Achieving AI Excellence—The Imperative for Workforce Training and Development

Depending on whom you ask, AI technology (Generative AI & Classical AI) will add between $13 Trillion (McKinsey) — $15.7 Trillion (PwC) to the global economy by 2030, and based on reports from a recent MIT study[1], we're now starting to see bits of this promise come to fruition, with generative AI helping people to experience up to 50% gains in productivity (Table 1)[2].

Despite Generative AI (in its?infancy) delivering the largest gains in?productivity of any technology to date; there is still a long way to go, and many questions to answer with respect to realizing the full potential of this revolutionary technology.

Schmidt, Kissinger, and Huttenlocher[3] aptly capture the spirit of these times in their essay with the statement that "Generative AI is poised to generate a new form of human consciousness. As yet, however, the opportunity exists in colours for which we have no spectrum and in directions for which we have no compass. No political or philosophical leadership has formed to explain and guide this novel relationship between man and machine, leaving society relatively unmoored."

Therefore, using Gartner's AI maturity model, this article highlights some of the opportunities, with the aid of insights from recent reports by the World Economic Forum, Microsoft, and Boston Consulting Group.

Furthermore, I emphasize the importance of workforce training and development in achieving AI excellence, based on professional experience from existing AI programs designed and managed by me, for a global audience of business leaders and executives.

To advance, it is important to define AI Excellence, with the aid of a story shared by David De Cremer and Garry Kasparov.

The location is León, Spain, and the year is 1998; Chess Grandmaster Kasparov is paired with a PC running the chess software of his choice — an arrangement called “advanced chess” — in a match against the Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, whom he had beaten 4-0 a month earlier. In this game, both players were supported by computers, and the match ended in a 3-3 draw.

It appeared that the use of a PC/AI nullified the calculative and strategic advances Kasparov usually displayed over his opponent[4].

After the match, Kasparov noted that the use of a PC/AI allowed him to focus more on strategic planning while the machine took care of the calculations.

Additionally, the game provided an important illustration of how humans might work (and level up) with AI. This is one of the reasons why it is often said that an individual working with AI in your profession is your greatest threat of replacement and not AI alone.

Despite this success, the best players and most powerful AIs partnering up don’t necessarily produce the best results; because like human teams, the power of working with an AI comes from how the person and computer complement each other [4].

Thus, AI Excellence is an organizational and often individual ability to work with complementary AI solutions to produce work at a much higher level than currently possible.

Recall, the stories from January this year, about ChatGPT passing the operations management course at Wharton Business School [5], and ChatGPT passing the US Medical Licensing Exam [6]; both were achieved without any specialized training or reinforcement of the model. Likewise, GPT-4 has been shown to pass many professional exams, including the US Bar Exam and more recently (and controversially) the MIT Mathematics and EECS undergraduate degree exam questions.

Focusing on just the operations management course and US medical licensing exam, AI can nullify the calculative and strategic advances of the very best operations managers and medical professionals' empowering individuals in these professions to work with complementary AI solutions that enable them to focus on strategic planning while the machine takes care of the calculations.

Furthermore, these benefits can be achieved:

1. Curriculum design focused on collaboration between humans and AI
2. Opportunities to simulate real-world decision-making processes
3. Creative problem-solving using AI
4. Improved teaching productivity
5. Large language models may have the potential to assist with medical education, and potentially, clinical decision-making.

Fortunately, as noted in OpenAI's Research Paper (GPTs are GPTs: An early look at the labour market impact potential of large language models), approximately 80% of the U.S. workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by the introduction of GPTs, while around 19% of workers may see at least 50% of their tasks impacted.

In summary, Generative Pre-trained Transformers exhibit characteristics of general-purpose technologies (GPTs), suggesting that these models could have notable economic, social, and policy implications.

Some of these implications are noted in the BCG's reportage (AI at Work: What People Are Saying), which surveyed 12,898 professionals, of which 86% of them believe that they will need upskilling to address how AI will change their jobs.

