Covert Usage of ChatGPT Among Your Workers is the New Digital Divide

Today marks one year since ChatGPT was released by OpenAI. In just 5 days of launch, ChatGPT crossed 1 million users. By January 2023 (two months after its launch), ChatGPT had gained 100 million active users, and by April 2023, the estimated user traffic was 173 million users. To put this in perspective, TikTok took nine months, and Instagram took two and a half years, to reach 100 million users, something that ChatGPT did in two months.?

For HR leaders, the recent study by Fishbowl reports 68% of the 5,067 responding that they use ChatGPT at work, reported they don’t disclose their usage to their bosses, while 32% reported they’re using generative AI with their boss’ knowledge.?

The results broken down by sector, age and gender include:

• By Generation:?Gen Z professionals have the highest rate of adoption, with 29% having used it at work. Following Gen Z is Gen X with 28%. Millennials close it out with 27%.?
• By Gender:?20% of women and 30% of men have used AI to help with tasks at work.?
• By Industry:?Marketing and Advertising have the highest adoption with 37% saying they’ve used ChatGPT to assist with work related tasks ?such as first drafts of copy writing, graphics, and other creative tasks. Tech follows with 35% and Consulting with 30%. Healthcare has the lowest usage with 15%. Accounting and Teaching come in at 16% and 19%, respectively.?

This type of usage of ChatGPT points to several issues I think HR leaders should address, namely:

1. There is a tension between workers who fear change or are late adopters to new technology, and those where ChatGPT is a game changing work hack.?It is up to HR leaders to bridge this gap by building Generative AI training and address the needed change management.
2. Beware of continued covert usage of ChatGPT without training workers in how to safely use this new technology. This can increase such organizational risks as intellectual property infringement; with workers sharing things that should not be shared with ChatGPT, or sharing inaccurate results delivered by ChatGPT without properly validating the answers.
3. Finally, covert usage of ChatGPT could impact an organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. Recent research by Harvard Business School and Boston Consulting Group identified a possible "creativity trap," meaning the output of ChatGPT can lack diversity of thought. This research found that the diversity of ideas among participants who used GPT-4 for creative product innovation tasks was 41% lower compared with the group that did not use the technology.

Covert usage of ChatGPT points to several questions HR leaders should be asking themselves, their teams and key stakeholders from Business, Legal, IT and Workforce Transformation such as:

• What is our AI strategy for using Generative AI in the organization?
• What use cases are best used leveraging the power of ChatGPT?
• How are we governing our usage of ChatGPT?
• How do we plan to train our workers to use Generative AI effectively?
• How will we adjust our hiring strategy to find new hires that can and want to partner with Generative AI as their co-pilot?
• What types of new jobs will emerge as Generative AI continues to gain traction in an organization?

I co-authored an HBR article along with Robert Hoyle Brown , entitled 21 HR Jobs of the Future, three years ago. In this article, we identified a number of new HR job roles, such as: Algorithm Bias Auditor, Chatbot and Human Facilitator, and Human Machine Teaming Manager. These all have immediate applicability today and the 高知特 Cognizant white paper including potential job descriptions will help you start thinking how ChatGPT will impact your HR function.

It’s only been one year since ChatGPT was launched and for some workers it has become an integral part of their work lives, while others take a wait and see approach. It's more important than ever to build a strategy so this does not become a digital divide in the workforce.

What are you doing as ChatGPT gains traction among your workforce?