'This will be the most transformative technological development in our lifetime,' says Canadian CPO
The potential uses for AI are still largely unknown but the technology is advancing so much that its impact on the world of work will be immense, according to a senior HR leader.
“This is an existential component, and it’s part of the strategy for companies going forward: this will be the most transformative technological development in our lifetimes,” says Mary Alice Vuicic, chief people officer at Thomson Reuters in Toronto.
This belief was backed up by a Thomson Reuters survey done with more than 1,200 professionals from the legal, tax, accounting and risk fields between May and June, of workers in Canada, U.S., U.K. and Latin America.
The survey revealed that 67% of respondents feel AI will have a revolutionary impact on their professions over the next five years, while another 66% forecast it will create new career paths.
And this impact could be positive for these workers, says Vuicic.
“Overall, we found that professionals obviously see the potential for AI and believe that AI will transform their professions. The view is that this has the potential to improve their work experience.”
Another survey done by LinkedIn found that a large percentage of workers are “overwhelmed” by the advent of AI.
Using tech tools to impact mental health
Deploying AI to do tasks that might be repetitive or boring can help, which can help employees’ wellbeing, says Vuicic.
“So reducing long working hours and the fear of making errors, which is so important in the work that professionals do for their clients, both of those things have a negative impact on the mental health of 80% of professionals, based on what was reported, and so AI is perfectly suited to address those.”
For HR professionals dealing with the negative impacts of exiting employees, AI may prove a boon, she said.
“This will help to address the very real human-capital constraints that we have right now: there are not enough individuals entering the profession relative to the work and the number of people retiring and exiting. AI will enable non-credentialed people to do more of the work, and so that will ease some of the capacity constraints that have been pushing the longer hours and creating issues.”
Using AI tools in HR
And while there is “mixed sentiment” about the power of AI, clear guidelines have emerged to help organizations take advantage of the technology.
“Number one is the responsibility of employers and partners to help develop, create the training and the environments where people can experiment and develop new skills,” she says.
As an example, Vuicic’s employer is employing the tool in the HR department to great effect.
“Today at Thomson Reuters, we’re using this for drafting job descriptions, drafting postings, helping to develop a standardized view of the skills of the individuals; helping prepare interview questions for the interviewers, and there’s so much more that can be leveraged. The tooling is developing very quickly in this area and firms and corporations are going to have to leverage them to improve.”
For employees in these fields, there is an “individual responsibility, that professionals — and this is really critical — need to be very intentional about their development going forward,” says Vuicic.
“So what are their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, they have to develop a career plan to capitalize on their development so that they can truly unlock the potential of the positive impacts of AI?”
AI brings out curiosity and fear
Almost two-thirds (64%) of survey respondents feel that the technology will make their own skills more valuable in the future, and 24% believe it will happen within 18 months.
“I think, in general, there’s equal parts curiosity, and then fear of the unknown and uncertainty,” says Vuicic.
“So it’s essential for organizations to be very transparent about where they are on this journey to incorporate AI into their processes and into their tooling, and move very swiftly on how they support individuals in upskilling and reskilling and creating – and this point is absolutely essential – creating places for people to safely and securely experiment with AI.”
But the interest in the technology certainly exists, she says, citing a global learning day at Thomson Reuters focused on AI and machine learning – with around 7,000 participants.
“And we had thousands participating afterwards. The vast majority of people indicated that this was useful in their roles, and that they saw value in it. It since has become the hottest topic, the number one topic in all of our sessions, whether it’s town halls, whether it’s fireside chats with leaders, whether it’s questions about the future of the organization,” says Vuicic.
