Are YOU geared up for Gen AI Adoption?

As more Generative AI capability becomes widely available, organisations are turning to policy considerations and guard rail development for use of Gen AI tools in the workplace. When is it acceptable to employ Gen AI to fulfil workplace related activities and not? Without clear direction from a policy and risk mitigation perspective, use of Gen AI tools is likely to grow exponentially and why not? On the face of it, time and effort savings are available!

Here's our thinking on what organisations need to consider when designing policy on use of Gen AI in the workplace. Alongside existing HR policy (which may well cover relevant use cases), ambiguity and confusion can be mitigated by a specific policy initiative.

Values and Culture – Do you encourage experimentation, landscape scanning and injection of innovation from wider sources? Maybe Gen AI content is then for you, as long as relevant controls are in place to monitor. Where the environment is more strictly managed (e.g., a regulated industry), your guidance needs to reflect this.

What outcomes do you want? Being clear about when Gen AI usage is a good thing and why to set the scene for your use cases is a good thing – when does it support, save time, laborious effort and improve end results? Such articulation can also demystify for those concerned about personal impact and job losses.

Risk Management and mitigation – Critical to your policy will be to uphold your approach to compliance and risk management, such as data security and GDPR obligations, accuracy of information and implementation of controls such as quality assurance. Employees will need to understand the approach for validation of AI generated content, not simply accept it at face value. For example, how to validate generated content and assure that it is fair and guard against unconscious bias.

Roles and business focus where Gen AI can truly add value - AI capability can typically support certain types of activity very effectively, for example research, planning, writing draft approaches and draft recommendations, answers to questions, data assessment, report writing, and so forth, understanding where and how Gen AI can add value to function and role types will be critical to the overall policy development.

Already out there – the beast unleashed – If no policy is already formulated, it’s likely that the tech savvy will already have been accessing Gen AI tools to inform work related activity. Gathering use cases and data might be a challenge – individuals might feel the fear factor if they haven’t previously exposed usage, so organisations need to engage with the workforce in a non-attributable way to understand current deployment footprint.

In conclusion

• Articulate the purpose of the policy
• Be clear that Gen AI is a tool to inform decision making, not an outcome and where human intervention is critical
• Identify business areas/roles where Gen AI usage is of significant business value
• Recognise AI limitations and ensure that checks/balances are in place and communicated
• Address data protection, unconscious bias and other compliance/risk considerations
• Highlight use cases and outcomes