Prepare to journey into the fascinating world of artificial intelligence (AI) and its game-changing impact on human resources. With the insightful Kasara Weinrich, a principal consultant for Future of Workstrand via ADP as our guide, we peel back the layers of AI's evolution since 1966 and discuss its potential to revolutionize HR operations. Cassara offers her expert insights on the importance of learning agility and adaptability, and how you, as employers, can harness AI to outmaneuver the competition in the staffing market.
But AI isn't just about process efficiency; it carries with it a suite of ethical considerations that need to be addressed. The second half of our podcast dives into the moral dimensions of AI use. Kasara illuminates the importance of maintaining agility in organizations, especially in the face of rapidly advancing technology. We then shift our focus to exploring generative AI, a type of AI that replicates the human mind's creativity. It's an enriching conversation filled with historical context, practical applications of AI, and predictions for the future of work. So tune in, and prepare to have your perspective on AI and HR transformed.
Rebel HR is a podcast for HR professionals and leaders of people who are ready to make some disruption in the world of work. Please connect to continue the conversation!
Prepare to journey into the fascinating world of artificial intelligence (AI) and its game-changing impact on human resources. With the insightful Kasara Weinrich, a principal consultant for Future of Workstrand via ADP as our guide, we peel back the layers of AI's evolution since 1966 and discuss its potential to revolutionize HR operations. Cassara offers her expert insights on the importance of learning agility and adaptability, and how you, as employers, can harness AI to outmaneuver the competition in the staffing market.
But AI isn't just about process efficiency; it carries with it a suite of ethical considerations that need to be addressed. The second half of our podcast dives into the moral dimensions of AI use. Kasara illuminates the importance of maintaining agility in organizations, especially in the face of rapidly advancing technology. We then shift our focus to exploring generative AI, a type of AI that replicates the human mind's creativity. It's an enriching conversation filled with historical context, practical applications of AI, and predictions for the future of work. So tune in, and prepare to have your perspective on AI and HR transformed.
Rebel HR is a podcast for HR professionals and leaders of people who are ready to make some disruption in the world of work. Please connect to continue the conversation!
This is the Rebel HR podcast, the podcast about all things innovation in the people's space. I'm Kyle Rode. Let's start the show.
Speaker 3:
Welcome back Rebel HR community. We are joined by Cassara Weinrich. She is going to be talking to us today a little bit about AI. Cassara, welcome to the podcast. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you do?
Speaker 4:
Thank you. I am a principal consultant for Future of Workstrand via ADP. I am also a PhD student.
Speaker 3:
PhD student Awesome Congratulations.
Speaker 4:
I don't know about it.
Speaker 3:
Well, congratulations, slash condolences.
Speaker 4:
It's much better.
Speaker 3:
Good for you. Thank you Good for you. Joined here as well, patrick.
Speaker 1:
Moran Patrick, welcome, happy to be here. Good conference, a lot of good content.
Speaker 3:
So you are presenting this week on artificial intelligence and I think this is one of those areas where you know, if you say AI, it's really trend directed. But I think we're still, especially in the world of HR, we're still trying to figure out what this means and how you know what is the use case. So, as you think about the world of artificial intelligence, what do you see as some of the primary areas where HR can really tap into the power of this emerging technology?
Speaker 4:
I think. Well, first I would say that AI isn't emerging at all. I mean, there are new elements of AI that are transforming and there's new innovations, but AI is old, like the first chatbot. Her name was Eliza and she was created in 1966. So artificial intelligence is not new and I think anything any person listening to this podcast is already using it and probably doesn't know so. If you've sent a text message and you've been grateful for predictive text, you've used it right, but I think I think beyond set of generative AI has completely changed the discussion, and so that is definitely something that wasn't really getting a lot more than the HR space.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, absolutely, and I think you know I did not know that 1966. So it's, you know, it's, that's. That is a little bit of a paradigm shift. It's been billified, right. You know, like, if people are afraid like, oh, this is going to steal my job, um, you know, I don't know how much of that is there Do you see this as as as a risk to HR jobs in the future? What's your perspective on how AI fits in the world of what we do?
