Many would argue the current AI hype would not exist without the push for Cloud of the recent years.
AI has been around since the 1950s. In the past ten years, however, machine learning engines in the Cloud together with the large amounts of data created by our multiple devices have made it possible for AI to step into the mainstream.
That and the rise of GenAI with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. Although, some believe that the excitement around this launch contributed to obscure rather than make clearer the overall benefits of AI. As apps like ChatGPT began entering our living rooms, people viewed AI increasingly as a mere content creation tool, for tasks like editing a document with Copilot or creating a video from prompts on Sora. The AI that enables insight from analytics, like foreseeing when a machine is likely to malfunction, has been receiving much fewer headlines.
This might be one of the reasons why it is difficult to explain the overall benefits of AI to employees.
A large part of the current anxiety around AI rollouts comes from a lack of clarity and the worry that this technology might replace the human in the process of making decisions. There is fear that people will no longer able to control the pace and outcome of their work.
Corporate communication has a particular responsibility in this context.
It all starts with helping leaders shape the vision from the top with the right narrative. The comms function is a repository of institutional memory. Communicators have experience from previous technology rollouts. They know where the pockets of resistance are likely to be and can act as an early warning signal due to their understanding of employee sentiment and informal networks. They act as translators between worlds, converting technical concepts into day-to-day language.
Picture a utility that is trying to convince its business units that, by applying AI to the data they produce and own, the company will be able to make faster operational decisions and provide a more dependable service to customers. Data in this context is key and a problem as well. Chance is that it is currently siloed and stored in hundreds of separate Power BI platforms. You would need the right kind of open and ethical communication to get the business units to collaborate and hand it over. Without it, they are likely to perceive the AI rollout as a central grab for their data. Comms’ responsibility is to make sure that the purpose of the project is clear and that credit is given to those local teams that produce the data.
Another vital task of the comms function is querying vendors and asking uncomfortable questions. They need to make sure the AI embedded in the tools their company is deploying is without bias and can remain subject to human oversight. AI does not understand vulnerability, reputational damage or the impact of unfairness. That’s why it is important that ultimate judgement remains with humans every time AI shapes a decision.
This argument holds particularly true in the talent management area. If the tool you use to manage your recruitment produces discriminatory outcomes, the problem might be that you have failed to ask your vendor the right questions.
Take the case of Workday, the AI-enabled workforce management platform. In the United States, it is currently the subject of ongoing litigation for having produced discriminatory hiring recommendations, particularly in the case of older job applicants.
This time it is a vendor to have been placed under scrutiny because of the decisions made by the algorithm build into its tech. It is however Workday clients who have to live with the impact of those decisions on their reputation.
That’s why we need functions like comms, close to the people, to grill vendors about the risks of their technology. Risk does not only come from systems failing. It emerges when people feel excluded from decisions, unfairly assessed or dependent on algorithms they can’t begin to understand.
With AI moving out of the experimentation phase into the core of business operations, the comms function becomes indispensable for organisations that need to translate their tech choices into human experience. As a result, it is important for communicators to be included as active participants, not as observers, in the centers of excellence and governance councils companies are currently setting up to oversee AI projects.
With AI exerting more and more influence on employees’ working lives, communication becomes the vehicle through which accountability will either survive or quietly disappear in the future.
By Silvia Cambie and Neville Hobson
Co-founders
AI Leadership & Communication Shared Interest GroupInternational Association of Business Communicators