ChatGPT Accelerates The Path To B- But Not A+ In HR Tech Solutions

ChatGPT - A tool for accelerating innovation, but not a panacea

By Purbita Banerjee, Korn Ferry Digital

Immediately after its introduction last Nov. 30, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app in history, with 13 million daily users and 100 million total users within two months.

In early March, OpenAI launched ChatGPT API at low cost, putting ChatGPT in the hands of the world’s developers and unleashing a ferocious wave of innovation.

What does ChatGPT mean for those of us creating HR tech solutions? On one hand, ChatGPT is revolutionary: it compels the entire HR tech industry to reengineer every product in our field. Within the space of a few months, our entire world has changed.

On the other hand, ChatGPT is merely evolutionary: it accelerates our path to a stolid B. That was the grade ChatGPT earned when various academic and professional organizations tested it on such things as law school exams, MBA tests, and school essay contests.

ChatGPT’s grades went up a bit when GPT-4 was released on March 14. The media played the results as job-destroying – “ChatGPT Just Passed the Bar Exam!” – but for HR tech vendors, even a B isn’t good enough. Our customers demand and deserve A+ solutions.

There are so many warning flags flying around ChatGPT that extreme caution is the smartest strategy (I note some of those warning flags later in this article)

ChatGPT is a Shiny New Hammer. Let’s Go Find Some Nails!

ChatGPT is neither the one source of truth and the answer to all problems, nor so terrible and creepy that we shouldn’t use it. It’s a wonderful new tool, but it doesn’t change the problems we solve. It simply accelerates the quest we’re already on to solve HR problems, making our work faster, easier, and more effective.

This moment reminds me of a similar feeling when AI first became available to data scientists. There was the euphoric belief that AI in the hands of data scientists would almost magically solve all the HR challenges our customers faced.

Experience soon taught us that AI/data science is a great new addition to our toolkit, not a panacea. To yield optimum benefits it needs to be used in conjunction with other valuable tools. And above all, the results require a validation cycle centered on human enhancement and curation.

Same with ChatGPT. As I tell my hair-on-fire team members: use it, but validate it constantly.

Example: ChatGPT Gets Us to B-Minus Faster in Success Profiles

Many HR tech solutions help organizational designers by creating Success Profiles to define the technical and soft skills, behaviors, and attributes required for success in a particular role. Success Profiles are detailed descriptions of competencies a candidate or employee must possess to excel in their job and contribute to organizational success.

Until now, creating quality Success Profiles took a long time. Subject matter experts spent weeks doing job analysis, competency modeling, and extensive interviewing. The introduction of pre-ChatGPT AI allowed us to increase the granularity, harvesting specific skills, job descriptions, and responsibility statements to sharpen the focus of Success Profiles.

With ChatGPT, we can ask, “What’s a good Success Profile representation of this job?” The chatbot replies: “Here are the responsibilities, here are the skills needed.” The result is a B- Success Profile in a jiffy. But our customers demand A+ solutions.

We take ChatGPT’s B- solution and train it on our proprietary IP framework to look for certain additional data, then apply individual and crowdsourced human expertise, reinvention, curation, and validation. The result is an A+ Success Profile that can be trusted in organizational design and career navigation.

ChatGPT cuts the time it takes to go from zero to B-, but it can’t take HR tech solutions to A+ by itself.

About those warning flags noted above:

● Even before the arrival of ChatGPT, AI posed bias risks in HR. For example, a January 2022 class action lawsuit in Illinois against an online video interview platform used in Talent Assessment and Recruiting seeks damages for job applicants because the platform allegedly violated government regulation by collecting applicants’ “biometric information” in recorded video interviews without obtaining consent. The company used AI to assess “cognitive ability, personality traits, emotional intelligence, and social aptitude” to provide an “employability score.”

● Fearful of exposing sensitive personal, financial, or competitive data; violating government regulations; or incorporating misinformation and bias, several of the world’s largest financial institutions, many technology and telecommunications firms, Amazon, and Wal-Mart, among other organizations, have already banned the widespread use of ChatGPT.

● Generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT have a tendency to simply make things up to satisfy human requests.

● In what could be the first of many similar moves, Apple blocked the distribution of an app that uses ChatGPT to compose emails because it feared exposing users – especially children – to inappropriate content generated from ChatGPT’s training databases.

● From personal experience, I can say ChatGPT has a swollen head. I asked it to comment on ChatGPT becoming the most viral app in history, and here, in part, is what it said:

“[ChatGPT is] a whirlwind that swept across the digital landscape like a wildfire fueled by the wind. Like a seed that sprouts in fertile soil, ChatGPT’s innovative algorithms took root in the minds of users, germinating into a powerful force that spread with astonishing speed. Its virtual tendrils reached out, connecting people from every corner of the globe in a web of conversation, information, and inspiration. As ChatGPT’s popularity grew, it became a raging river, a torrent of communication that surged through the digital realm, carrying with it the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of millions. Its currents flowed strong and swift, carving out new channels of connectivity and forging a path toward a brighter, more interconnected future. ChatGPT ignited the passions of people everywhere, inspiring them to reach out, connect, and explore the vast expanse of the digital landscape.” people have written. I understand that feeling, but in HR technology it’s important we proceed thoughtfully and cautiously.

ChatGPT and every AI iteration that succeeds it won’t change the big problems we’re trying to solve for our customers and clients. Arriving at the B- starting gate just got faster, but that only raises customer expectations for what A+ solutions will do for them.

Since the excitement began in late 2022, I’ve encouraged my team to explore ways to take full advantage of the innovative leaps ChatGPT may enable, but also keep a sharp eye on the risks.

We are in the HR business, which means we are in the people business. Our fundamental purpose is to help people, not harm them.

Purbita Banerjee is the Vice President of Product Management of Korn Ferry’s Digital Platform and Learning Solutions. She manages Korn Ferry’s learning portfolio including sales, customer service, project management, digital leadership and front-line leadership training. She has successfully launched innovative solutions in the Talent management space, solving critical challenges faced by Fortune 1000 companies. Purbita Banerjee is the Vice President of Product Management of Korn Ferry’s Digital Platform and Learning Solutions. She manages Korn Ferry’s learning portfolio including sales, customer service, project management, digital leadership and front-line leadership training.

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The arrival of ChatGPT feels to many like the dawn of a new age, the opening of an exciting new frontier. Using ChatGPT for the first time was like signing onto the World Wide Web for the first time, multiple