Is your team experimenting with AI tools at work? What about you?
Maybe an even more important question: do you and your team members have confidence in how to use it well, and how to stay safe while doing so?
No matter how you feel about generative AI tools, the reality is that people are using them at work. And the big software companies, including Microsoft, are pushing these tools hard. Open any productivity app, right-click on text, or even just open your Gmail and you’ll instantly be greeted with some kind of AI invitation: Google Docs is currently begging me to “save time creating beautiful documents,” and Word wants to “help me write”—and that’s just two examples.
So if these tools are getting embedded into the software and services you use to get work done, it makes sense to grow your team’s AI literacy. Maybe you won’t go all-in on AI tools, but people need to know the do’s and don’ts—and how to avoid unnecessary risks.
It’s A Weird Time
This is a weird time for many businesses. People see that AI can help them, but they aren’t sure how to do it effectively. They trust it for some things (like Google search’s AI overviews), but they don’t trust it for others (as well they shouldn’t). Some people worry about getting caught using AI: will their bosses think they were taking shortcuts? And some people are using it, but badly, copying their prompts into final documents. (Even some novelists have gotten caught with AI prompts in their published work!)
On the other side of the coin, people may get suspicious when they receive something that seems like it was generated or drafted by AI. Did the person sending me this write this? Or is it just AI? Can I trust that he’s even going to know what he “wrote”? Do I ask for clarification, or just assume it’s a weird AI quirk?
These are questions we would’ve never imagined a decade ago, but those of us who work in knowledge industries and office settings find ourselves wondering things like this every single day.
So what’s an office worker to do? Good question.
Transparency Is the Best Policy
Most small business leaders should get in front of this question by communicating expectations transparently. Do you want your team members to avoid AI? Tell them. Would you rather they experiment with it and look for ways to improve the business? Tell them. Are you all-in on AI tools? Again, tell them.
Of course, it’s also a good idea to set some ground rules or best practices, like:
- Never copy/paste AI results without making sure they reflect what you want to say.
- Don’t feed general market AI tools private business information.
- Check twice to make sure you aren’t pasting a prompt your audience shouldn’t see.
- Be honest about your AI use so people don’t question your character or work.
Our Take
Our take: using AI tools can help people do more, better, faster—but it can also cause embarrassment and even business risk if used the wrong way.
If you want to foster more AI literacy with your team, consider setting up a show-and-tell: invite employees to show off how they’re using AI to accomplish more, and invite feedback on ways to improve those techniques (or risks to avoid). Doing this shows your employees what these tools can do and how you as a leader feel about their use.
That’s all for this week, but if you have any questions about how to implement AI tools the right way at your company, we’re here for you. Reach out anytime.