If youâre fretting about the purported threat from artificial intelligence to how humans work together, be sure to raise the issue during your next PowerPoint presentation or email composition. If you get the implicit irony in that suggestion, you can follow it by treating yourself to an enormous sigh of relief.
For those still puzzled, hereâs the kicker: PowerPoint incorporates many elements of machine learning and AI engineering. The ubiquitous presentation program â together with other regularly used software tools (think Adobe, and various other mobile apps) use AI algorithms to save time while selecting templates, images, and other materials, so the user can maintain their focus on the presentationâs primary themes.
This example also illustrates one of the many potential benefits as machine language and AI assumes an ever-growing role in the way humans collaborate with one another â even to the point of reinventing and improving the very nature of collaboration.
This isnât simply a matter of people collaborating with AI (although thatâs a significant topic unto itself), tâs the inherent possibilities of people leveraging artificial intelligence to better collaborate with other human beings. In short, itâs time for us to reset.
If, as many authorities are telling us, collaboration is growing ever more critical to work and society, cross-boundary collaboration stands as an even greater tipping point between those who succeed with innovation and others who struggle to keep up.
What exactly do we mean by âcross-boundary collaborationâ? It is conventional collaboration thatâs been taken further. Defined simply, cross-boundary collaboration defines an environment in which ideas are genuinely celebrated and all suggestions and ideas are welcomed. So, too, is the source of that input broad and varied; anyone is invited to contribute, regardless of their position or group, both inside and outside an organization.
It doesnât take a great deal of imagination to see thatâs the sort of setting where innovation flourishes â the sort of game-changing ideas and vision that can transform entire organizations and even industries. Even more important, itâs a setting where sustained innovation takes place; the capacity to replicate the innovation process over and over, consistently producing viable, exciting results.
Whether we recognize it or not, collaboration is growing ever more critical to work and society. As Texas A&M University Human Resource Development professor Michael Beyerlein points out, the essential value of collaboration incorporates three primary driving factors:
In short, we are very much all in this together. And, in an environment characterized by exponential change thatâs taking hold at an accelerating rate, our capacity to unite and work as one will prove critical to leveraging that change rather than struggling with it.
âWhether we recognize it or not, collaboration is growing ever more critical to work and society.â
Effective cross-boundary collaboration doesnât hinge just on a welcoming environment â however important that might be. A diversity of input is equally critical; an array of perspectives, ideas, and vision contributed to by a variety of different people and sources.
Successful innovation depends on input from a wide range of people in collaboration: sharing ideas, comparing observations, offering wide-ranging perspectives from their diverse viewpoints, and brainstorming solutions to complex problems. We refer to these divergent perspectives as personas. Here are a few examples, as defined in our previous work innovation:
As you can see, the greater the number and variety of personas, the more productive and rewarding the overall process. Equally obvious is the potential caveat of limitations. The fewer the participating personas, the less the potential for compelling innovation.
The solution, boiled down, is relatively straightforward. Do you need more or different personas to help drive cross-collaborative innovation? AI could be a significant value-add.
AI-generated personas can be seen as digital characters or personas that can effectively augment/replicate a human persona. While these can be used in a variety of applications â including research, design, strategy, and other tasks â personas can also participate in cross-boundary collaboration, effectively adding fresh observations and analysis to the overall conversation.
One powerful advantage to AI personas is the breadth of their DNA. AI personas can be based on a broad swath of demographic factors, industry data, market research, and other information. While human personas may be rather limited as to the source of their input, AI personas have the inherent capacity to be much more broadly grounded.
The process with which an AI persona is used can be similarly straightforward. After introducing input from others involved in cross-boundary discussion and examination, AI can quickly examine all the material in play to offer additional analysis and exploration.
Like other uses of AI, the advantage to AI-generated personas is speed. AI review and analysis can take place in a fraction of the time required by its human counterparts. In a shifting environment where things are changing more often and faster than ever before, the capacity for quick, accurate analysis can prove a powerful ace in the hole.
Although concerns about bias are genuine and need to be addressed, AI nonetheless can be an effective tool in arriving at decisions and solutions in a highly empirical manner. That information, in effect, can make humans better cross-collaborators â more informed, with higher quality data and other material with which to work together with others. That leads to better human-driven outcomes.
Even better, AI-generated personas are not cast in stone. Once created, the AI persona can be revised and retrained as new data and insights emerge. This ensures that the personaâs input and participation remain aligned with shifting market conditions, organizational goals, and other elements that are subject to change.
Itâs helpful to bear in mind that he purported âthreatâ of AI taking control rather than collaborating is hardly new, particularly in popular culture. Frankenstein was published in 1818. Roughly a century later, a Czech play titled R.U.R. (Rossumovi UniverzĂĄlnĂ Roboti) portrayed robots rebelling and slaughtering most of their human âmastersâ. And on up through 2001: A Space Odysseyâs Hal (âWhat are you doing, Dave?â), Transformers â here, robots are divided among do-gooders and nâer â do wells â up to more positive castings, such as the ever helpful J.A.R.V.I.S. which serves as Tony Starkâs invaluable right hand man in the Iron Man movie series.
Although the topic of AI as a whole can still drive many people to reach for a paper bag in which to breathe, AI-generated personas are not geared to replacing human participants. Rather, theyâre in place to augment and strengthen the entire process. While AI can be fast and empirical, empathy is simply a factor that â so far, at least â cannot be inputted into the guts of AI. That, happily, remains the sole purview of human beings, which is what makes the AI/human cross-collaborative process both balanced and potentially very prolific.
Moreover, everything simply seems to function so much better when humans and AI collaborate. According to comprehensive research by Accenture involving some 1,500 companies, researchers determined that companies using AI to effectively replace human workers only reaped short-term benefits. On the other hand, those that partnered AI with human personnel achieved the greatest results by enhancing each otherâs strengths â human leadership and creativity coupled with AIâs quantitative power and speed.
Itâs becoming increasingly clear that innovation is not a take it or leave it option. Rather, itâs essential for any enterprise moving forward. Cross-boundary collaborative teams, working with enabling technologies such as AI-generated personas, can power meaningful, sustained innovation.
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