44% of leaders say they have enrolled in an AI upskilling program, and only 14% of frontline employees say that they have already gone through upskilling [7].

This digital skills gap between leaders and frontline employees is inimical to the achievement of AI Excellence at the organizational level and can be addressed by enrolling frontline employees in AI upskilling programs with tutors dedicated to aiding their learning experience, such as the Applied AI Program for Business Leaders.

Microsoft via the Work Trend Index Annual Report 2023, notes that every Employee needs AI aptitude, as AI copilots require a whole?new way of working because working?alongside AI—using natural?language—will be as?inherent to how we work?as the internet and the PC.

This means that skills like critical?thinking and analytical judgment, complex?problem-solving, creativity and originality?are new core competencies—and not just?for technical roles or AI experts [8].

Leaders in the survey say it’s essential that employees?learn when to leverage AI, how to write great?prompts, how to evaluate creative work, and?how to check for bias.

As AI reshapes work,?human-AI collaboration will be the next?transformational work pattern—and the?ability to work iteratively with AI will be a key?skill for every employee (Microsoft, 2023).

82% of leaders say their?employees will need new skills to be prepared for the growth of AI (2023 Work Trend Index: Annual Report)[8].

Further proof of the critical need for every business to train and develop their employees to achieve AI Excellence is provided by the World Economic Forum in their Future of Jobs Report [9], which notes several key insights that support the mission of this article:

• Employers estimate that 44% of workers’ skills?will be disrupted in the next five years. Cognitive?skills are reported to be growing in importance?most quickly, reflecting the increasing importance?of complex problem-solving in the workplace.?

• Surveyed businesses report creative thinking to?be growing in importance slightly more rapidly?than analytical thinking. Technology literacy is?the third-fastest growing core skill. Self-efficacy?skills rank above working with others, in the rate?of increase in the importance of skills reported by?businesses.

• Six in 10 workers will require training before?2027, but only half of the workers are seen to have?access to adequate training opportunities?today. The highest priority for skills training from?2023-2027 is analytical thinking, which is set to?account for 10% of training initiatives, on average.?

• The second priority for workforce development is to?promote creative thinking, which will be the subject?of 8% of upskilling initiatives.

Training workers to?utilize AI and big data ranks third among the company skills-training priorities in the next five years and?will be prioritized by 42% of surveyed companies.?

Having firmly established the need for AI Excellence via upskilling in the Workplace, it is important to discuss the five levels of Gartners' AI Maturity which indicate the levels of excellence that is obtainable, for individuals and organizations:

Level 1: Awareness—Professionals have knowledge of AI's potential but haven't implemented it yet. They're excited about AI but lack a concrete strategy for its use. Organizations at level 1 simply have an early interest in, and conversations around AI strategy.

Level 2: Active—Professionals experiment with AI on an individual level. They explore AI tools, conduct small-scale projects, and gain hands-on experience. Organizations at level 2 have done pilot projects and initial experimentation with AI.

Level 3: Operational—Professionals integrate machine learning into their daily tasks. They have the skills to apply ML algorithms, manage models, and use ML for information processing. Organizations at level 3 have AI in production, creating value through process optimization, or product/service innovations.

Level 4: Systemic—Professionals disrupt practices and models using ML. They understand ML infrastructure, develop novel applications, and contribute to their field's advancement. For organizations at level 4, AI is used pervasively for digital process and chain transformation, and disruptive new digital business models.

Level 5: Transformational—Professionals leverage ML extensively, offering ML-driven solutions to clients. They automate tasks, deliver tailored solutions, and significantly impact their domains. At level 5, AI is inherent in the DNA of the business.

So how do you start your journey from levels 1 to 5 of AI Excellence?

As a knowledge worker with hopes of thriving in the age of AI, you must begin using AI solutions in all possible steps in your workflow. Likewise, you must be able to analyse your existing job role and identify opportunities where AI can augment you, to the degree of radically transforming your productivity.