Speaker 4:
I think it is a risk to the way that HR has traditionally been done. I do not see it as a risk. Actually, johnny Taylor from SHIRM he recently posted about how AI plus HI equals ROI. I love it because he's saying artificial intelligence plus human intelligence is really where we're going to start seeing some of our lion organizations, but it's still always going to require humanity to interact with. Ai doesn't have emotional intelligence, it doesn't have empathy, it doesn't have ethics. We're still going to need human beings to bring all of that to the discussion. Where AI gen AI is going to make us more efficient. It's not stealing any jobs yet, in my opinion.
Speaker 3:
Not any jobs yet. I think that's an important word From my perspective. For me it's exciting, but I'm also like I love all things new and change and all that stuff. But I can understand how somebody that's been doing a job for years and years and years in the same way is a little bit concerned. As we look at AI, especially the new emerging generative AI and some of the AI that learns, what would you tell to those individuals that are used to doing things a certain way that are probably going to have to change?
Speaker 4:
I think change is a constant. I think it's something. Really what needs to happen is not just you don't need to go out and learn GPT Of course I hope that you do. I hope that you do learn how to interact with the generative AI, but more so you need to, I think, clone your learning agility skills more than anything, and just being able to unlearn, be learn, prioritize learning and being open to the learning of new technologies and new processes, because this industry, and really every industry, is going to be ever changing if they're going to remain relevant. So the sooner you can tap into being open to learning new things and trying new things, it's going to benefit you from a relevancy perspective and from a career perspective in every sense.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. I think it helps being market competitive as well, and staffing. When you're hiring people and they're seeing your manual processes, that's all their time. Ai helps take that time away. So how do you sell that to an employer that's behind the gate and they're not market competitive as staffing?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, that's a fantastic question, I think. So what we know right now is that I believe it's just north of 50% of employees believe that it's the employer's responsibility to upskill them. They believe it's the employer's job to tell them what skills they need. And so, with that in mind, I think, as an employer, if you're looking at true digital transformation which most are not just digital reformation, where you're taking analog processes and digitizing them, but truly transforming the way that work is done then you're also going to be able to identify the skills of the future for your organization. Learning agility is going to hopefully be one of those things. Data literacy is hopefully going to be one of those things. And then to your point, when you're bringing individuals on, even if they're not very yet part of your learning culture, go get there.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely, and I think from my standpoint as an employer, if you are open and utilizing AI, it's actually a competitive advantage as you're recruiting because people want to know that you're nimble and innovating and like you're opens and new things and not closed.
Speaker 1:
What I'm finding with where I'm working right now and in one of my previous roles was we have our systems, just like our phone, but we're really using what? 20% of the capacity and the ability that they can do. That's the same with our systems and the workplaces. You have payroll system, but you're only using maybe 20% of it and not explaining and it's just a gap that they're missing and employers would just be behind 100% and to your exact point.
Speaker 4:
If I'm looking at an organization and they tell me that they are still too afraid of the risks of data or AI and they're not seeing it as the asset it could be, I will question the forward-thinking nature of that organization and, to your point, whether I want to be a part of it.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely, absolutely. So might be a good idea to take a little bit of a step back and I'm just going to bust you out, patrick, because Patrick's like what is chat GPT? So you know, for all of us that are, you know, maybe open-minded to AI and want to learn more about it, but don't really understand much about the world of AI, can you give us a little bit of an overview of what is new with what's commonly called chat GPT, but really it's about generative AI. So, what's new? What has come into the marketplace now that we need to be aware of?
Speaker 4:
Yes, I like to say when I do talk, like, why all the drama? Right, so why is this such a dramatic part of artificial intelligence that we can't stop talking about it? And the truth is so. Generative AI wants to create, and this is one of the first times that we have seen artificial intelligence mimic the human brain and that, so artificial intelligence itself is created to imitate human intelligence and behavior. That is what it is Generative AI. This is the first time we're seeing that it is taking the creative part of the human mind and giving us text, images, video, audio, presentations right. So to your point, chat, gpt is one model of a large language learning model that's producing tech, but there are many other resources and technologies that are dedicated to producing images and, again, video and audio. So that is all encompassing in generative AI. But, at the end of the day, all generative AI wants to generate, create.
