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You may have seen the controversial marketing campaign in London this summer, in which an artificial intelligence (AI) provider directly fueled fears that it was replacing jobs.

The provider ran adverts across London, using slogans such as: AI doesn’t need to take vacation or sick days on Mondays.

This direct reference to the fear that AI will take jobs immediately sparked negative reactions.

This really struck a chord, as this fear of replacement is very real for many workers.

AI, like many modern technologies, can have incredible benefits, but only if people trust it and willingly adopt it.

So, what can we do to change the narrative? How can businesses enable their employees to take advantage of this new technology?

To better understand ethical AI leadership and managing technological change, we hosted a webinar with Director of Human Resources Lizzy Barry, Director of Human Resources Consulting Dan Grace, and Senior Training and Development Advisor Vanessa Aradia.

In this blog, I summarized part of their conversation about how businesses can change mindsets away from fear.

Understanding human emotion

To kick off the discussion, Vanessa touched on the emotional element of change, reflecting on past technological innovation and the current AI landscape, saying:

“If we strip away the buzzwords and headlines, we’re actually talking about human emotion.

“How do people what I think of AI?

“For most, it’s a mixture of fascination, fatigue and fear, and that’s completely reasonable.

“Every major technological advance has been met with the same response, namely uncertainty about what it means for our jobs, our identity and our value.

“I did a survey and when you listen to the real concerns of employees, they are rarely about the technology itself, but rather about trust, transparency and fairness.

“Will I be left behind? Businesses need to address these concerns directly.

“My advice is to be honest about the limitations of AI, provide visibility into how AI decisions are made, and create opportunities for practical experimentation.

“This is how fear gives way to ability.

“We don’t just develop the technical skills of our teams, we develop their human skills.

“If we help our employees feel safe, curious and confident, every technical challenge becomes manageable.

“As we know, this human story of adaptation is far from new: it has been going on since the days when horsepower meant horses.”

Highlight practicality

Lizzy added to Vanessa’s point, sharing how she helped manage AI adoption at IRIS, explaining: “It’s been really interesting within IRIS! We’ve been doing things like AI hackathons and giving employees the chance to play with tools they might not have used before.

“We often challenge ourselves: Can you use AI to generate this? How would you look at this result and determine if something is true?”

“Being able to start using AI and seeing what it can do is often a very clear way to eliminate some of that fear, because we can immediately see that AI is not perfect and it doesn’t always give us the finely crafted end result that we need.

“Even if the result looks good, we know that AI can hallucinate or have built-in errors and assumptions that we then need to check.

“Certainly, getting stuck in is really helpful in supporting people and helping them feel confident in using it for that raise, rather than worrying that it’s going to replace us tomorrow.”

Obtain executive buy-in

During the webinar, Dan shared his experience implementing AI tools both internally at IRIS and with clients: “I’m really going to play on the word increase, because it’s really important.

“I help deploy AI tools internally at IRIS, but I also help clients determine what the right decision is for them.

“One of the questions we always ask ourselves: does this replace me?

“One of the messages that we always share with the people that we are integrating this change with is that this tool is there to improve and help provide better service.

“This is not a replacement, we just want to provide a better service to customers and colleagues – the aim is to try and improve and be better where we can.

“Ultimately, with change comes a shift in roles and priorities – there’s no escaping it.

“But it’s all about doing the right thing for our customers, our employees and our colleagues, deploying the best tools and staying ahead of the curve.

“I’ve found that when it comes to implementation, if the implementation fails, it’s not because of the people using the tools.

“This is generally due to a hesitation in providing tools and a lack of buy-in and effective deployment from leadership.

“Most people, just about everyone I know, have experienced AI tools, whether in their personal or professional lives.

“If you look at some statistics, ChatGPT was one of the fastest growing apps.

“People use these tools in their daily lives and, in fact, you can’t even use Google now without it giving you some sort of AI search options.

“AI is everywhere, so if your leadership and strategy doesn’t support these tools, it’s really going to collapse at the first hurdle.

“You really need to convince leadership that adopting these tools to help your staff is the right decision to help support the business, customers and employees.

“However, we should not deploy these tools just to use them: they require careful consideration, to ensure they are the right decision. »

Giving people the tools to succeed

The world doesn’t stop while we catch our breath.

Change is inevitable, but it is HR’s duty to support their employees on this journey, giving them the tools they need to thrive.

If you want more advice, good news! Our practical and pragmatic session is now available on demand.

In this webinar you will learn how to:

• Transform employee fear into technology adoption with ethical leadership
• Building an AI-ready organization that amplifies human potential
• Create practical governance frameworks for data privacy, security and company policies.
• Develop employee training and AI induction programs
• Move your HR function from reactive to strategic

This session will give you the framework and tools to confidently lead AI transformation, without losing the human touch that makes your organization special.

Webinar: Beyond the Hype – Ethical AI Leadership and Change Management for HR and Payroll

Look here