Angela Unravels AI

Angela Cheng-Cimini 鄭婷婷 is the SVP, Talent & Chief Human Resources Officer at Harvard Business Publishing . She brings 30 years of HR experience across multiple sectors and various company life stages, from leading talent roadmap development efforts to support business strategy to creating a deeply engaged and diverse workforce.?

In addition to her professional role, she actively contributes to the HR community and diversity initiatives, including volunteering for Ascend's HR Vertical, serving on Cornell University's Alumni Board, advising SemperVirens, a venture fund focused on innovative technology, and as Board Director for the T. Howard Foundation, a mission-driven organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the media industry.?

I met Angela through TroopHR and I’ve been lucky enough to learn from her through the community and beyond. I’m so excited to share her AI journey here with you all!?

About Angela

Name: Angela Cheng-Cimini

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Occupation: CHRO, Harvard Business Publishing

Industry: Media/Education

Location: Nashua, NH

AI Tools:

• ChatGPT, Claude AI, Canva

How would you rate your AI knowledge??

5 for personal use of the tool. 7 for understanding its impact.

What sparked your interest in AI??

What didn’t?!

I became aware of AI at the same time most of the world did: with the November 2022 release of the consumer-grade version. Everyone around me was talking about it and I realized I needed to understand more, both personally and professionally. My explorations began really simply: Tell me about Angela. Write a limerick about chocolate chip ice cream. Just random prompts to see how ChatGPT would respond.?

Unfortunately, answers to the question “What is HR?,” whether I asked OpenAI, Copilot, or Claude, remains inadequate. I posed the question on day one of my use and it remains unchanged almost 500 days later, with barely a mention of our function’s strategic role and impact. This is disappointing!?

Then when Dall-E launched, I played around with that. A popular exercise from our #dogs Slack channel was to create Pixar-inspired images of our pets. It was a fun and easy way to learn how to perfect a prompt! Since then, I use it most often to combat “blank paper anxiety.” LLMs inspire a good start but I always review and inject my own thinking and experiences to preserve my voice.

At home, I recently used it to build a packing list for a trip that covered Dublin and Las Vegas. I only use carry-on luggage and needed to maximize my wardrobe for both climates. ChatGPT got me into one suitcase! Using AI in even the most mundane contexts builds familiarity and ease.?

Zooming out though, I don’t believe that HR practitioners have a choice but to become interested. The impact of this technology crosses every dimension: how will it affect the competitive positioning of a business? What new skills will an organization acquire as lower-level tasks become outsourced to AI? How will this streamline my own work? Everyone in this function should be keenly interested in AI.

What are you most excited about when it comes to AI??

The technology has the potential to be a great equalizer across society. It can create personalized learning experiences, bridge gaps in healthcare access, unleash creativity and empower people with disabilities by providing assistive technologies. These examples are merely the tip of the iceberg of how AI can create global inclusivity and equity. However, the adoption of AI is largely concentrated in the hands of white men. If the rest of the population does not catch the wave, AI will drive further inequities.

On a personal note, I’m excited by its translation capabilities. I love to travel and the ability to bridge cultures through language is extremely powerful. As AI gets better and better at converting not just the words but nuances and context, the world will realize a way to understand one another better and come together to solve our biggest problems.

Angela’s 24 hours with AI?

I don’t yet have a ritual – it’s a muscle I’m building. Having said that, I’m conscious of finding opportunities to apply the tech.?

With that as a starting place, I believe that you’ll extend your experience to really meaningful decision-making. The mission of OpenAI is to ensure that Artificial Generative Intelligence benefits all of humanity. The more we can leverage its utility, the more time we can spend doing the things that require our human ability.

MORNING

I immediately scan my inbox to see what came through from the night before. I’m hoping we will pilot an AI-powered inbox management tool soon. There are several solutions on the market; these systems can craft draft responses, sort messages by priority, and manage calendars. Can’t wait!?

AFTERNOON

I spend time counseling managers on how to lead compassionately using ChatGPT. AI has been instructive for those leaders that aren’t sure about how to strike the right tone. Not only does it adjust for greater compassion, it also can create a more direct message for clarity.

One particularly effective prompt from someone on my team: “Rewrite this email for direct feedback, challenge the employee directly, clearly indicate the failure to perform, and that you are concerned.”

Then, I might spend time synthesizing vast amounts of data to get to key takeaways. One particular use case is our massive bank of RFP questions related to ESG; we’ll be deploying a tool to ingest the entire database so that researchers can quickly find the information they’re seeking using natural language rather than clumsy manual searches.

EVENING

I volunteer for a number of non-profit organizations, and occasionally, I get the opportunity to interview leaders and role models from those communities. ChatGPT helps me prepare by summarizing their careers, suggesting interview questions, or even highlighting key passages in their books. In one instance, Canva helped me to create the promo flyer for an upcoming fireside chat!

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I'm Amanda Halle , author of Unraveling AI. You can call me Amanda, Mands, or AJ (my middle name is Jane). I've been in and around the HR/people space my entire career and started my solopreneur journey 2.5 years ago. I focus on fractional people support, advisory in HR and AI, and project-based work primarily in the L&D niche from my years in leadership consulting and change management.