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‘AI gives us a superpower': Four exciting predictions on AI from HUG
Today in London, hundreds of HR leaders and other inspirational speakers gathered for HUG 2023, our biggest HR event of the year. Joining us for our final keynote of the day were technology experts Tom Cheesewright and Dan Sodergren, who shared some fascinating advice on how AI will impact HR teams around the world.
Here are four of the most illuminating must-knows they had to share to the hundreds of HR leaders who joined us at HUG today.
1. AI will never replace your job
Knowing the impact that AI will have on our future can be unsettling. But as Tom shared, "AI cannot do your job because it is a complex collection of tasks. It can do some of your work but there is no job that can be done fully by AI." Tom reminds that AI does not know what's good or bad or right or wrong. It is best used for pattern recognition and replication.
He explains: "AI can sit on my shoulder and help me find useful things. It can help me organise and sort them and turn it into a useful narrative. I’m driving but it’s assisting. AI can help me communicate and reach more people and craft things quicker."
2. As we use AI, we'll appreciate people more
Tom explains that the more technology we introduce and the more we use AI, the more we’re going to value people. He uses the example of how digital music actually led to an increase in the sale of vinyl and live music: "We still wanted something physical and real. We wanted to be there and feel it."
In fact it's these exact levels of creativity that AI will give us more time for: "Companies are already shrinking because humans with technology can do less. We’ll then invest more in skills and training and spend more time on creativity and communication."
3. AI will democratise skills and talent
Dan on the other hand pointed to research from Deloitte that shows that it's the lower performers who tend to find AI the most valuable – it helps everyone to do less of the work they don't enjoy and focus on where their real skills lie:
Dan shares: "AI gives us a superpower. This is a democratisation of skills and talent - you can be anyone you want to be. Technology gives you more time to do stuff just like when we introduced the washing machine, AI is the same."
4. Businesses need to embrace radical flexibility
In fact it's this very way of using AI that will help businesses to make the most of their talent and their time and energy: "We need to use radical flexibility. When you harness the right technology and the right people, it fundamentally changes the business."
He had one final parting thought that we will always need people, but as time goes on, we will need people who know how to make the best use of AI: "People who use AI will replace people who don’t. You all have the power to use AI. AI gives us time back if we give it energy."
Hannah Popham
Hannah is a Senior Content Marketing Manager at Personio. She loves writing about the ever-changing ways that we work and how they intersect with our lives outside work.
