Generative artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve with unprecedented speed. And the high stakes of AI make it essential for your HR team to be ready.
Generative AI, according to McKinsey,
“describes algorithms (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini) that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos.” These tools draw from a vast database of information and language to generate humanlike responses to questions, searches and requests.
The technology has quickly become too big to ignore. Some praise it as a game-changing technology that can free employees to focus on strategy, creativity and other tasks requiring human ingenuity. Others fear its potential dangers, from creating new business vulnerabilities to replacing human roles across industries.
While opinions about generative AI vary, there’s universal agreement that organizations must understand the opportunities and challenges it poses and develop policies for its use.
To start, your HR and leadership teams should collaborate to create a company policy for current and future AI technologies. With the widespread and growing adoption of generative AI tools, it’s vital to communicate regularly and consistently with your employees. Be clear about specific usages and limitations.
Opportunities
As noted, these tools are already being used. Some applications might be relatively insignificant, like employees using them to craft emails. But other applications can be as dramatic as companies using them to shift core strategies.
Potential uses for your organization may include generating text for:
- Job descriptions
- Employee handbook policies
- Onboarding tasks, including documentation, support and reminder emails
- Training materials
- Performance reviews
- Employee and customer surveys
- Communication templates such as sales and marketing communications and company announcements
- Standard operating procedures and process documentation
Any use of generative AI should be part of a collaborative effort between employees and technology.
Regardless of the output, employees will still need to verify facts, use good judgment and customize content for appropriate audiences. A human understanding of company culture, social norms, and employee and client expectations is required to make sure the generated text is appropriate and valuable.
At its best, generative AI can help employees brainstorm ideas, create basic communications and offload administrative tasks. This can increase productivity and performance. It also lets your employees focus on idea generation, prospecting, and identifying key audiences and other high-level details.
Challenges
As with any new technology, the promise of generative AI also brings risk. Among the biggest concerns are:
- Plagiarism and copyright infringement: Generative AI can pull data from anywhere on the internet, which could lead to plagiarized passages or the improper use of copyrighted material. It’s also not yet clear who (if anyone) owns the copyright to outputs generated entirely by algorithms rather than people.
- Incorrect or insensitive information: The founders of ChatGPT warn that it is not 100% accurate; other generative AI tools have comparable limitations. Because they combine information and draw from a wide range of source documentation, the results could include inaccurate or offensive material.
- Outdated information: While generative AI tools acquire new information all the time through user prompts, they are not a reliable source for news, information or trends.
- Data protection violations: If users input personal information, AI can gather and share it. For example, if a hiring manager enters the names, addresses and employment histories of potential candidates, that personal information becomes part of the data set the algorithm can draw from and share. Candidates may not have consented to (or even know about) this use of their personal information.
- Cybersecurity: Generative AI presents the same risks as any third-party software, especially regarding sensitive company, employee and client information. Employees must avoid sharing personal, proprietary or other confidential information with generative AI tools.
Current best practices are to limit or avoid the use of generative AI for legal advice, personal guidance, market analysis or private business data. As mentioned above, employees should also avoid inputting personal or confidential information. Once data is entered into a generative AI tool, it may be shared in answers with other users.
Legal experts warn that lawmakers have not kept pace with the newest AI technology. Expect new legislation to address generative AI’s impact on hiring decisions, biases, the sharing of personal information, third-party vendors and more. Employees should act with the expectation that legal responsibility lies with your organization, not AI technology companies.
There are also concerns that generative AI could further ingrain cultural biases because it draws on past and current practices regarding gender, race and other protected characteristics. The technology could overrepresent certain views of gender, race and culture.
In addition, HR should be aware of employee concerns about having their career paths derailed or being replaced altogether. Multiple surveys show that employees are worried about having their roles diminished or losing their jobs.
Moving forward
Generative AI tools are becoming a core part of doing business. Your HR team will play a big role in balancing the risks and rewards.
Moving forward, it’s paramount to assess the opportunities and challenges for your employees and your organization as a whole. Craft a policy on internal and external use, review it regularly for timeliness and accuracy, and clearly communicate the rules and expectations to your employees.