For this second expectation, critical?thinking and analytical judgment, complex?problem-solving, creativity and originality, are essential competencies for success.

On the other hand, companies must take the "Clearbit approach," which involves buying GPT-4 access and inviting an AI Educator to work with all departments to evaluate existing workflows over a series of hands-on sessions, like I will be doing in the coming weeks via 5-day AI training masterclasses in South Africa, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, the UAE, and Australia.

Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that all good things take time, and you whereas you can achieve levels 1 to 2 AI Excellence in weeks, it would take a few months to achieve AI Excellence at levels 3 to 4; and much longer time to reach level 5.

Organizations and professionals at levels 3-4 typically have some AI technical ability which could be as simple as using GPT-4 to create web apps, chrome extensions, ChatGPT plugins or using the Code interpreter plugin to analyze data and make better business decisions.

Wishing you all the best in your journey of AI Excellence :)

ABOUT ME

I am Orakwe John (MBA), AI Programs Manager/Digital Transformations Lead, and I work with organizations and professionals at all 5 levels of AI Excellence.

Follow me for daily AI insights and look out for my upcoming international AI masterclass(es).

Alternatively, you can join my community of business leaders from around the world, collaborate with a specialist AI tutor to start the conversation about your company's AI Excellence and discover strategic steps for redesigning your operations.

My training sessions are 5-Star rated, with every organization and the business leaders in the Applied AI Program.

Reference

[1]—Noy, S., & Zhang, W. (2023, March 2). Experimental Evidence on the Productivity Effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved from https://economics.mit.edu/sites/default/files/inline-files/Noy_Zhang_1.pdf

[2]—NVIDIA. (2023). Generative AI: Revolutionizing The Way Enterprises Work [E-book]. Retrieved from https://www.nvidia.com/en-sg/lp/ai-data-science/large-language-models-ebook/

[3]—Kissinger, H., Schmidt, E., & Huttenlocher, D. (2023, February 24). ChatGPT Heralds an Intellectual Revolution. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/chatgpt-heralds-an-intellectual-revolution-enlightenment-artificial-intelligence-homo-technicus-technology-cognition-morality-philosophy-774331c6

[4]—De Cremer, D., & Kasparov, G. (2021, March 18). AI Should Augment Human Intelligence, Not Replace It. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2021/03/ai-should-augment-human-intelligence-not-replace-it

[5]—Terwiesch, C. (2023, January 17). Would Chat GPT Get a Wharton MBA? [White Paper]. Retrieved from https://mackinstitute.wharton.upenn.edu/2023/would-chat-gpt3-get-a-wharton-mba-new-white-paper-by-christian-terwiesch/

[6]—Kung, T. H., Cheatham, M., ChatGPT, Medenilla, A., Sillos, C., De Leon, L., Elepa?o, C., Madriaga, M., Aggabao, R., Diaz-Candido, G., Maningo, J., & Tseng, V. (2022). Performance of ChatGPT on USMLE: Potential for AI-Assisted Medical Education Using Large Language Models. Retrieved from medRxiv preprint server website: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.19.22283643v2

Posted December 21, 2022.

[7]—Beauchene, V., de Bellefonds, N., Duranton, S., & Mills, S. (2023, June 07). AI at Work: What People Are Saying. Retrieved from Boston Consulting Group website: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/what-people-are-saying-about-ai-at-work

[8]—Microsoft Worklab. (2023, May 9). Work Trend Index Annual Report: Will AI Fix Work? Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/will-ai-fix-work

[9]—World Economic Forum. (2023, April 30). The Future of Jobs Report 2023. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023

[10]—LXT. (2023, May). The path to AI maturity: An executive survey. Retrieved from https://www.lxt.ai/path-ai-maturity/

[11]—DeMello, M. (2022, December 26). Seven Non-Technical Enterprise AI Career Paths. Retrieved from https://emerj.com/ai-executive-guides/seven-non-technical-ai-career-paths/