Putting together a marketing or informational piece involves many heads being put together to gnash and hash over the right content, the most attractive graphics, and the messages being delivered, both overtly and subtly. Everyone involved is required to dip into their deep accumulated knowledge as well as keep their communications skills sharpened.
Now, some vendors and artificial intelligence proponents are pushing for such works to be generated at the touch of a button, with the prevailing corporate messaging embedded and eye-catching graphics inserted – and even instantly translated into 50 languages.
Are we losing something valuable in the process?
Yes we are, says Lynda Gratton, professor at London Business School and founder of HSM Advisory, a future-of-work research consultancy. in a recent Harvard Business Review article. “Although gen AI promises to accelerate learning and boost productivity, it risks undermining the very experiences that foster mastery, deep thinking, empathy, and personal agency,” she warns.
Yes, AI makes things faster and more furious, but we can’t lose that human experience and shared learning. It’s like a student using AI to generate a paper on the fall of the Roman Empire, yet can’t even find Rome on a map, let alone be able to understand the forces that led to the collapse.
In speaking with countless executives, Gratton observes a groundswell of concern of how AI may be gutting some of the interpersonal and leadership instincts that we need to succeed.
She explores four key issues that arise as AI usurps the knowledge involved in mastering subjects or tasks:
What happens to our skills development when AI makes accomplishing tasks too quick and easy? It’s been a given that long hours of study and making mistakes lead to mastery of a subject or task. Could taking AI shortcuts to accomplish certain tasks cause people to lose their learned edge? “Keep human development at the center of organizational learning, rather than letting AI take over the experiences that build mastery,” Gratton urges.
Are we making things too harried and hectic at the expense of deliberative thinking? A relentless push for productivity can burn out even the most ambitious people. All those slide decks, reports, and drafts pumped out with a prompt or two means thousands more slide decks, reports, and drafts coming our way, faster than we can process or think them through. AI even provides up-front summaries that save us from the rigor of having to thoroughly absorb their contents. Surely, we’ll miss something if we allow a machine to interpret a document for us.
“The challenge is a frictionless flow of content that overwhelms attention and obscures insight,” Gratton cautions. “AI makes many things easier but at the same time can diminish learning and increase noise.” Goodbye reflective, creative work; hello noise.
What’s happening to empathy? The top capabilities sought in today’s and tomorrow’s workforces include “discernment, intuition, moral reasoning, and, above all, empathy.” These are not developed overnight, but rather, gradually learned through day-to-day work and life. Empathy is what guides our interactions with our employees, colleagues, and customers. Without it, we’re, well, just robots.
Empathy, in particular, “grows through practice,” Gratton explains. “Reading subtle cues, managing conflict, engaging in difficult conversations, supporting a colleague under pressure, showing vulnerability in teams.” She quotes an executive from her consulting work: “If AI handles the difficult conversations, how will people learn to have them?”
Is AI sapping decision-making? “Many of the new AI-enabled tools nudge behavior, propose next steps, or automate decisions,” says Gratton. “In doing so, however, they are also stripping people of the capacity to reflect, to choose, and to take ownership of their decisions.” This may be robbing us of independent judgement, she warns. ”What happens to personal choice, agency, and identity when the habit of self-authorship weakens?”
Freeing us from manual labor is a laudable advancement. We no longer need to know how to grow corn or milk cows thanks to expensive automation. And, for the most part, we no longer need to be backyard auto mechanics, thanks to the advanced computerization of our vehicles. But when it comes to automating our creative and decision-making abilities, we stand to lose a lot of our control over our lives and careers. We need to be able to think things through, reflect, and make empathetic decisions. Let’s not leave that all to the machines.