Why HR Needs AI-Native Thinking, Not Just AI Tools

It was 20th March 2020, when lockdown stopped the heartbeat of the world.

My son’s college exams were due. That is when my son’s college decided to go digital. I was very happy. I have always been a strong promoter of digital life.

On the day of the exam, the exam started. The examiner shared the question paper on the screen. Students were asked to switch on their camera. They wrote down their answers on paper. Then they scanned their answer sheets and uploaded them to a shared drive.

When the result came, I realised that the teachers had downloaded the papers for each student, printed them, checked them manually and uploaded the checked papers back to the shared drive. Someone then collated the marks from the checked papers and prepared the results. I was able to figure this out as there were totalling mistakes.

You Might Find This Funny

This is not the way to go digital. But the funnier part is that they are not the only ones. Many organizations implement their digital solutions in a similar manner. As a result, they fail to realize the full benefits of technology.

Also Read: From AI Hype to HR Impact: Focus on the Problem, Not the Trend

Some might argue that they had no other option. This was the best they could do given the time constraint. These are the same reasons most people give when they do not fully embrace a new technology.

Just think about it.

The college could have used Google Forms or a similar platform. Teachers could have uploaded the questions. Students could have answered online. Objective questions could have been scored automatically. Even descriptive answers could have been evaluated within the system, eliminating downloads, printing and totalling errors. The technology was available.

Why Was It Funny?

It was funny because they tried to implement the new technology on top of their old process. Instead, they should have redesigned the process around the capabilities of the technology. Most of us make the same mistake.

When Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems became popular, organizations learned an important lesson. ERP implementations were successful only when companies adopted new processes and best practices instead of forcing the software to replicate every old habit.

The digital world was teaching us the same lesson again.

In a couple of years the school also figured it out and changed their processes to take advantage of the technology. If we are already digital and embrace digital thinking. Then what is the problem?

Over time, the college also figured it out. They redesigned the process and started taking advantage of the technology. If that is the case, then what is the problem?

The Problem

If you are thinking that the problem is the pace of technology. You are partially right. Technology is changing faster than ever. Just when organizations became comfortable with digital thinking, AI arrived. And it requires AI native thinking for you to take full advantage of it.

What is AI Native Thinking?

AI native thinking is like reimagining all your processes and workflows from scratch by understanding the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence.

It is the ability to redesign work by assuming that intelligence is available on demand. Instead of asking, “How can AI automate my current process?”, we ask, “If AI existed when this process was first designed, would we design it the same way?”

The definition might sound simple and similar to digital thinking. However, the outcome is very different because of the capability set of the AI. Let’s understand it with an example.

Suppose you are recruiting and using tests to assess the candidates. Now reimagine the process of giving the test in the AI world.

Take a pause and think about it.

Before we discuss the solution. Let me tell you why I said that the pace of the technology is the partial problem. There is a fundamental change. Historically, the advancements in technology were first exposed to organizations. Only later, when they became cheaper, they reached people.

Today, the sequence has reversed. Technology reaches the masses first. People learn how to use it. Then organizations begin figuring out how to manage it. AI is a perfect example.

Let’s come to the solution of giving the test. Whatever test you give. Answers for those tests are available on the AI engines. Students can quickly copy paste the solutions. Organizations have tried introducing stricter proctoring tools to solve this problem.

But the same AI engines and technology solutions give candidates hacks to bypass the proctoring tools. Do you realise that organizations are trying to implement digital thinking in the age of AI.

If you reimagine the world with AI, would you not like to redesign your tests to assess AI capability of your future employees rather than assessing the knowledge that is available on the AI platforms.

You will realise that you don’t have to only solve the process of taking the test, you also have to solve the problem of redefining the competencies you want to assess your future employee on.

What is the Way Forward

If you look back at the college example, the digital solution already existed. They simply chose a familiar process over a better one.

We often behave the same way. Not because we are incapable. But because changing habits is difficult. Every major technology shift creates uncertainty. People worry about what they might lose before they experience what they might gain.

Yet history teaches us something interesting. When someone handholds and people experience the benefits, resistance disappears. The same happened with social media. The same happened with smartphones. The same happened with digital payments. And now it is happening with AI.

We just have to handhold people to develop AI native thinking.

Note: We are also on WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and YouTube to get the latest news updates. Subscribe to our Channels. WhatsApp– Click Here, YouTube – Click Here, and LinkedIn– Click Here.