Why Being Human Is Your Greatest Advantage In The AI Era

The question is no longer whether you can use AI for x.

It’s should you.

And if you do, where, when and how do you use it best?

I see about 100 ‘new AI apps’ weekly. They can’t all be AI-powered, but it’s getting harder to tell. There’s a weird blurry line where people are reaching to AI-first for anything, and I mean ANYTHING!

There’s a great deal, I believe, that you shouldn’t delegate to AI.

Especially for L&D.

I know this is a somewhat complicated statement from someone who has spent the past few years sharing the power, potential and promise of generative AI tools.

I love digital technology (which expands further than AI).

AI is incredibly useful (hence why I write about it so much). But I don’t want it to replace some of the most fundamental experiences that make us human.

Parts of the workplace learning experience fall under this banner.

On the topic of working smart

AI tools have great capabilities.

Yet those capabilities are only truly unlocked in the hands of a competent and confident user. In my experience, we have very few of them.

We’ve covered a look into this before in my article on “The Hidden Impact of AI On Your Skills“.

The TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) being AI can help and hinder, and that choice is yours.

I know AI tools can help us work smart, yet the jury is out on how much is meaningful and if we learn how to amplify this in other spaces without AI.

Learning is an everyday behaviour, whether you realise that or not.

We call upon an ecosystem of tools, both digital and organic, to help us learn and put that into action. My fear (which is being confirmed more by the day) at present is that we have an over-reliance on AI tools.

This leads to less investment in the power of our mind, and thus moves us away from what makes us human.

Don’t get me wrong, a certain amount of cognitive offloading is great. You don’t want to outsource the whole thing, though.

You can’t apply AI to everything

Pick the right tool for the right job.

Solid advice, no matter the time or place in the world you find yourself.

It’s natural to get giddy about modern tech and experiment to see how it can help. Sometimes this can go in the wrong direction. Especially when leaders are misinformed or not educated enough on the tech.

I have an example of this in my work.

About a year ago, I worked with a client on an onboarding program, which, in their words, needed “a digital makeover”. At the time of outreach, I wasn’t sure what that meant. I had a few ideas, though.

One of those turned out to be true.

Their Chief People Officer (CPO) had seen an ad for a new AI-powered (allegedly) tool. The promise was to automate all the things that humans hate doing and provide a conversational mechanism for newbies to get answers through a ChatGPT-like interface.

They didn’t want to buy it, just create their own in-house version.

This is where I came into the picture. The ask was to build this product alongside them. However, they had made the most fatal of mistakes I cannot ignore.

They fell into the tool before the problem trap.

No one could tell me what was actually wrong with today’s onboarding process, or if there even was anything wrong.

All they knew was the CPO had seen this AI tool, and they needed to make it a reality.

Nothing new here, right?

It doesn’t work that way

With further conversation, I got a clear picture of the madness.

The CPO had convinced themselves they could use their AI-powered solution to fully automate the onboarding process and remove humans entirely.

Despite the fact that this wasn’t even possible, my questioning came to “Why would you want to do that?”. I never really got an answer to this, btw.

In the end, the project fizzled out due to money and time.

So, we never got to unpack whether it was wise to do this. My point here is that we have an already foggy view of what these tools can actually do, and a knee-jerk reaction to automate rather than collaborate with us.

This is where it goes wrong for any tech-assisted solution.

We race to discover ‘how can this tool do x thing for me’, rather than ‘how can this tool enhance what we do?’.

Human + AI

It’s funny how quickly we forget what makes AI work.

HUMANS.

I’m baffled by the AI-first rubbish I see on social feeds (I’m doing my best to cut down on feeds of late, fyi). I’m fond of the human-powered, AI-assisted or possibly AI-native.

However you look at it, we would be wise to seek collaboration.

That’s what brings me to the advantage both you and I have – our humanity. It’s the unique attribute or skill that enables you to leverage AI intelligently.

It’s well documented that left to its own devices, many generative AI tools can get themselves into all sorts of hot water. Without a human to provide guardrails and a sense check, tools can often cause more harm than good.

If I had a dollar for every time a poorly designed “AI automation” created lots of clean-up work for teams, maybe I’d be well on my way to my first million.

You are the essential ingredient in making AI work well.

The human in the loop

If this were one of those Marvel films, this would be the time when the superior spandex-laden superhero appears to save the day.

You might have heard of the concept ‘human in the loop’.

It’s commonly used to describe the essential human involvement required with any technology. Did you think all of those cool tools worked on their own?

If you haven’t, the term refers to human input into the development, training, and operation of AI systems. It’s about collaboration between man and machine, not one or the other. I believe this is the best way to work with these tools.

That’s why when I’m asked, “Will x take my job?”, I reply “It depends”.

It depends on whether you’re building a human in the loop (HITL) with AI-assisted tasks, and the answer is – you should!

The HITL approach leverages the collaboration angle I mentioned to improve accuracy, reliability, and adaptability of tech tools. You (the human) are the key ingredient in working with any technology. If you’re human skills suck, AI and other tools won’t help you much.

As humans, we provide key context.

Tools like Generative AI can do many wonderful things, but they can’t apply them contextually.

Not right now, anyway.

So, if you’re sitting there worried about AI taking your job – Don’t.

Until SkyNet rises and starts building Terminators, you have a clear place in the flow of work.

But ‘x’ tool said it can do blah blah

Maybe you’re not quite sold on this concept.

Here’s where humans enhance the tech partnership:

1. Accuracy and reliability
2. Context and understanding
3. Ethics and accountability
4. Continuous improvement
5. Trust and adoption

Without you, technology can’t benefit from any of this.

That means it’s not much use in the long term.

How to use your human skills to amplify work with AI

Instead of repeating a bunch of what I’ve said over the years, here’s a curation of my most useful thoughts on this:

• How to stop AI from hijacking your thinking
• The ultimate guide on when (and when not) to use AI for work
• Unexpected ways AI can increase your critical thinking skills

Final thoughts

I believe conversations like these are important.

As Ed Sheeran said, “I’m thinking out loud”.

If you fancy sending thoughts back, I’ll be here.

As we each continue to establish best practices with Gen AI use for work, getting clear on the level of human skills required to make this effective in any business is essential.

This image I shared on LinkedIn sums up the reality most of us face today.

Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

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