We are undoubtedly living in the era of omnipresent AI and, more recently, navigating the waters of generative AI, which has massively and decisively transformed the way we go about our everyday lives in just a few months. In a recent research study that I conducted, most of the respondents reported working with Generative AI in some shape and form in their work activities, and 75% claimed to be using ChatGPT as a personal assistant.
Even though we are actively interacting with generative AI, we can’t quite rule out the ethical and social concerns that come alongside AI adoption. There are a host of issues related to data privacy infringement, copyright violation of content, and lack of transparency about the data used to develop the underlying models. A clear understanding of algorithms, parameters, and weights used while training them is also lacking. During my research, I discovered that users of AI have many socio-behavioral concerns about AI and its outcomes.
In scientific literature, these concerns are represented by a term known as “AI Anxiety”. Even though computer anxiety and technology anxiety are well-studied topics, AI anxiety is fairly new. It encompasses fears about the unknown consequences of AI decision-making and its impact on job losses, societal fairness, and suspected loss of decision autonomy. This phenomenon becomes especially significant when we see its impact on whether users decide to rely on AI or not. Additionally, the extent of trust users place in AI has significant consequences by determining their choices of level and extent of system usage and engagement. Most business leaders today are faced with the task of reaping the full benefits of generative AI by extracting massive productivity gains in terms of saved time and effort by replacing many manual tasks with generative AI applications that promise to improve the lives and experience of employees and consumers alike. Clear and transparent communication about the AI initiatives, along with the full extent of the impact of these systems, will decide the success or failure of these initiatives. Success will come to organizations where leaders find ways to address AI anxiety with honesty and clarity in a timely fashion.
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