Talking about tech, using AI wisely, and an offer of the Human Touch

I’ve been reading about AI and technology everywhere - the great online divide about the Miyazaki & the Ghibli filter, a masterclass and conversations with colleagues about integrating AI into a coach’s practice, and even a couple of sessions at my son’s school about how technology is reshaping educational curriculums.

Personally, I find the fear of AI to be irrational and akin to people in the 18th century fearing the steam engine! Technology evolves. That is technology’s job - to move forward and make certain human efforts redundant. That’s not new. What is hard is that the ones whose efforts are being displaced are rarely the ones driving the change. It is forced upon them. And that is hard - to accept, to adapt, and to acclimatise to. It is way easier to diss what is new altogether.

I’m not here for that.

I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and various other generative AI tools in different ways. I haven’t yet made the plunge into image or music generation, words are where I hang out… so LLMs are my go-to companions. And I’ve found that there are definite use cases to capitalise on, and also definite pitfalls to avoid.

Photo by Maxim Potkin ❄ on Unsplash

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Embracing Specific Use Cases

AI isn’t magic, but when used smartly (remember garbage-in-garbage-out), it can be an incredible tool. Here are some of the uses I’ve found very relevant.

Meeting notes : it is surprisingly effective at tuning into the main essence of a meeting, articulating the themes or points discussed, and summarising the key takeaways, including who is responsible for what follow-up. I’ve tried this in coaching conversations (with the clients’ consent, of course!) and I’ve also witnessed this in group meetings with bilingual participants. While the transcript may not be 100% accurate when participants are switching languages, the meeting notes are always spot on.

Learning : summarising publicly available information and breaking down complex topics into digestible insights is something we have all seen Perplexity do quite well. I even used AI-generated mock tests last month to practice for the written evaluation which was part of my ICF Certification. And I have to admit, these practice tests are probably the reason I passed! (Side note : yes, I’m officially certified by the International Coaching Federation now, yay!)

Basic copywriting : I must emphasise “basic” here. Correcting, embellishing or grammatically checking text doesn’t need to be left to the human eye anymore. Sure you will get generic, machine-sounding text (despite the prompts to change the tone or voice). But let’s be honest, not every email needs to be a showcase in wordplay! Sometimes you just need to be understood - and LLMs are great at “organising this and making sure it can be understood by a non-native English-speaker”

Brainstorming : this one is a slippery slope. You start with the concept of fleshing out your own half-baked ideas, and if you’re not careful, you can easily slip into relying on AI to generate the ideas themselves. So watch out… AI is a pattern-spotter not an innovator. Make sure to use it only as a sounding board, for critiquing or analysing your ideas, like you would with any “intelligent” colleague perhaps. But don’t outsource your creativity.

Be Careful of the Super Power

For all its usefulness, generative AI does what can only be described as guesswork more often than one would expect. It doesn’t always “know” things. It predicts plausible answers based on patterns. And this can be wildly inaccurate - even when it sounds convincing!

I saw this first hand recently while visiting the Musee de l’Orangerie to admire Monet’s Water Lilies and other Impressionist masterpieces. Walking through the museum, I noticed these sleek metallic benches in the shapes of letters like “A”, “O” and “C” spread across the rooms. Curious, I turned to ChatGPT instead of googling.

The response : “The letters spell out ‘Claude Monet’”

I was impressed, both with the museum and with my trusted companion for making me aware of this interesting tidbit. Until I spotted an “H”…

So I asked ChatGPT again and its answer changed : “The letters spell out ‘Les Nymphéas’ which is French for water lilies”

By now, I was getting skeptical and decided to ask for a fact-check. When pressed, ChatGPT finally admitted:

“I speculated that they might spell something relevant to the collection-like Monet's name or his famous works.”

Speculated.

Not researched. Not referenced.

It was just guessing!

So if you’re using a generative AI tool for professional and / or academic work, please remember that it can sound confident while being completely off-target. It’s a powerful tool alright, but power needs to be wisely used.

Photo by Thomas Gabernig on Unsplash

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Job Hunting in a Strange New World

One of the most fascinating (and slightly ridiculous) developments I’ve come across as a Career Transition Coach is how AI has infiltrated both ends of the job search process. Candidates use AI to tweak their resumes to match job descriptions, some even going so far as to set up auto filters to apply to relevant jobs without any intervention. Recruiters on the other end, use AI powered application tracking systems to filter through the resumes based on pre-set algorithms.

There is an obvious element of AI talking to AI in this whole process!

From what I hear, it has become so automated that humans need no longer be involved.. in this domain of Human Resources. Yes, the irony is insane!

But going back to what I said about copywriting and brainstorming, human insight and creativity still matters when you’re working on your resume. In the themes that define you, the story that describes you, and the You that makes you stand out.

Sure you can use algorithms to refine the wording, but if you’re looking at more than just key-word matching, reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you dig deeper and identify what truly makes you shine so you can resonate with the humans behind the AI filters!

A Question for You :

What’s your take on AI? Are you Team Embrace or Team Avoid?

Until next time,

Nupur