How Generative AI will Impact the Workforce
Serena H. Huang, Ph.D.
💎 Top AI Keynote Speaker l F100 AI Consultant & Corporate Trainer | Chief Data Officer | Amazon #1 New Release Author "Inclusion Equation: Leveraging Data & AI for Organizational Diversity & Wellbeing"
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Generative AI created one of the above paintings, while I painted the other in a studio recently. Can you guess which one?
I've never been this excited about generative AI. Not because I wasn't before but because now AI has gone mainstream with non-technical people experiencing its power. Overnight, everyone suddenly has heard of one application of generative AI, ChatGPT. A quick technical note for those of you who want to sound super smart at the next cocktail party: GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer. ChatGPT was developed at the OpenAI research lab and can have conversations or chat with humans.
How will generative AI impact the workforce? There are numerous dimensions generative AI can change the way we work. Here are five considerations to start the conversation. Given the importance of this topic, I’d welcome you join the dialogue on LinkedIn directly by commenting or respond to me directly in an email.
1. New Jobs will Emerge and the War for Specific Talent Will Be Intense
There are several jobs that will be needed as generative AI is more widespread. I’ll share a few:
There will be other new jobs that emerge and the war for these specific talent will become intense because of the scarcity. When there is not yet broad educational program or corporate training courses for someone to become proficient as a Generative AI and Human Coordinator, those who have had experience working with bots may be in high demand. There also isn’t a standard job description or talent pipeline for these brand new jobs.
2. New Skills and Training will be Required
If the number of people who have worked in the new jobs is virtually non-existent, you will have to hire people with close-enough of experience and provide training during onboarding. As generative AI starts to perform more of the tasks that human employees perform today, it is key to develop complementary skills.
Everyone will have to learn new soft skills and take time to foster people-to-people connections, according to Satya Nadella, Chairman CEO of Microsoft at Davos 2023. “Unless and until people feel fulfilled in their jobs, in terms of new skills that they've acquired, they're not going to have loyalty to the organization,” he said. “That means really investing in their progress.”
There are important implications for the HR function. Learning & Development teams must start getting prepared now for a shift in the learning strategy that will be needed for their organization to be successful longer term.
3. The Role of People Manager becomes Even More Complex
As if it wasn’t difficult enough to manage a team that’s a mix of remote, onsite, and hybrid, now there are activities generative AI will do on the team. In the not-too-distant future, people managers will manage employees in job titles that never existed before, and facilitate the collaboration of AI and human team members. Satya Nadella said artificial intelligence will be a co-pilot for workers of the future, aiding them in their tasks rather than replacing them completely. I’d expect a new set of skills that make people manager effective will emerge as well.
4. Traditional Workforce Planning Has Not Worked and It’ll be More Apparent Than Ever
The over hiring in 2021-2022 and recent layoffs are a piece of evidence that traditional workforce planning has not being effective. There are dimensions not considered in several organizations’ workforce strategy, such as skills and hybrid work. Generative AI now provides an opportunity to once again rethink workforce strategy. Specifically, what tasks can generative AI do better than human employees? What skills take years to master for human but only minutes for generative AI?
It’s time to rethink the return-to-office strategy based on what activities need to occur in the office if generative AI can perform some tasks that used to be completed by human employees. Organizations using traditional role-based workforce planning ignore the nuances of skills and can end up laying off employees who may have transferable skills. As getting workforce planning “right” becomes more challenging, the time is ripe to review the function as it stands today and assess what additional capabilities will enable you to create a skills-based workforce strategy. Stay tuned for my LinkedIn Learning course on this critical topic this year and reach out if I can provide an outside-in assessment of your workforce planning and/or people analytics team.
5. The Ability of An Organization to Get Employees’ Buy-In on its Workforce Strategy Directly Impacts Employee Productivity and Retention
Notice I did not say the ability of an organization to communicate its workforce strategy – because every organization does such communication. However, employees are not always onboard and they leave when they don’t see a future with the company upon such communication. Do employees agree with having generative AI perform certain tasks in the workplace? Do they feel fulfilled in their newly designed role and team? These are questions leaders must be able to answer to have productive employees who want to stay.
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How do you think generative AI will impact the workforce?
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🔥🔥🔥 Featured Startup 🔥🔥🔥
Perfect for the theme of generative AI, this month we feature Seek, a developer of AI-powered intelligent data solutions. I've had a chance to meet the founder, Sarah Nagy, in one of my recent Data With Serena trips. I am inspired by what she has achieved in a short amount of time, including raising $7.5 million in a combination of pre-seed and seed funding recently.
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✨ICYMI✨
🔔 My one-take no-prep interview was selected and featured by LinkedIn for Creators. This highlight has brought me numerous new clients, and I've enjoyed coaching them on creating a personal brand strategy and leveling up on their LinkedIn profile. You can now join the waitlist for my coaching here.
🎤 My podcast interview on workplace wellbeing and gen Z and interview on "Overcoming Common Challenges as a Data Analytics Leader" are now available. Have you heard about of the "First-Mile Problem" in data analytics?
🎤 If you missed our big announcement, Abe.work launched a new service for personalized and data-driven career transitions:
🎤 My recent visit to Northwestern University School of Engineering was energizing. The students were engaging and Professor Joel Shapiro made my day when he said "You were great on Zoom and you are even better in-person". Next up, I'll be speaking at Kellogg and a couple of other universities (to be announced soon).
