Week 5 – MBA 6601 – Adopting AI into our Careers and Organization

 

(OpenAI, 2024)

Last week, I made a blog about developing good habits to adapt to the changes that are occurring in the business world, as well as in our personal lives. It is important to build good habits and start slowly, so we can retain that habit. In the blog I wrote, I mentioned how important it is to keep up with the latest trends and news in your industry. All while using methods to get it started and setting a schedule dedicating time to accomplish things, such as developing habits you want. This was inspired by reading Surfing the Tsunami, which gives you the option to choose to adapt, adopt, and adept artificial intelligence and machine learning (Kelsey, 2018, p. 2). Although the author makes it seem like you have to choose one of these perspectives to learn about AI and keep it on your radar. However, I believe one needs to start with adapting, then progress to adapt and adept.

Continuing with the perspective, the next perspective is adopting. Kelsey (2018) describes adopt as using AI tools and platforms (p. 96). Of course, this can be applied to other things, but with how AI is being adopted by companies, we must learn about AI and become familiar with its tools/platform. As more businesses adopt AI into their business models, jobs will disappear (Khan, 2023). If you were able to get into the habit of reading news and trends about topics like AI and changes in your field of profession. It would be wise to embrace AI tools and platforms in your workplace for two reasons. The first reason is that it will require you to learn new skills to use AI tools/platforms. These skills will help you be more marketable for new jobs in companies that are in the early process of adopting AI, as you will have experience over other candidates. The second reason is that it can automate repetitive tasks and allow workers to focus on more meaningful work (Khan, 2023). Using my job as an example, my current role can be automated as there is enough data for the AI to analyze and determine the next process it should take with accounts. My daily tasks for my role are to review accounts, locate required documents, and any missing documents requested from the client, get clients’ approval on certain accounts to proceed with foreclosure, and review notices/letters sent to borrowers. AI can do all this faster than me. AI will make my role obsolete, but this will allow the organization to train us in other areas of their business that cannot be automated, while also training employees how to use the AI to ensure everything goes well (Khan, 2023). This will also help companies reduce the cost of recruiting new employees and allow the human departments to focus on achieving organizational goals/objectives. As AI helps companies become efficient in completing their tasks, it is important to remind companies that AI is not meant to replace employees completely, but instead to increase their capabilities (Khan, 2023).

As artificial intelligence becomes more prominent in the business world and personal lives, it is important to use AI ethically and not abuse it. Companies need to place policies that will prevent unethical usage of AI, especially with generative AI. For example, the company I work at is a sub-servicing mortgage and our systems contain a lot of information on individuals. It is suggested using AI that companies adopt the principle of data minimization this way the AI only collects the data that is needed while getting rid of other data (Yerushalmi, 2024). This is something that mortgage companies need to keep aware of since we have to follow regulations on how long we keep borrowers’ records. If the borrower’s information is not removed by the time it needs to be removed, there is a possibility that the AI can re-start billing the borrower or inform another department that an account is still active and being serviced by the company. If these accounts are not being removed and the AI makes an error marking the account as active, but employees or upper management let it go on for a couple of years to falsify how well the company is doing can cause problems between the client and the company. This is why companies that are using AI in their business model need to have policies that involve fairness, transparency, accountability, and privacy in their AI policies to avoid unethical behavior occurring in their company (Yerushalmi, 2024).

 

Reference:

Kelsey, T. (2018). Surfing the tsunami. Todd Kelsey.

Khan, S. (2023, July 26). Why You Should Create a Plan to Implement Artificial Intelligence Now. Inc.https://www.inc.com/sania-khan/why-you-should-create-a-plan-to-implement-artificial-intelligence-now.html

OpenAI. (2024). Various businesses integrating AI into their operations [Digital image]. DALL·E.

Yerushalmi, D. (2024, February 19). Council post: How ethics, regulations and guidelines can shape responsible AI. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2024/02/05/how-ethics-regulations-and-guidelines-can-shape-responsible-ai/?sh=5dcc9de1416b