Harvard, MIT, and Wharton analysis reveals pitfalls of counting on junior employees for AI coaching

As firms race to undertake synthetic intelligence techniques, standard knowledge means that youthful, extra tech-savvy staff will take the lead in instructing their managers the right way to successfully use the highly effective new instruments.

However a new examine casts doubt on that assumption in relation to the rapidly-evolving know-how of generative AI.

The analysis, carried out by lecturers from Harvard Enterprise Faculty, MIT, Wharton, and different establishments in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group, discovered that junior staff who experimented with a generative AI system made suggestions for mitigating dangers that ran counter to professional recommendation. The findings counsel that firms can not rely solely on reverse mentoring to make sure the accountable use of AI.

“Our interviews revealed two findings that run counter to the prevailing literature,” wrote the authors. “First, the techniques that the juniors advisable to mitigate their seniors’ considerations ran counter to these advisable by specialists in GenAI know-how on the time, and so revealed that the junior professionals won’t be one of the best supply of experience within the efficient use of this rising know-how for extra senior members.”

Junior consultants wrestle with AI threat mitigation in GPT-4 experiment

The researchers interviewed 78 junior consultants in mid-2023 who had lately participated in an experiment giving them entry to GPT-4, a robust generative AI system, for a enterprise problem-solving process. The consultants, who lacked technical AI experience, shared techniques they might suggest to alleviate managers’ considerations about dangers.

However the examine discovered the junior staff’ threat mitigation techniques have been usually grounded in “an absence of deep understanding of the rising know-how’s capabilities,” targeted on altering human conduct relatively than AI system design, and centered on project-level interventions relatively than group or industry-wide options.

Navigating the challenges of generative AI adoption in enterprise

“To elucidate how and when junior professionals might fail to be a supply of experience in using an rising know-how for extra senior members, we should keep in mind not solely standing menace, but additionally dangers to valued outcomes,” the researchers wrote, noting AI’s exponential fee of change, superhuman capabilities, and reliance on huge quantities of knowledge.

The findings come as firms grapple with the alternatives and challenges introduced by generative AI techniques, which might interact in open-ended dialogue, reply follow-up questions, and help with writing, evaluation, and coding duties. By highlighting the constraints of counting on digital native staff to information AI implementation from the bottom-up, the examine underscores the necessity for top-down AI governance, professional enter, and upskilling throughout all ranges of the group.

“Senior professionals face the twin duty of shortly implementing rising applied sciences right now, and anticipating future variations of applied sciences and their implications for each their shoppers and their very own organizations,” the authors famous. “To guide their groups and organizations in grappling with a quickly increasing technological frontier, seniors must develop a deep understanding of recent applied sciences and their related capabilities.”