In a matter of months, millions of people have come to rely on ChatGPT, even though the technology, by its own makers' admission, was released while still in beta. Welcome to a longstanding practice in the tech field: the release of flawed products designed to improve as consumers use them. The approach is known as the "minimum viable product" model, and it has at least some experts worried. They contend that the potential risks--of a new AI tool that can create content almost as well as a human being can--are too great to be left to users to figure out. "There is a risk in this case," says Chris Cantarella, global sector leader of the Software practice at Korn Ferry.

Three months ago, ChatGPT debuted--the first artificial-intelligence bot to produce original content virtually indistinguishable from that of a human brain. Now, the creators of that software are beta testing a new tool that can (or so they say) determine whether a text was written by a person or a machine. The applications could be many, from identifying disinformation campaigns to detecting when a job candidate is has used AI for a cover letter. But experts worry the software will only create more challenges for leaders already caught in an AI rabbit hole. "The mushing of original thinking and discernment and artificial intelligence is dangerous for employees, managers, and leaders," says Andrés Tapia, a senior client partner and global diversity, equity, and inclusion strategist at Korn Ferry.

Over the last few months, his manager began noticing a decided improvement. Timothy's reports were more detailed, more persuasive, and more original. They were also written entirely by a chatbot. Since its launch late last year, ChatGPT, an artificial-intelligence bot that can create original content that's all but indistinguishable from that of a human being, has raised thorny ethical questions in numerous quarters--from school districts, where educators worry about cheating, to the political arena, where experts have raised concerns about automated lobbying. The business world hasn't been a focus of these debates, but its leaders are also uneasy about work product created by AI.

April 6, 2021 – Korn Ferry has named Tammy Wang as vice president of data science and machine learning for the firm's digital business. She is based in San Francisco. "Tammy has incredible experience working as a leader in the data science and machine learning space. Her breadth of industry and technical knowledge is going to be an asset to our team," said Satish Gannu, chief technology officer for Korn Ferry's digital unit. "She specializes in building teams to deliver robust, scalable platforms to fuel the fast growth of various businesses including online search auction, content monetization and recruiting technology . We're thrilled to have her on board."

The next 10 years look just as topsy-turvy. Artificial intelligence and machine learning promise to change the competitive landscape for many companies. At the same time, talented professionals will continue to demand more from their jobs through increased calls for transparency around pay and fairness and more flexibility in work-life balance. It's a lot for companies to navigate, and they're struggling with it: an analysis by Korn Ferry of more than 150,000 leadership profiles shows that only 15% of business leaders today have the right blend of skills to be the leaders of tomorrow. But such disruption can be a boon to workers who are agile and forward thinking.

Technology has always played a role in the recruitment process, but more recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have catapulted it to the lead item in the agenda of every chief human resource officer. From talent engagement to employer branding and candidate assessment, a recent JazzHR study revealed that six in ten SMEs now employ some form of recruitment-specific software, while 25 per cent use AI in their workforce plans. In HR, AI can enhance the entire recruitment process from candidate sourcing to screening and mapping. It can support onboarding and inclusion by personalising the employee experience and engaging workers. Training and development can also benefit through the use of analytics and predictive tools.

It's the kick that so many of us need. In fact, we drink more than 2.25 billion cups of coffee a year globally now. So it stands to reason that no one would mind if their local coffee chain or shop were to use technology to serve as fast as possible. The local coffee shop of the future could, for example, start deploying video facial recognition technology to identify regular customers and start their orders ahead of time. Should those same coffee lovers be able to decide to opt in or out of that?

NEW DELHI: Barun Gorain joined Hindustan Zinc Ltd as chief technology and innovation officer two months ago, moving from Barrick Gold in Canada, one of the many CXO-level hires that Indian companies have been making in the buzzing areas of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, the Internet of things (IoT) and robotic process automation (RPA). Other recent instances of Indians returning home with domain knowledge in these emerging technologies include Raghuram Velega, who left his job at a San Francisco-based cognitive computing company to join Reliance Jio Infocomm as vice-president, head, big data and analytics. Former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) executive Santanu Bhattacharya joined Bharti Airtel as chief data scientist and Ayush Sharma moved from Silicon Valley to join Reliance Jio as senior vicepresident of engineering and technology. Search firms like Korn Ferry, EMA Partners, Transearch and Hunt Partners say there's a paucity of experts in these fields, leading to a jump in salaries of new hires by as much as 50%, most of them from overseas. Salaries for such executives are at Rs 1-2 crore annually but can be even higher.

Artificial intelligence is giving HR professionals the information they need to source and hire higher-quality professionals, according to a new survey from Korn Ferry. "A lot of folks thought AI was going to replace recruiting, but our perspective has always been AI is going to allow recruiters to do even more, from a qualitative standpoint," says Franz Gilbert, Korn Ferry's vice president of product innovation. The consulting firm's survey of 800 talent acquisition professionals found that industry professionals routinely leverage AI to hone different aspects of the quest to find the best candidates for the right jobs. Among the survey respondents, 69% turn to AI specifically to aid in finding higher-quality candidates, and the same percentage of respondents agree that AI has transformed recruiting. But not everything that came out of the survey was positive.

In a finding from a Korn Ferry global survey of 800 top business executives, 44 percent of respondents said that the growth of robotics, automation and artificial intelligence will make people "largely irrelevant" in the future of work. Unlike the earlier generation of robots that operated separately from workers, the new robots work side by side with people and typically take on backbreaking tasks such as stacking tires. At the same time, the growth of manufacturing created millions of new jobs for the displaced farm workers. Scott Adams is practice leader, supply chain and operations for Korn Ferry Futurestep.