How HR leaders can build trust with AI

You can't build trust with artificial intelligence (AI) until you build trust in AI.

AI seems to be everything, anytime, anywhere. We are constantly exposed to the potential of AI enhancements, from basic content creation to complex agents and smart robots. However, after the initial hype, there seems to be a growing feeling of dissatisfaction with AI that seems unable to consistently provide predictable results. As we go through this “trough of disillusionment,” it becomes clearer that we cannot build trust in AI unless we build trust in it.

Imagine a world where AI can manage many of the small everyday tasks that fill our inboxes and to-do lists. However, several considerations exist, including illusions, bias, lack of transparency in the process, inaccuracy of results, and insufficient accountability of the developers of these tools. Sometimes we feel like we're stuck in a loop or moving at a painfully slow pace at best. Not surprisingly, we actually move at the “speed of trust” as mentioned in Stephen MR Covey’s book.

Therefore, if we want to harness the potential of AI for the success of business and society, we must continue to accelerate the process of gaining trust through thoughtful engagement.

foundation of trust

Trust is the basis of all relationships and is essential to personal and professional success. Their presence positively impacts motivation and information sharing, leading to increased efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness. On the other hand, its absence can lead to a downward spiral of frustration, rework, and lack of productive business outcomes.

This is especially true in economies that are deeply integrated with cooperation and interdependence. We need trust, whether it's with our clients and other external stakeholders, or with our own teams and employees. And for our HR team, mutual trust is the only capital asset we have to serve as true partners to our business and trading partners.

Despite this, trust is at its lowest level in history. According to the Edelman Trust His Barometer, an annual survey filled out by 32,000 people around the world over the past 23 years, nearly one in four employees do not trust their employer. Employers overestimate employee trust by 40%. Mistrust breeds polarization and creates friction in even the most benevolent measures and the introduction of the most beneficial products.

This is especially true of AI, according to recent reports from Microsoft and LinkedIn. A recent report from Microsoft and LinkedIn found that 79% of leaders agree their companies need to implement AI to remain competitive, but 59% cannot quantify the productivity gains from AI. I am concerned about it becoming

Building trust: Turn your AI into a trusted teammate

We have established that trust is essential to collaboration in an interconnected and interdependent workplace. But how do you build it?

I believe that humans and AI will need to cooperate and coexist in the future workplace. This requires taking a relational, rather than transactional, approach to AI by establishing clear rules for building trust over time.

Create a compelling vision for trustworthy AI

Implementing trustworthy AI requires an approach to the relationship between humans and AI teammates that accomplishes the following:

1. Establish ethical guidelinesThis includes ensuring clear ethical principles, transparency, fairness and accountability around the use of AI in the workplace, building a foundation of trust and evolving it as necessary.
2. Introduction and introduction AI systems act as new teammates, helping employees understand their capabilities, limitations, and intended objectives.
3. communicate clearly Learn about AI roles and responsibilities within your team, foster open dialogue, and share updates on AI performance and progress.
4. Work together to assign tasks, Emphasize the strengths of AI while freeing your human teammates to focus on the areas where their skills are most valuable.
5. Support skill development Empower your employees to collaborate effectively with AI, fostering mutual growth and understanding.
6. Ask for feedback proactively Hear from your employees about their experience using AI systems and use this information for continuous improvement.
7. Recognize and celebrate accomplishments Recognize the results of AI-human collaboration the same way you recognize the contributions of your human teammates.

Fortunately, you don't have to start from scratch. There are many organizations and individual researchers who are pioneering approaches to ethical AI as a means of building trust and releasing open source toolkits that can be used as blueprints.

Hernan Chiosso from ProductizeHR has published a canvas to guide your ethical AI planning. This is what I personally utilize and find very helpful.

Companies like IBM and Google offer tools such as the AI ​​Explainability 360 Opensource Toolkit to understand how ML models predict labels and the What-If tool to visually explore the behavior of trained machine learning models. We have developed several tools.

Human resource leaders can take the lead

The importance of human connection in the age of AI remains important as we strive to build trust. Human resources leaders are particularly equipped to lead this responsibility, as their primary responsibilities include:

• Advocating anthropocentrism
• Specializes in communication and change management
• Foster employee engagement, growth and advocacy
• Driving policy design and change management
• Build a positive work culture

This is a rare opportunity for us to have a seat at the proverbial table at a critical turning point in the history of the workplace. It is up to us to take advantage of this opportunity.