Evaluating, Adopting, and Integrating Generative AI

SIOP Member Christine Boyce, vice president, assessment and analytics for ManpowerGroup, defines generative AI (GenAI) as “AI that creates or generates something.”

She and SIOP Member Jean Stetz-Puchalski, managing principal for Individual Differences at Work, will explore this concept as coordinators of the Aug. 14 Work Smart Series virtual workshop, “Understanding and Evaluating AI Solutions.”

Understanding AI is a good tool to have as you’ve probably been using AI without knowing it.

“The ‘auto-complete’ feature in your emails is generative AI,” Boyce explains. So are customer service chat bots.

Other examples of commonly used AI, although not generative, are Amazon’s assistant, Alexa; the smartphone bot, Siri; and the search engine, Google. Even the TV show recommendations you see on Netflix and other streaming services are a form of AI. By some measurements, humans have been using AI for nearly a century.

By why is it such a buzzword now? The rise in user-friendly AI platforms is one reason.

Boyce draws parallels between AI and computer usage. “Think of the transition from typewriter to computer,” she advises. What might have once felt awkward is now nearly intuitive. When did you last see a work area that didn’t include a computer?

AI excels at tasks that can be standardized, but it goes a step further with projects like images for PowerPoint presentations, code writing, and even regression analysis or interview responses.

As shared in the recent SIOP white paper, How to Survive the AI Revolution in HR: Culture Change and Immediate Action, AI has both positive and negative potential. Although AI excels within its boundaries, it falters outside those boundaries.

AI feels “artificial” when its vocabulary includes phrases that seem empathetic or when its “creation” is a human emotion. That requires a human, Boyce says.

“AI augments but does not replace us,” she says. “We describe it as ‘keep the human in the loop.’”

The secret, then, is to use AI skills within its scope, letting it release humans from routine work so that they are freer to do what they do best: apply the human touch.

This is a smart use of organizational time, and organizational leaders who travel this middle path are more likely to meet or exceed goals. This releases them to help more people or get to the project they haven’t had time for yet.

Boyce and Stetz-Pulaski designed the upcoming Work Smart Series workshop to empower professionals with essential knowledge about GenAI.

“The workshop aims to bridge science and practice, offering a space for collective intelligence and community-level conversations with industry experts in GenAI,” Stetz-Puchalski says. “What is truly unique about this workshop is the opportunity for people to learn and then explore.”

This exploration will happen through questions that “address individual behavior as well as client, community, or organization-level discussions around perspectives and insights necessary to evaluate, adopt, and integrate GenAI.”

Visit the Work Smart Series webpage to learn more and register.