4 Ways to Get Your Workforce Fired Up About AI

When generative AI made its splashy public debut a year ago, emotions ran high: People were gripped with excitement, worry, and fear. And then more excitement. 

The new technology so completely captured the workplace’s imagination that a recent LinkedIn study of 29,000 professionals found 90% were very curious about AI. But 39% also confessed they felt completely overwhelmed. “People don’t know where to start,” said Lindsey Shintani, LinkedIn’s vice president of product marketing, at the Talent Connect 2023 panel she moderated, Power a Dynamic Workforce by Embracing AI. “They don’t know how to start. They don’t even know what to do.” 

That’s where talent leaders can step in. They can take employees by the hand (if only figuratively) and show them how to use and embrace AI. To get an idea of how to do this, Lindsey spoke with three experts in the field: Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, chief innovation officer at Manpower Group and the author of I, Human: AI, Automation, and the Quest to Reclaim What Makes Us Unique; Dr. Terri Horton, work futurist, global advisor at FuturePath, LLC, and LinkedIn Learning instructor with several courses on HR and AI; and Chris Louie, head of future work and talent strategy at Thomson Reuters. 

1. Offer a balanced view of what AI means for jobs

One of the reasons people resist AI, Tomas noted, is because they’re afraid it will put them out of a job. “There’s such extremist coverage of AI,” he told the audience. “According to the media, either this technology will make us happier, fit, and more productive — or it’s the end of the world as we know it, and in five years there will be no job for humans.” The truth, he said, is “found mostly in the middle.” 

He noted that job creation will outpace job elimination. The newly created jobs, however, will probably require new skills. And most people won’t lose their jobs at all. “Most of us will probably stay in the same roles,” Tomas explained, “but how those jobs are performed will change dramatically. You may have to rethink how to do your tasks and reimagine your potential.” 

2. Calm people’s fears by giving them opportunities to play around with the technology

If you want people to feel more comfortable with AI, give them opportunities to learn about the technology and even have fun with it. Dr. Terri pointed to PwC and Walmart as two companies that are nailing this right now. 

This spring, Yolanda Seals-Coffield, the chief people officer at PwC, announced that the company would be upskilling all 65,000 of its employees on generative AI, including ChatGPT. She called it a “fundamental” need for all employees — important enough that the PwC was willing to make a serious, company-wide investment.

Likewise, Walmart recently created an AI Playground, an internal tool where employees can explore and learn about the technology. Dr. Terri noted that Walmart’s playground has “perimeters and bumper guards” in place while allowing workers to explore gen AI and its capabilities. 

“I like these two approaches because they mitigate some of the fears that employees have about AI,” Dr. Terri said. “PwC and Walmart are being very proactive in getting in front of this.” 

3. Have leadership step up and provide guidance 

Dr. Terri noted that 56% of U.S. employees are already using generative AI and 60% of organizations are using AI in at least one function. But what’s often lacking, the panelists agreed, is guidance from leadership. 

Chris mentioned the story of an attorney who used ChatGPT to conduct research for a personal injury lawsuit and then submitted a federal court filing citing at least six cases that didn’t exist. ChatGPT simply made them up. The attorney had even asked ChatGPT if the cases were real and the GAl insisted they were. 

While this was a cautionary tale for some companies, it was another proof point for Thomson Reuters of the role it can play in helping its clients with accurate, safe AI. The company’s CEO, Steve Hasker, recently announced both publicly and internally that Thomson Reuters was going to be a leader in gen AI — both in using it and putting safeguards around it. “I think having that demonstrated leadership and understanding from the very top of the house is really important,” Chris told the audience, “in order to effectively encourage experimentation.” 

4. Use education, encouragement, and experimentation to help employees embrace AI

Thomson Reuters, Chris explained, is highly focused on investing in programs to enable learning and development for its 26,000 employees who use AI across every team. For instance, earlier this year they held an “AI Global Learning Day,” in which everyone in the company was invited to participate in sessions that included courses such as “AI 101” and “How Are We Using AI as a Business?” 

Also based on the company’s data and AI ethics principles, the company is delivering training and technology to increase colleagues’ understanding of AI in a safe and an effective environment for application and learning, including AI learning pathways with specialized options for technologists and customer-facing sales teams. 

In addition, Thomson Reuters Labs created Open Arena, an enterprise-wide large language model (LLM) learning environment, which has helped unlock company-wide experimentation with gen AI.

In other words, the company is taking a wraparound approach to encouraging people to use the new technology. “I would call this ‘freedom within a framework,’” Chris said. “But we want to encourage broad experimentation, education, and excitement.”

Final thoughts: Take a multigenerational approach 

Finally, Terri made the point that when you’re trying to get employees fired up about AI, you need to include everyone — no matter their age. 

“Don’t assume that just because they’re digital natives, Gen Z will be able to master AI,” Dr. Terri cautioned the audience. “And don’t assume Gen X and the Baby Boomers will be completely averse to it. I’m a very mature Gen Xer and I dove into it with both feet.” 

Terri made a big plug for reverse mentoring, an idea that’s been around for years. She said one of her clients recently hired a couple of digitally savvy Gen Zers to do gig work for the company’s L&D team, sifting through the latest AI trends and publishing a newsletter about their findings. She thought that employees like these could help employees of all generations get a handle on the new technology. 

“Reverse mentoring is an old concept from the 1980s,” she said, “but it could be highly effective again in terms of bridging those gaps.”