Australian HR Institute (AHRI) NSW state conference

"You cant spell AHRI without 'AI'..." Well, there was a full room of HR professionals, trainers, consultants and software providers talking about lots of topics. When it came to us, the room turned to the question of 'How is Gen AI relevant to the HR profession'.

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There are two streams to this question:

1. As a tool, it clearly offers productivity improvements. All (100%!) of the room put their hands up when asked if they've used ChatGPT for their work. This contrasts with the no-one (0%!) put their hand up when asked if they were effectively using Workforce planning systems. (David Burrows?!).

What should the room use the tool for? Knowledge management (policies discovery), writing / reading CVs, etc. Some of these have ethical considerations, but most require just common sense. Gen AI is not making decisions, it is not discriminating, it is speeding up your work, that you put your name behind. Based on hands, no-one (0%) had their organisations ban ChatGPT.

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2. What should the HR profession do to prepare their workforce for the coming of Gen AI. I feel like we didn't get enough time on this much bigger strategic question, but the impact is clearly going to be felt in both the new set of skills we are going to need (The future of work gets a makeover) and the strategic impact that its likely to involve across jobs and business strategy. The very role of 'human capital', a reasoning system that is moving information around and making judgements, taking responsibility, will change itself. Very few understand this completely, but its certainly coming.

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A number of questions came through, perhaps the most challenging for me was the opening: 'What is AI'. a simple question, hard to answer for this audience. I've put my answer into the notes below, as well as some links to webinars for HR professionals. Thank you again to James Hancock FCPHRNicky Brown for the opportunity.