Workers gaining comfort with GenAI, but seek more guidance, training

Welcome to Hyland’s first LinkedIn Newsletter, Intelligent Content Innovation, where we’ll highlight Hyland experts’ perspectives and commentary on hot topics in the intelligent content solutions space.??

And our newsletter launch comes at a perfect time, on the heels of recent research we commissioned around Generative AI users’ comfort with the technology – and what’s currently impacting their productivity with it.?

Ninety-five percent of respondents to that survey-- 900 full-time employees above the age of 18 who are based in the U.S. and use Gen AI tools for work at least once a month – said they were either somewhat confident or very confident using Gen AI tools in their everyday role.??

That comfort, though, comes with caveats. Respondents also indicated they’re after much more support when it comes to the technology:??

• Ninety-eight percent of respondents said they wanted some level of training on the tech?
• Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they desired company-specific training modules and programs?
• Soft skills were also a focal point for GenAI users, who said AI ethics (47% of respondents) and AI compliance and security (46%) were important to them?
• Interestingly, while a large majority of respondents said they were somewhat or very confident using the technology, 43 percent also said they wanted additional available measures to fact check the technology’s output?

How to solve the gap, then, between comfort with the technology and appropriate training? Upskill, says Hyland chief information officer Steve Watt. For IT Pro Today , Watt said focusing on AI skills will – or should be – a major priority in 2024:?

“Workforce and talent management will need to be top of mind for anyone who is navigating technical solutions and teams. In addition, organizations must focus on AI skills — both within technical teams and business groups. Finally, all AI should lead to? hyper-customized and personalized interactions in our work and personal lives. Organizations will focus on building this and, in 2024, will make investments in? technology and the people who can build these experiences.”?

More recently, Watt told Business Insider, that Hyland is offering training content that introduces employees to the concept of AI. That includes three to four hours' worth of videos from vendors like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services on the basics of AI, the history of the technology, and how to come up with the best prompts. Plainly, Watt says, these are skills we must learn.?

“I think AI is a big inflection point," he said. “If somebody is going to be successful in the next 10 to 15 years of their career, this has to be a toolset that they're very comfortable with.”?

Another bonus of upskilling both technical teams and business groups? Amplified develop capability and a rapid increase in productivity. So says Tiago Cardoso, a principal product manager for AI at Hyland, for Dev Pro Journal ; Tiago’s expertise has been cited in The Wall Street Journal , Inc. and TechCrunch :?

“These tools will play a supportive role in amplifying developers’ capabilities, hastening routine coding tasks, and highlighting potential issues that often result in extensive debugging sessions. Such technological augmentations can result in boosted productivity and, on average, superior code quality. Moreover, generative AI tools open doors for companies to offer a new breed of software that relies not only on pre-determined logic but also on historical data and content. This enables these systems to perform advanced functions and carry out capabilities not conventionally practicable to set in code.”?

?And once those skills collectively have been raised, organizational impact can be better quantified. Watt, Hyland’s CIO, tells CIO one major potential impact of an enterprise-wide implementation of the technology can be elimination of deep technical debt. But only, he says, if that implementation is intentional.?

“If used appropriately, gen AI could help eliminate old technical debt by rewriting legacy applications and automating a backlog of tasks. That said, CIOs shouldn’t jump headfirst without the right cloud environment and strategy. If organizations prematurely implement generative AI, existing technical debt may continue to grow or, in some cases, become chronic. Organizations are rushing to implement AI without a clear understanding of what it does and how it’ll benefit their business the most.”