AI Changes Everything

Donald Clark is an experienced entrepreneur with 40 years in the learning technology business. He is the author of the books; Artificial Intelligence for Learning, Learning Technology and Learning Experience Design, and is also an acclaimed international speaker.

HR deals with the management of people within an organisation. To be honest, it has largely abandoned its older role of recruitment, pay and rations, along with personal development through L&D to become that part of the organisation that 1) protects the organisations from its own employees and 2) imposes compliance upon employees. It has become a supply not a demand model, imposing values and strictures upon people. Employees are rarely asking for this; it is imposed upon them. Is there a way of climbing back out of this hole and predicament?

Big bang event

Something momentous happened on the 30 November 2022. ChatGPT was launched by Open AI. Within a couple of days 1 million had used it, within two months 100 million in a global act of human engagement. Generative AI had arrived, it was speaking to the whole world. It was the fastest adoption of any piece of technology by our species ever. But what does this mean for HR?

Well, in addition to humans in the workplace, we now have AI, which is a significant moment in the history of our species, never mind in relation to work. The Age of AI is upon us and HR needs to recognise that there are two new kids on the block; AI trainers and AI learners. Rather than the simple diad of teachers and learners, we now have a tetrad of teachers, learners, AI teachers and AI learners.

AI and work

This changes the whole dynamic of work, and therefore learning, in the workplace. So let’s focus first on work. It is clear that this technology, and AI in general, will not replace work that is of the ‘heart’ and ‘hand’ but of the ‘head’. The paper released by OpenAI, claims that this generative AI will change the jobs of white collar workers, middle managers and those who produce text, articles, reports and content. This was a surprise, in direct opposition to the exaggerated rhetoric around the importance of 21^st century skills, as those are exactly skills that are likely to be automated. The more educated you are, the report claims, the more likely your job will be automated.

This is a vindication of the ideas put forward in David Goodhart’s book Head, Heart and Hand, where he criticises the obsession with largely abstract, text-based degrees and workplace training at the expense of real skills and competences. We reward ‘Head’ workers way beyond what they deserve and often pay ‘Heart’ workers, such as carers, minimum wage. Those who work with their hands are also poorly paid, compared to knowledge workers. Is it any surprise that we have a shortage of skilled workers but no shortage of graduates doing non-graduate jobs? The graduate class have taken it all and, even worse, often look down on others, yet they are the very class most at threat from AI.

Rethinking training

It may be time to rethink the massive spend on Leadership training, values, DEI and oddball topics such as resilience and return to a more practical approach of training actual practical skills and competences. The research around DEI training is clear – it does not work. Yet few even glance at the research. We are an anti-intellectual profession.

Being practical, we have to be honest and admit that HR does involve a lot of admin, mostly text, whether in recruitment, HR and L&D. This is all under pressure from AI right now. There will be significant increases in automation, therefore increases in productivity in HR and L&D, as these Generative AI systems can do much of the leg-work. A dialogue system within the workplace should allow anyone to access HR advice of any kind. Early studies are already showing dramatic increases in both speed and quality when used as an assistant. This will happen in both HR and L&D.

L&D courses that took tens of thousands of hours to produce as e-learning, will be done in hours. Companies are already producing software that will give you courses in minutes not months. Can we really say that this technology is not engaging, when hundreds of millions engaged with in in just a few months? It is already being used for learners support, just ask it a question and it answers, 24/7 on any topic. This is a teacher that seems to have a degree in every subject. It can produce assessment items in seconds as well as assessment rubrics and marking schemes.

New pedAIgogy

This is a new form of pedagogy or ‘pedAIgogy’ where good learning science and theory can be baked into the tools, avoiding myths and old theory such as learning styles, Myers-Briggs, Bloom and Maslow’s pyramids, moving  towards action and transfer oriented learning. I have been working on just such a tool with good pedagogic theories embedded in the AI model that produces learning experiences. Content is now being produced in minutes. AI digital coaches will emerge and no end of useful tools that put the power of HR and learning into the hands of employees, shifting us back into a demand, not supply model.

See this technology not as generating blocks of text but as dialogue with a personal assistant. It is like having a free, or next to free, smart and personal companion who will help you work faster and to a higher quality. It is important not to see it as a mere generator of blocks of text, the skill is in using it iteratively to meet your goal.

Oh, and it is already producing images from text prompts that are so good they are winning photography competitions. This means the world of images is open up to massive productivity increases.

Not only that but audio is also possible. We may also see the return of voice as an interface in dialogue and audio. Podcasts are insanely popular in learning but rarely used by HR or L&D, as we are so obsessed with classrooms or a dull, fixed idea of flat e-learning.  Voice has long been a boon in accessibility for those who have either visual or hearing impairment. Generative AI also helps those with dyslexia and other learning difficulties as it is personalised to that individual. You can prompt it to produce text sensitive to dyslexic readers. This idea of personalisation is important as we must shift from seeing people in organisations as groups that can be batched through training courses. With generative AI, they can all be treated as individuals.

Play with it, embrace it

To get started simply use it, play with it, think of a problem and apply it and don’t just prompt and stop…. keep prompting, see it as a friend who is there to help you, keep asking, as it is endlessly patient and helpful. Think dialogue not monologue. Get familiar with how this technology works, so that you don’t make the mistake of over-anthropomorphising. Be careful when throwing words like bias, intelligence, learning and reason around. They mean very different things in the context of mathematics and software. Don’t get bogged down in endless discussion around ethics, as it is always more complicated than people think, leave that to the regulators. This software is competent without comprehension. See it not just as an incredibly useful tool but an incredibly knowledgeable assistant.

Embrace the Age of AI, as that is to embrace the future or work and learning. It changes what work is, thereby what, why and how we learn. It may even liberate us from the drudgery of endless documents, PowerPoints, emails and meetings, moving us towards a more efficient ‘less is more’ world where we get just as much as we need, when we need it, personalised to our own needs, at anytime, anyplace, anywhere.