was chosen specifically to underscore the point that we are all explorers by nature. We were meant to openly question why things are the way they are.
But the truth is, most people don’t embrace change. They default to the status quo because it’s all they know. Rocking the boat takes too much time and effort.
Explorers, on the other hand, seek to tackle the hard stuff in the name of efficiency. It’s like that old saying, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.” The curious define skills and purpose around their passions, and they make time for the activities that make them more human. AI eliminates the work we all hate to do but must do because it’s…work.
But what if technology gave us the power to redefine what work is?
What if we could eliminate half the drudgery in the workday to pursue the passions that add life to life?
I love what I do for a living. Technology has been my north star for as long as I can remember. I also have another passion that moves me—a charity called Kyle’s Wish. It’s an aviation-focused organization named after my late son that supports people who are going through a rough time.
I want a different future for my other sons. By the time they’re adults, the 40-hour weekly grind might feel like ancient history. AI should give them what we never had enough of: time. Time to pursue passions. Time to connect with people who need connection. Time to solve real problems instead of drowning in pointless busy work. We work too much. We argue over things that don’t matter. We are stretched so thin that we barely remember what makes us human.
Choose purpose over efficiency and let AI automate the work. Only humans can elevate the world.
Cliff Jurkiewicz is the vice president of global strategy at Phenom.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As VP of Global Strategy and GM of Customer Advisory Council at Phenom, I’m a technologist and an AI anthropologist. Topics I discuss regularly include AI legislation in HR, AI bias, generative AI, ChatGPT, AI hysteria and AI’s impact on jobs, among many others.nnOne recent example is the Nasdaq roundtable regarding AI legislation where I was a panelist with Frida Polli, award-winning Harvard & MIT neuroscientist and Keith Sonderling, EEOC Commissioner.
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