The future of work and Artificial Intelligence.

Most of us will know what ChatGPT is by now. There appeared to be an interview or news discussion on the application and the role of artificial intelligence in the world of work every day last week, apart from the tax affairs of a prominent politician. It is all about AI, particularly ChatGPT recently.   


I have seen ChatGPT at work, and it is a really clever piece of artificial intelligence. It is already causing issues in the academic circle; some are using it to write essays and exams. Its knowledge bank is for events up to the year 2021, so quite a wealth of knowledge is within it. Sam Altman, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, commenting on the future of work, noted that artificial intelligence is coming for those who sit in front of computers. Maybe me. The less benign thinking argues that artificial intelligence augments human creativity and productivity rather than replacing workers.  
 
No doubt technology will influence the work of the future, which means 50% of us will need to be reskilled, according to the World Economic Forum. However, the skills we need for the future, as listed by the same organisation, have remained consistent for the last ten years: critical thinking, complex problem solving, analytical thinking and innovation. McKinsey also identified similar skill sets across their 13 skill groups. Three relate to digital skills, while the other ten relates to what makes us human. We should use the airspace we use to discuss the possible impact of AI on jobs to discuss how we develop the skills that we sorely need, like yesterday.   


I see AI’s advancement as an enabler, a timer of some sort, that moves us away from the rhetoric of the skills of tomorrow to a countdown for today. Whilst artificial intelligence cannot resolve the current talent shortage nor even tomorrow’s, we can learn from the limitations of the more mature form of AI, such as ChatGPT. But what does this mean for talent management teams?   

• What data do we have about the health of our organisation, and what story is it telling you about your workforce of today and perhaps tomorrow? From onboarding to offboarding.   
  
• What frames or lenses are we using to solve organisational challenges, and how does that affect our decision-making?  
  
• Let’s leave the heavy lifting to AI and concentrate on human skills. ChatGPT acknowledges that it does not have empathy, lacks creative expression, lacks ethics, cannot be spontaneous, is not adaptable, cannot maintain relationships, is not self-aware, and lacks common sense. So, there is a lot for us to do. 
  
• Where are we on our journey to making our teams digitally literate? I am not referring to big technical interventions but simple, accessible interventions, for example, optimal utilisation of the Microsoft office suite.   
  
• Finally, it goes without saying that a diverse workforce improves an organisation’s readiness for the skills for tomorrow.  
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What is your view on AI, and what are you doing to close the skill gap?   

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