Speaker 3:
Fascinating. So think about all those use cases. I mean, I think about it in the context of human resources. I mean, a large part of our job is communication right Internal communication, making sure that we are empathetic in that communication, making sure that we're creating communication that covers all the main points. So, if anything, this could help us level up our game a little bit and give us a little bit of a starting point to figure out what we want to say and how we want to say it. Am I in the right track here for a use case? Sounds like it can help filter some of us too. Well, only you Might save a couple F-bombs for my e-mail. That's probably a good use case.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, no, I completely agree. I think generative AI from a tech's perspective absolutely, but I think overall from an HR perspective, if AI is woven into your HR strategy, you're going to be above and beyond from an innovative perspective for sure, absolutely.
Speaker 3:
I can't, absolutely. I like it. One thing I love about this live podcast is people are like walking by, like hey man what's going on?
Speaker 4:
Are you doing like coming up at the test board? Game's cool yeah.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, we sorry side note, anybody if you're doing the passport game, I don't even know what that is so like come up here and you want me to scan something.
Speaker 4:
I'm like I don't know what that is. I don't we're just here.
Speaker 3:
So I'm fascinating because, you know, I still feel like, for me, like this technology, the generative piece is still very much an emerging technology in my mind and I have a feeling, especially now, like the coding, that the coding AI Is just gonna like. It's like gonna take all of the technology we know now and just put it on steroids because the innovation speed is gonna be so much faster, faster, yeah, and it's so. So, as you think about this in your research and your work, what can we expect next? Like, what's the next big like off-on moment or or AI you know drama that's gonna come up.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, so I think I think we're going to see a couple of things happen. Hopefully, organizations begin to realize which elements of work can be done by generative AI, but I think we're going to see first, you know. So Creativity is going to be at a premium, in my opinion. I think we are going to see that a lot of marketing is going to look the same. A lot of LinkedIn posts are going to look the same.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, and so we're going to start to realize that we have one tool doing our thinking for us, and so Creativity will then be put at a premium for people that are thinking outside of or utilizing generative AI to start the thought, but still putting in their own creativity, insights, education and so on. So I do think we are going to see organizations still ramping up in the sense of wanting creative individuals to combat some of the likeness that we're going to see hit the market, but I also think, as with every other digital revolution that we've seen, it's not that this is going to take away Job, is going to change the work that's being yeah period.
Speaker 4:
So the number of jobs is available. You know we're still going to need the human element of the work of, especially of HR, right, but if you work collaboratively, if you become collectively intelligent with AI, the efficiency is the work that can be done. The way that you are a more strategic pillar of the business is all going to transform exponentially and it's going to be beautiful.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. I think that'll help a lot of organizations in their HR departments become that more strategic partner Just by the tools that they have, and that's where I think we have that big gap right now in our profession.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely. You know, I think about it like. To me, it's not that dissimilar from Microsoft Excel, right, like we, we used to not have Excel and we used to have to do these manual, crazy Spreadsheets and they systems that were not friendly. And then they figured out oh there's this thing called a function in Excel and now you save a Bunch of time. I think about it in the same way, but I love what you said there, which is the you know it, if you, if you're worried about this work You're thinking about how does this impact me? Focus on the creativity, focus on the human element, get really good at collaborating and embrace the technology to help you do those things more effectively, and let the technology deal with the efficiency Love. All right, casera, thank you so much for joining us. Just an awesome Conversation. Check out the show notes there's. There's a lot more to learn and that's just a really great.
Speaker 4:
Thank you.
Speaker 2:
All right, that does it for the rebel HR podcast. Big Thank you to our guests. Follow us on Facebook at rebel HR podcast, twitter at rebel HR guy, or see our website at rebel human resources. Calm Views and opinions expressed by rebel HR podcast are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Any of the organizations that we represent. No animals were harmed during the filming of this podcast baby.
