Three things EVERY organization should do about AI
Full disclaimer, this article was completely generated by a human being typing every key on a keyboard.
It doesn't matter whether your organization is on the cutting edge of technology, or you're a dinosaur company with only one computer. Here's three things you should do right now as a leader in your company, government, or school.
1. Add language to your employee manual governing AI use
This is the easiest item on our list to do. Your staff are going to use AI to complete their work. You need get ahead of it and govern its usage from an HR perspective. Decide as an organization and document in your employee handbook, or other HR policies:
Are we going to allow or ban the use of generative AI? It's okay to ban it, just be clear with staff.
Require staff to disclose when they use AI. This is especially a good practice if you have a team that closely tracks their time on a per-task, per-ticket, or per-client basis. If you're in a billable hour industry, decide whether you'll bill your clients the normal amount of time it would take to complete the task, the actual staff time you spent, or a somewhere in the middle.
Strictly spell out a privacy policy about AI. Remember that you have to give information to AI for it to generate content. Are you okay with your staff putting private company information into ChatGPT? Are you okay with client concepts and product names going into an AI system that you don't control or govern? Consider allowing AI use but use pseudonyms or placeholders to create the content that you replace with your own content later.
2. Ask your "main software" company what their use of AI will be
Most of us have a core software application that is specific to our industry. This could be something like our ERP, construction management, classroom management, BlueBeam, or it could even be Microsoft365 or Quickbooks. These software platforms are where AI is most likely going to be adopted in the real-world the fastest. Check their blogs, get on their email newsletter, or reach out to your account rep to ask them how they plan to adopt AI.
I'm already seeing some document management system vendors adopt it to automatically categorize bills, etc, and fairly well. I did try one of Microsoft's on my inbox to notify me if I got a negative email in my inbox. After a few days of the most annoying false alerts I shut it off.
3. Don't be afraid of using or not using AI
This is the hardest thing to do on this list.
AI is new technology and everyone is positively, unnecessarily freaking out.
I live and advise in the technology sector--my entire life has been in a field that changes every few years. But here's something to consider. Our world still uses and completely relies on email. Email was invented over 50 years ago. Think about that. People don't like change all that much. What about texting? Yeah, it's over 25 years old and some organizations are just now adopting it. Think about that!
Technology may change but people, relationships, and principles remain the same. Don't freak out that you're going to lose your competitive edge if you're not using the latest AI technology. So what if you're a year late to adopting some amazing AI technology? Unless you're some major software or technology company, chances are you would be five years late to adopting AI technology and you'd continue to successfully serve your clients, citizens, or students.
