AI and EDI: How do we balance technology with human connection
There is no escaping AI and how it is already changing our lives. However, AI has been around for a while in the shape of our smart speakers, ring door bells, and how we can use Calendly or similar platforms to schedule meetings for us.
These are all useful tools, but there are some concerns about how AI might affect the world of work. A google search will show you a raft of blogs, sites and articles all telling you the number and scale of jobs that could be lost due to AI taking over the work of humans. Depending on where you go, those roles include:
· Administrative work
· Content creation
· Marketing
· Teaching
· Finance
· Design and the arts.
It appears that roles where knowledge is important, could be the most at risk.
It isn’t hard to imagine a world without teachers as it wasn’t that long ago we went through Covid, and young people were more distant from the person who would normally be at the front of the room deciding what was learned and the activities which facilitate the learning. It isn’t a stretch to go from resources that are shared through that platform without a teacher to do the teaching, to no teacher and an AI source providing you with options to develop your learning about a subject.
How does this affect equity, diversity and inclusion?
Well, there has already been some discussion about the fact that AI tools have been trained on information which is rooted in male, white, cis, non-disabled materials and perspectives. This means that if AI is trained on historical documents which have consistently centred the victors perspective and perhaps colonialism, the results to questions about history that you enter into an AI tool are more likely to favour the perspectives it was trained on.
There is also a suggestion, that women are more likely to have their jobs affected than males and when you look at the sample of roles listed above, you can see why that might be the case as many are staffed predominantly by women.
In addition, some entry level roles are vulnerable – the ones that don’t require a large amount of skill but are a root into a career. Young people then, are most likely to find it difficult to get a foot on the ladder of work due to AI.
If knowledge-based roles are the most at risk, then you can imagine that EDI work and consultancy should also be at risk. We use a lot of research and data to inform our work in order to inform our approach to EDI – our work is literally knowledge based.
Why we aren’t worried about EDI.
The fact is, that AI can’t replace humanness. We’ve heard songs written by AI, we’ve seen art created by AI and while they might be good, they lack the depth that a human can create. They lack emotion and skill that seems to be something only a human can produce.
Yes, our work is knowledge based, but it is human based, and organisations are filled with humans.
Equity, diversity and inclusion is about how individual people experience things. The best way to find this out is to talk, listen and discuss. When you do this, you are interpreting not only words, but body language and facial expressions understand emotion and how a person interprets their experience
To make changes, we have to talk to leaders, and sometimes they need to hear difficult things. Leaders are human too, and need to be treated as such, therefore how we speak, how we communicate is in reaction to the human experience in front of us. This doesn’t mean we hold back on what we say, but we use our own humanity to deliver messages in such a way as to ensure that they are understood and acted upon
Any changes have to be implemented by humans. Even if some of the recommendations, such as changes to recruitment methods for example, could be implemented by AI, a human has to give that information to the AI tool
AI can be an essential part of helping disabled people to do their work – still centring the human at the core
Implementing an EDI strategy relies on responding to need – making adjustments, altering comms, responding to feedback effectively. For that, you need a human to react to human need
It is recognised that AI has the potential to perpetuate biases, and we need humans to check that and ensure that bias is accounted for.
So, AI may well be able to support an EDI journey, but it can’t do it as well as a human. We pride ourselves on human contact:
Meeting with you to fully understand need
Listening to your people to offer the right support, in the right way, at the right time
Giving our time to support you along the way
Providing spaces to share experiences and learn from other humans
Using real life scenarios to inform your practice
Taking care of your feelings throughout
Saying ‘goodbye’ when our work ends and staying in touch to ensure you know where to go if you ever get stuck.
If you want to work with a values driven, human centred organisation, get in touch.