Gen AI vs Human Touch

I’ve been hearing a lot about Generative AI (Gen AI) and how it’s becoming an essential tool for many people. I use it almost every day myself. ChatGPT is an example of Gen AI – an artificial intelligence system that helps with generating text, images, and even music. It has made work much easier for us. It’s incredibly useful and saves me a lot of time, especially when I’m doing research and writing. I believe it will become indispensable for us one day.

However, will it take away our roles entirely? We can’t ignore the fact that Gen AI can enhance and improve our work efficiency, but can it work like a human being?

I’m not sure how this happened, but in the last two weeks, I’ve been receiving several profiles in my mailbox offering consultancy and training services. Someone even referred me to a very experienced individual in the ESG context. As I looked into his profile, I was impressed with his vast experiences. It’s hard to summarize his profile easily, as he has more than three decades of experience locally and internationally. These individuals have gained their experiences and tacit knowledge over decades, working from the pre-digitalization era to the present digital era.

So, with the inception of Gen AI, are they still valuable and relevant in the market? This has placed me into deep thought as to how we, as consultants, can remain relevant today. Therefore, here is my research and I must admit, I’m currently using Gen AI to help me with some of my perspective.

• Automation and Efficiency – today Gen AI can automate and help with repetitive task to the extend on drafting report, articles, and other documents quickly and accurately.
• Content creation is essential today, and with Gen AI, it helps to ease writers and producers in generating ideas for articles, music, videos, and more.
• The amount of data available can greatly assist in predictive analytics for forecasting trends and providing market insights.
• Many companies today have invested in chatbots to assist with customer support. By utilizing Gen AI, companies can analyze customer data and preferences.
• Gen AI has powered tutoring systems to enhance education and training. Now, it can provide personalized learning experiences and some use it to create books, courses, and quizzes, making education more interactive and easily accessible.
• Business operations will improve as Gen AI can provide data-driven insights to support business functions and improve business processes to be more operationally efficient.

But, can Gen AI take over the role of human touch? I hope not, but now these are some tasks that still need human intervention.

• Coaching, counselling as these roles requires personal and providing emotional support to handle sensitive issues, conflicts and even negotiations.
• While Gen AI can be creative in providing strategic ideas, leading and brainstorming ideas will still need human intervention to craft the strategic plans, define visions, and develop innovative solutions and ideas.
• Ethical and moral decision-making will require human intervention to ensure fairness and accountability in the decision-making process.
• Relationship building involves partnership development, negotiation, and maintaining long-term relationships. Therefore, technology cannot replace this process.
• Cultural nuances and sensitivities require a human touch to understand local customs and practices.
• Leadership management requires human intervention to mentor and lead change for the organization, rather than using Gen AI to inspire and motivate team members.
• Many times, problem-solving requires a holistic view to tackle multifaceted problems. This requires human intervention to understand diverse perspectives and to overcome the problem.

Ultimately, Gen AI will significantly enhance our daily tasks, offering speed to boost productivity and efficiency. However, human interaction remains essential for tasks that require emotional intelligence. By integrating Gen AI with human touch, we can achieve more balanced and effective outcomes in our daily lives. We cannot afford to fall behind in adopting these technological advances—we also need them now.

written by Elsie Low