The Smart Story of AI Communication
“Let AI do the dumb stuff so humans can do the smart stuff.”
A couple of years ago, when AI chatter was really starting to dominate every conversation, in tech and around the dinner table, Chuck Robbins, Cisco's CEO, said, “Let AI do the dumb stuff so humans can do the smart stuff.” That stuck with me for several reasons; One, what about the humans that do the supposedly “dumb” stuff – how does AI affect their roles, and should it? Two, where do we draw the line between the smart stuff and dumb stuff and who gets to make that demarkation? Three, progress is constant and inevitable so we might as well start focusing on the smart stuff now since that's where we'll end up regardless of our love or hate for AI.
#CorporateStorytelling works the same way. As we speak to an audience or to our teams or customers we have an obligation to be honest, and an opportunity to be precise and clear in our intent and motivation for change. Our challenge is to help those we're communicating with get the dumb stuff out of their way so they can be better at doing the smart stuff thanks to their time with us.
Overcoming dumb workplace challenges
The goal of every successful communication is transformation. Workhuman targets leading causes of dumb workplace challenges: Weak communication, lack of recognition, bad leadership, poor work-life balance, unhealthy team dynamics, outdated technology, no potential for growth, low motivation, toxic behavior, lack of transparency, all so dumb but so real. Like it or not, AI is working to solve these problems at this moment. As are we. To be a smart speaker and value-driven communicators we have to be smarter than the dumb problems holding our audience back.
For the moment, AI is still narrow; as James Sutherland of Pixabay puts it, “AI relies on algorithms and data and is devoid of any consciousness or understanding of its own actions.” But what about supposedly smart AI, or artificial general intelligence (AGI)? That term refers to a hypothetical future machine able to solve any problem requiring advanced cognitive abilities, cope with new situations, and solve problems. In other words, it would be able to understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks, just like people.
What about human-to-human communication?
It's the just like people part that scares most of us. But we can’t forget the word hypothetical. One thing AI’s designers and developers have yet to fine tune is human-to-human communication. And they ever will, because it's not possible. Despite any fears we may have about AI’s ultimate end, it will never think or connect exactly like a human, no matter how powerful the algorithms grow. Check out expert perspectives from Forbes, Wharton, CNBC, BSC, Harvard, and so many others to learn why.
AI has been getting smarter for half a century, but it's still pretty dumb, even dumber than the dumbest human. Which means the dumbest among us is still in command of most of the smart stuff.
Bottom Line
And that's our guiding perspective as speakers when we step on stage or stand up in front of our team to deliver a talk or host a meeting. Whatever technology we have at our disposal, our audience is smart – likely smarter than we give them credit for. It's our job in that communication engagement to take the dumb obstacles out of their way so they can go out and do their smart work in the best way possible.
