AI feels like it’s the ✨hottest ✨ topic right now. I haven’t gone a day without reading a new article about it or hearing about an AI that can “do that.”
Is AI the new IT girl of tech?
Seems like it!
Need a new headshot? There’s AI for that
Need a long document summarized? There’s AI for that
Need a quick script for a conversation? You guessed it, there’s AI for that
It was only a matter of time before AI infiltrated HR with tools popping up to:
- Streamlining recruiting
- Analyze employee feedback
- Assess performance management
- Search internal documents
And many, many more are sure to come…
Josh Bersin even went as far to say that AI is going to radically change the HR tech landscape.
It absolutely will. Next week I’m going to dive into use cases for HR, specifically how to help your culture.
This week I wanted to kick off with an overview of AI and I’m tapping my good friend Amanda Halle to give you the inside scoop on AI.
A little bit about Amanda: Amanda Halle is the founder of Mindful Growth Partners, a HR consultancy focused on advisory, consulting, and fractional services. She has built, operated, consulted, and advised over 50 diverse companies from startups to multinational corporations. She sees immense opportunity at the convergence of HR/people and generative AI and strives to bring curiosity and experimentation out in others.
I asked her 3 questions:
- Why leverage Generative AI?
- How can HR leverage Generative AI and what are the risks?
- What is the time and financial investment?
Read below for her answers & insights.
Amanda sounds off:
Why leverage Generative AI?
Generative AI has the potential to make us, HR leaders, more efficient, effective, and impactful. We’re constantly faced with the balance of supporting the people and the business – pulled in all different directions while simultaneously being dragged down by all the minutiae/tactical/admin work.
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I see the entrance of GenAI as a great reset for HR. An opportunity to flip the ‘back-office’ function script. A bright spotlight on Financial Accounting principles that have done a number on HR, and put us rightfully in the asset versus liability bucket.
TLDR: HR can be the value creation engine
How can HR leverage Generative AI and what are the risks?
There are three key use cases that I revisit often:
1) Using OpenAI’s ChatGPT as your feedback partner that can flex into limitless roles to support you, like Adam Grant, Michelle Obama, or your CEO or CFO. Here’s a prompt example, “act as [celeb guide – Brene Brown] and give me an [email] that [context – introduces a new manager training program focused on feedback, 1:1s, and goal-setting] that is [tone – concise and warm] in [length – 3 paragraphs].”
2) Summarizing large amounts of qualitative info. Anthropic’s Claude is an incredible resource for distilling down large PDF documents into key points.
3) Drafting my v1. Whether it’s a new policy, an email, or presentation deck (try Gamma), Generative AI generates a great starting place.
What should you look out for?
- Be aware of biases that exist. And, EXPERIMENT, because the more involved we are (i,e, the more we influence the models and products through our use cases), the less biased the models will be. For example, men are adopting AI faster than women—50% of men versus 33% of women.
- Understand the basics – find a 101 course, like Google’s Generative AI Fundamentals.
- Aim for transparency and avoid ‘black box’ models. Ask providers the right questions to understand their models and be transparent with your teams around how decisions are made and justifications.
What is the time and financial investment?
Start small.
Check the products and systems you already use to see what AI components they may have available. Google Drive integrated AI into the platform. Notion has an AI assistant. And, there are limitless plugins that exist and are easy to install.
Build experimentation into your routine. Try using prompts once a week for 15 minutes. Take 5 minutes during weekly team meetings to share your use cases, experiments, and learning. Do a quick listening tour with your team to see who’s using GenAI and how. Sign up for free demos of GenAI platforms that look interesting.
ChatGPT3.5 is free. Claude is free. GPT4 is available to ChatGPT Plus users ($20/month) which also includes access to Code Interpreter (a data analyst!) and Custom Instructions (way to improve your prompts). Many other platforms are subscription based while others remain free of charge.
Huge thank you to Amanda for sharing her thoughts with y’all! I love being able to tap my network of amazing folks and highlight them here!
Next on the culture quest:
Next week, I’ll dive into specific use cases for leveraging AI to help improve your culture and what to be mindful of!
If you’re curious about AI but craving human interaction (ha) my panel at the Culture Can’t Wait workshop in NYC is going to tackle how AI will impact HR.
It’s a conversation you won’t want to miss and it’s staying exclusive to that room!
Who knows, you might meet your newest HR bestie.
