'There's a very important role for HR to understand and link business purpose to the way in which these technologies might be used,' says academic
AI adoption may have the greatest impact on high-skilled professional roles in major digital hubs, including Singapore, according to a recent global report.
And HR leaders can have a big impact, says the academic heading up the global study.
“There's a very, very important role for the HR directors and executives to really understand and link business purpose to the way in which these technologies might be used, and their implications for labour,” says Phillip Brown, director of the Digital Futures of Work Research Programme and distinguished research professor at Cardiff University.
HR professionals have a strategic role to play in helping shape how these technologies are used in a socially desirable and responsible way that puts humans first, he says. What’s more, collaboration between public and private sectors, along with individuals, is essential to ensure the AI revolution is sustainable and benefits all.
The findings of the study - which was funded by SkillsFuture Singapore and included a global team of 21 social scientists studying AI activities across key digital hubs around the world - show the technologies put high-skilled jobs most at risk and that human-centric strategies are essential.
“I don't think there's been enough attention paid to the future of work or the workforce complications of this,” says Brown.
One of the key points of the four-year study is that the assumption generative AI technologies attack from the bottom up - freeing up labour to move into more interesting, highly skilled forms of work - is not accurate.
“We've got so many people who have graduate qualifications, who expect fulfilling and meaningful work on a decent salary and the danger is that those jobs will become less meaningful, less fulfilling, and the potential for career development could diminish more than in recent times,” says Brown.
He urges societal leaders – including politicians and the C-Suite - to take seriously the potential impact the new technologies pose.
“We shouldn't just assume that what is technologically possible is what's going to happen or is socially desirable. We need to respond not just by training people for what we think the employers need for these new technologies, but to actually shape how those technologies are used and for companies to think very carefully about the implications for their workforce. The primary focus is on putting humans first.”
That doesn't mean giving up on productivity, says Brown.
“There's no reason why we can't be productive – and more productive - with these technologies,” he says, adding it needs to be implemented though in a way to make jobs meaningful for people and give people real opportunities for progression.
Attention to the capabilities of AI can't be just be a top-down approach though, stresses Brown.
“This isn't just a conversation for leaders about the future of work, the future society, because it impacts everybody. So it's also a conversation for the dinner table. For instance a lot of people are asking ‘What are my children going to do?”
Organisations wanting to understand how best to implement the technologies for the best outcomes should engage the wider workforce in the conversation, he says.
“They would also be involved, not just consulted, but actually active agents in the change process. So it's not just something that's imposed on them.”
To help steer the direction, organisations’ leaders need first to gain a strong sense of what the technologies enable and their limitations, says Brown.
“They should be thinking about what's the purpose of the business. Is it simply to cut their costs of doing things, which in most cases will include the workforce? Or is there a broader sense of purpose around creating a productive workforce, which uses those capabilities and skills of workers to the full?”
The path that organisations choose to take on this is critical, he says. “It boils down to how companies want to play this one, because it's going to really matter. This is really about the future of the middle classes.
“One company we interviewed was very people-centric but recognised a tension about the need to balance that with cost issues and competitiveness. If other companies are going to use different tactics, where they just basically cut costs, these companies that want to do the right thing are under considerable pressure.”
Organisations have a significant impact to play in terms of working out how to use these technologies in an inclusive way and taking lead, he says.
“How we shape them for human purpose includes the AI ethics questions, which in the view of the research team, should include issues around the future of work.
“It’s not really on the agenda and it desperately needs to be because this is what really impacts people's lives now. The decisions we're making here today are going to shape the future work.”