🎤 I revealed another hidden talent recently. Did you know I write music? I wrote a song to help with my own healing process and had an amazing time collaborating with another data analytics creator, Tiankai Feng. Watch our duet here.
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🔔 Coming Up Next 🔔
I am grateful to have 25 speaking engagements booked already. Everyone tells me it's when I come alive so I feel blessed to be feeling alive quite a bit this year. I'll be in the Bay Area to speak at SHRMTech 2023 and Wellbeing at Work in March.
I am also thankful for your tremendous support and engagement on the launch of Data With Serena. I'd certainly not be here without your support over the years. For my personal safety, the details on future #DataWithSerena events including specific location and data/time will no longer be posted publicly and only be disclosed to those who are selected to meet #DataWithSerena IRL. This is an one-time sign-up and you'll be notified directly when I'm in one of the cities you've selected!
I am thrilled to finally be able to share that Data With Serena will be in Europe and Asia this year. Sign up today so you don't miss the opportunity to meet me and chat #DataWithSerena.
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Dr. Serena Huang is the Founder & CEO of Data With Serena and the Chief Data Officer of ABE.work. She is a thought leader and professional keynote speaker in people analytics, HR technology, future of work, ethical AI, employee experience, and mental health. Dr. Huang brings deep analytics expertise and HR strategy experience spanning large multinationals including PayPal, GE, Kraft Heinz, Koch Industries, and Deloitte. She regularly guest lectures at top MBA programs including Kellogg, Wharton, and Haas. She is a LinkedIn Learning instructor of the popular course “The Data Science of People Analytics” and a LinkedIn influencer from the highly-selective LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program focused on Innovation and Technology. Her thought leadership is regularly featured by LinkedIn News, and her monthly newsletter “From Data to Action” now has thousands of subscribers and delivered directly to the inbox of CHROs, CIOs, and CDAOs. Featured in Profile Magazine as one of the Board Ready Leaders and Women in Tech Code Breakers, Dr. Huang is passionate about helping organizations create value with data analytics. Contact her today for speaking engagements in Q3-Q4 2023. Get to know her by checking out her recent interviews on Profile Magazine, Tech Talks, People Matters, Data Chief podcast, HR Leaders podcast and more.
VIEWS ARE THE AUTHOR'S OWN.
Director @ Target | Data & Insights
1yI found the implication for workforce planning very insightful. Implementing skill based workforce and assessment has already been challenging for many, now it will be an imperative for organization to do so. I have to also bring up the point of data foundation as a key prerequisite for enabling AI. Many companies ignored or didn’t understand how to solve the fundamental data quality issue in their analytics use, it will unfortunately become a roadblock for them on the way to automation - you won’t have good AI if your AI doesn’t have good data to learn from.
Insights Leader | Analytics & Strategy | Market Research Innovator | CX Award Winner I Speaker | Mentor
1yI enjoyed reading this article and found it very thoughtful and thought provoking. Bringing AI mainstream is SO exciting and reminiscent of when I first met Tableau in 2008 bringing data mainstream! Can’t wait to watch the convergence of ChatGPT and other analytic tools… it’s an exciting time to be a data geek! Look forward to following you on LinkedIn to hear more!
Chief Redirector. Publishing my research on how to make a successful pivot (redirection) upon retiring or from one job or career to another. Always willing to chat about redirecting or help with connections
1yAs a long time watcher and surveyor of technology adoption I think we are overinflating adoption of GPTs and the impact on jobs both in terms of new job growth or elimination of some roles. As the originator of the SierraCedar HR Systems Survey, now Sapient Insights survey, for its first 15 years I watched as orgs said, Yes - we will adopt x technology in 12 months and yet the following year adoption increased at best by 50%. You’ve identified the importance of change management. That is likely the critical success factor BUT another factor not identified is “ integration.” GPTs will not provide their aspired for value until they are integrated into other products. Google and Bing are starting this but look how long it’s taking for people to get access. GPTs will need to be integrated into self service solutions, into call center technologies, and most importantly into flow of work technologies. Email, Slack, Teams, and so many more such as decision support tech. I am not a nay sayer. I love the haiku my husband sends me generated by ChatGPT and he and I both have benefitted by our early trials. I do think GPT will not have great impact for years and we still need to continuously vet its accuracy. You drew the pic on left
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1ySo if you want a rap for free, Head right on over to Chatgpt. No, the lines won't really rhyme, But you'll have saved a lot of time than if you'd asked a poet that's true to write a meaningful verse for you. And that poet would have done their part, And written you something right from the heart. See poetry's not about being smart, And chat GPT's put the horse before the cart. The poem doesn't start with the words you use, Or with the best rhymes you can choose. No, the poet starts with an idea, a feeling, Maybe a wound that's in need of healing. Algorithmic words are just so much commotion, Real poetry comes from emotion. So if you want a verse that's real, That has more than momentary appeal, Step away from screen, I know it's hard, And reach out now to The Conference Bard.
Founder : Slikun Technology Inc. & Trinity EAC | Scientist @NASA Sci-Start (Earth & Space Data Projects) & @ISRO IIRS | M. Tech. (Quantum Computing) @IIT Madras | Quantum Computing Scientist @IBM Research | Astrophysics
1yNicely written article 👌