Who Should be Using Generative AI Right Now? (Hint: It’s Everyone)

I was recently in a conversation with a colleague who was at a training event for senior leaders of medium and large enterprises.  She was relating, with some surprise, the number of people who had never used any generative AI tools personally.  While they knew people in their companies were using these tools, many had not actually used them and were unfamiliar with their capabilities at a practical level.

While it can be easy for some of us who have spent the last few years talking about almost nothing else to be surprised by this observation, it’s actually not unexpected in the least.  A report from the National Bureau of Economic Research last fall found that 28% of people had used Generative AI in their work.  And while managers in general had higher levels of use (49%), those over 50 had significantly lower use (only 17%) which might lead one to suspect that use among those in senior leadership roles is probably lower than the general management average.  Though this is a relatively fast adoption rate compared to other technologies, it still shows that many people have yet to explore these tools, especially in a work context.

Why aren’t people using Generative AI at work yet?  I think there are a few primary reasons. First, many people are skeptical of the value, both in terms of its usefulness for performing their job as well as concern about accuracy and hallucinations.  This may be driven by both general anecdotes and media reports, as well as their personal experiences.  Others are influenced by larger legal, ethical, or social concerns, ranging from copyright considerations, to its impact on particular professions, the energy footprint of generative AI, or what an AI-driven future looks like.  Some are concerned that AI may eliminate their job or those of colleagues, and so are hesitant to help accelerate adoption by using it themselves.  Finally there are those who aren’t sure where to start or need more training and support to get going.

Broadly speaking, there are really two types of issues stopping people from using AI.  Most of the reasons stem from why people don’t want to use the current set of tools.  The other reflects a barrier to their ability to use the technology.  Not knowing how to use AI is a critical barrier, and the core issue I’m hoping to address.  But before you can improve how people use a tool, you first need to convince them to pick it up in the first place.

This is not a new challenge, and you can find a long string of quotes about concern and resistance to just about every technology that has emerged throughout history.  A classic one is quoted and shared by Plato, from over 2000 years ago:

This discovery of yours [writing] will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.

Did writing make us more forgetful?  Probably.  Did that stop writing from becoming one of the most important technologies ever discovered?  Clearly not.  

This is the challenge and opportunity of new inventions.  They change the world, for better in many ways, but many also create harm.  But there is almost no technology that, once invented, has been successfully locked up and forgotten.  We adapt and change, we take actions to mitigate the harm (though often not as early as we should), and we build a new world on top of them.  We develop new practices and habits to account for what we lose.  “Working out” was probably not a concept in centuries past because daily living was “working out.”  Are we as a society less physically strong and fit because most of us don’t practice farming, factory labor, and manual household tasks?  Absolutely.  Should we solve that problem by getting rid of tractors, industrial robots, and washing machines?  That doesn’t feel like the direction we should be heading, nor does it feel even remotely practical.  Which is why we now have gyms, running shoes, and yoga mats.  We’ve learned to adapt to a new world, learned to take advantage of the benefits of technology while doing things differently to manage what was lost.

And this brings us back to my point for today.  Generative AI, and the innovations and technologies which emerge from it in the future, are going to be increasingly important and impactful in our world.  Ignoring it–personally, professionally, or socially–will not change this outcome.  Ignoring it now will only make you less able to understand where it is useful, less able to know its shortcomings and limitations, less able to guide us forward on a path where the benefits of this new technology outweigh the costs.  Farmers who didn’t learn how to use a tractor may have stayed more physically active, but at some point they probably all, quite literally, lost the farm.

All of the concerns about AI–practical, ethical, and societal–are real.  But to truly address them you need to engage with AI.  That’s why everyone should be using generative AI right now.  Understand where it works and where it fails.  Keep experimenting with the latest versions to see how it is improving.  Use what you learn to think about how AI impacts your job today and the career path you expected to follow.  Form your own opinions about the ethics of AI.  Use your experiences to engage in debates about how it will change our world, and what we should do as a result.

Change isn’t easy.  But change is always happening, and now is one of those times when it is moving particularly fast.  I encourage everyone to step into the flow, accept that it’s not always going to be easy or fun, but be open to the new experiences and the excitement, growth, and even happiness which can result.  So find a browser and start your own learning journey with Generative AI.

Content Note:  This article was written entirely by the Author, with light copy editing provided by Google Gemini.