Can AI make us more human?
According to ChatGPT we won't be tired of hearing about AI until 2027. So let's keep going. And this post isn't all about creative prompts and whether AI will eventually take our jobs. Nope, quite the opposite. This week we're going to discuss one of the last ways you might expect AI to be able to help your work life. By helping us connect on a more personal level with our fellow humans.
Improving Soft Skills with AI
If the robots are slowly but surely going to take over, then our humanity is what helps us distinguish ourselves, right? While there's a lot of discussion on whether soft skills will help us more in a world full of AI applications, what I'm not hearing talked about much is how those tools can actually improve your soft skill development. Here are a few ways it can help.
Training Opportunities
Positions highly dependent on soft skills, like business development and account management, can practice with generative AI in a way that's hard to replicate in exercises with people. They can interact with an endless variety of "difficult conversations" to sharpen those abilities, and all kinds of scenarios can be created to see how they respond in any situation. You can even enter emails with the client or prospect so AI can get a feel for the psychographics of the individual. The models can be trained to use specific encounters that are likely in our industry, and they can be presented in real time for added authenticity.
Levels of Difficulty
You can train generative AI to display a wide variety of personality traits, helping employees gradually work their way up to the most difficult customer interactions. In this way it’s more helpful than a one-size-fits-all course, and knowing they are working with fake people can help your employees avoid feeling awkward of embarrassed as they learn.
Fountain of Knowledge
AI can be trained to help your employees answer questions about company policies and procedures. You can input handbooks and manuals, even including information about your branding guidelines. That information can also be used to refine your simulations helping with soft skill development.
Availability
It’s hard to provide hands-on training for everyone, between scheduling and the expense. But AI tools can be accessed by anyone, anytime, wherever they are. Every employee can get the same opportunity to improve their skills, but also in a way that is tailored to their needs and goals. It can help with everything from sales and negotiations to crucial conversations and delivering bad news.
Speed and Depth
Because generative AI at its core is a data analysis tool, it’s great at taking in any info that is relevant to your team, including reports, transcripts of interactions, performance reviews and personality tests. It can help you identify the areas where each of your people might be able to improve their performance, even areas that are not obvious to human analysis.
Ongoing Progress
While large, infrequent training courses can be valuable, using AI means you can encourage people to take advantage of opportunities to improve more often, regularly honing their skills to maintain a constant state of growth. This can be a positive influence on your overall company culture and let them make quick corrections before minor problems become major issues.
We need to accept that generative AI is here to stay and it can help us reach our potential. It's not going to replace what we can do as creative individuals. It’s a tool that is perfect for analyzing all the available information in a situation and coming up with solutions for us to review and learn from. When applied correctly, it can make our lives -- and our work -- better.
If you’re new to AI and still find it a little intimidating, it’s easy to dip your toe in and practice with some simple prompts. It was created to help us, and you can communicate with it just as you would another person, so don’t be afraid to let it help you and your employees improve your skills!