While ChatGPT can automate certain tasks to increase efficiency for your business, it should be used as a tool to assist and complement the contributions of human workers. Successful integration of ChatGPT requires a strategic approach that maximizes the benefits of automation while prioritizing and maintaining human interaction.
In this article, we’ll explore how businesses can utilize ChatGPT to automate some workplace tasks and highlight the potential ethical, legal, and workplace concerns that should be weighed when considering its use.
Overview
ChatGPT is an AI platform that absorbs and learns from large-scale data sets to perform language-based tasks and interact with input from a human user. As a “generative” AI tool, it is best known for creating texts/documents based on prompts, providing data analysis, offering research support, or even giving advice on scheduling, customer support, or strategic decisions.
Many businesses are currently considering the benefits and downsides of allowing their employees to utilize ChatGPT for tasks like creating basic reports, generating presentations, formulating employee evaluations, or handling the composition of emails or letters. Although some of these more low-risk activities and tasks can technically be automated by ChatGPT, some employers wonder about how using this AI tool could impact career and skills development among employees who overutilize it, as well as customer service when ChatGPT is used as a customer service “chatbot.”
Some employers are also facing concerns about applicant use of ChatGPT early in the recruitment and hiring process, causing more hiring managers to focus on real-time, in-person assessments and interviews to determine the aptitude of potential hires. Clearly, the growing use of ChatGPT is compelling organizations to formulate clear policies regarding generative AI tools across all stages of the employee lifecycle.
Gauging Accuracy and Avoiding Bias
ChatGPT is impressive in its ability to absorb and integrate a high volume of online data to provide coherent text and interactions on a given topic. Nevertheless, it relies exclusively on the data it is fed, which isn’t always vetted, accurate or fact-checked. At best, reliable information is intermingled with questionable content, which also raises issues concerning inherent bias. Again, since the platform is trained on whatever information it is fed, unfiltered content absorption could lead to the exercise of bias or discrimination whether ChatGPT is used as a chatbot or to generate text, research, or input on a business decision.
ChatGPT is not the only AI tool currently under scrutiny for potential issues with bias and privacy violations (which we’ll discuss in the next section). Applicant tracking systems (ATS), as just one example, have already been subjected to tech and privacy reforms that mandate internal audits of ATS and other AI tools in New York City and elsewhere. Legislation intended to increase human oversight of AI tools like ChatGPT and ATS systems is very likely to increase as these tools become more widely available and utilized. Employers must be aware of the ways that the use of ChatGPT or ATS systems, especially during the hiring process, could lead to issues with local, state, or federal noncompliance without established policies in place.
Data, Privacy, and Intellectual Property Concerns
One potential issue with allowing employees to use ChatGPT to support workplace tasks is the unintentional disclosure of sensitive business or employee information. Since the platform absorbs and integrates information from every conversation it has, there is the ongoing potential that confidential information could become available to other users who are not associated with the organization. Of equal concern is an employee’s unintentional use of copyrighted or trademarked content that should not be replicated for use. Since ChatGPT draws from a massive pool of online content, it currently does not differentiate between usable “open source” information and content that is the exclusive intellectual property of one individual or entity. As a result, organizations that rely on ChatGPT for any kind of generative task should apply (at bare minimum) human evaluation of any AI-generated content to safeguard the organization against potential legal issues.
Overdependence on AI and Impact on Career Development
Many employers are thoughtfully considering the upsides and downsides of using ChatGPT to improve efficiency with routine or low-risk content and customer service tasks. One commonly acknowledged risk is that some employees could lose opportunities to develop or refine skill sets that are integral to their job or could benefit their career development and job advancement opportunities. As we explore in our related article, customer service and human resources are two areas where the human capacity for abstract thinking, real-time problem solving, and empathy are all integral to fulfilling key job responsibilities. More importantly, clients and customers rely on real human interaction to feel confident about the business relationship and the commitment and accessibility of those who are serving them. Excessively outsourcing tasks to AI tools (ChatGPT and otherwise) risks undermining those relationships in the name of efficiency that brings the additional threats of inaccuracy, bias, and privacy concerns along with it.
ChatGPT Best Practices for Employers
Employers across industries should carefully consider their policies regarding employee use of ChatGPT to complete key or supplemental job functions. It’s also vital to consider the potential impact of using ChatGPT to augment or entirely replace customer service or data analysis positions. As we’ve explored, the appealing short-term gains could in some cases be eclipsed by the diminished human connection and human relationship with clients, customers, and within the workforce itself – all of which could lead to business losses, client retention issues, or reputational damage.
Here are some basic steps your organization can take to implement ChatGPT best practices:
- Establish a prohibition on employees entering any sensitive or confidential business or employee information while using ChatGPT or other AI tools.
- Add a confirmation box during the hiring process where candidates confirm that they have not used AI tools (including ChatGPT) to complete any required documents. Indicate that violation of this agreement could be grounds for job termination.
- Bar the use of ChatGPT during the hiring process. If you currently use other tools like an applicant tracking system (ATS), be sure your practices are compliant with regulations in your jurisdiction(s) and subject to human oversight.
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