We’ve all been given an impression of what artificial intelligence is or will ultimately become through pop culture. HAL 9000, Skynet, Ultron, and M3GAN each show their own form of calculated malice.
However, in reality, the true potential of AI is more in line with the likes of Rosie the Robot, JARVIS, R2-D2, or Data, helpful companions who assist their cohort in generating ideas or completing tasks, often leaning on the soft skills that have been so valued in human relationships, things like curiosity, empathy, and resilience. Let’s consider how we can embrace these soft skills and better utilize the tool at hand.
Since the term "artificial intelligence" was first coined at Dartmouth College in 1956, the goal has always been to emulate human capabilities, such as language and abstract problem-solving. As such, modern AI needs guidance to achieve this goal.
The human element—AKA, the user—provides this guidance. We can take the tool that AI serves as and use it to create bigger and better things. So, how can developing better soft skills allow us to use AI’s hard logic to produce better outcomes?
By encouraging your team to develop soft skills, your entire business will be better positioned to gain maximum value from the application of artificial intelligence. Let’s explore a few specific soft skills to cultivate in your team, and how to apply them to your AI usage.
This one is pretty simple, when you think about it: you get what you give. Vague prompts simply won’t return satisfactory responses. A curious mind, however, goes the extra mile to consider the details that will help the prompt generate a more accurate response.
For instance, prompting AI to “give me the ideal name for a dog,” returned a pretty definitive answer—Cooper—while also listing off ten alternatives.
Meanwhile, asking the AI to “give me the ideal name for a male Maltese/Schnauzer mix that prefers cuddling inside and barking out the window over running around outside. This dog's favorite toy is a stuffed Spider-Man,” gives us Parker, based on the Spider-Man connection, the sophistication matching the vibe of a Schnauzer, and the dog’s homebody nature matching Peter Parker’s brand of heroics. While alternative names are still given, these names are fewer (four compared to ten) and are still based on the aptitudes of the dog… just because a few extra details were added.
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Or, to translate: This is all that technology can really give you: a series of ones and zeros.
At the most basic level, machines can be either on or off… even AI-powered ones. This is why empathy is essential for guiding the application of any artificial intelligence, as its proper use requires an understanding of what the end user wants.
For instance, if an AI is used to parse through customer feedback, all it is really doing is looking for and counting how often certain keywords appear. It could tell you that the word “awesome” appeared in a dataset 37 times, while “pitiful” appeared 4 times. It takes human empathy to acknowledge that the “awesome” service is worth pushing, or that the 4 instances of “pitiful” were actually all used in just one comment, and described the commenter’s experience before switching to your services… basically the opposite of what you expect when you hear that the word “pitiful” was used four times in feedback.
In essence, the AI crunches the numbers. It usually takes a human touch to use that feedback in the way it was intended.
AI is far from infallible. As it is often programmed to satisfy the user’s query, it isn’t unheard of for a prompt to make up (or “hallucinate”) what it presents as fact or simply make no sense whatsoever. Remember back in June, when a few lawyers and their firm were fined for citing completely fraudulent cases that ChatGPT had completely hallucinated?
This means you need to be resilient as you use AI, actively looking for failed responses and approaching them as opportunities to improve your approach to prompting them.
For instance, a marketing team prompts AI to give them some campaign ideas. Chances are high that the first few responses will be generic and lacking the zing that they want their campaigns to bring. A resilient team returns to work, refining their prompts and providing the AI with more details to draw from, collaborating with their tools until the desired outcome is achieved.
Ironically, as technology develops, our fundamentally human skills will become increasingly essential. That’s why we dedicate ourselves to not only understanding the technology that our clients in Northern Virginia use, but also why they use it: to empower the businesses that their teams work so hard to support.
We hope to empower you next, leaning on advanced and cutting-edge technologies like AI alongside the professionalism and technical capabilities of our team members. Reach out to us at (571) 470-5594 to learn more about how we can assist you.
