In a world that is gradually becoming digital, it is important to have a clear understanding of how industries can work collaboratively with the likes of AI to ensure they are not left behind.
Gaining this understanding early will help avoid causing panic and allow companies to use technology development to their advantage rather than as a threat.
Although I appreciate that digital transformation is inevitable, I have learned that it is a fine line between using technology to enhance roles and allowing it to subvert important human needs. I have previously discussed my use of the ‘dumb phone’, after gaining awareness of how reliance on digitalization can obscure many important elements such as empathy and recognition, to be replaced by a desire to compare and brag. Now I have limits on where and when I allow life to be digitized, and I have a clearer understanding of how technology is used in industry and when it can be harmful.
AI can be used productively to guide and help humans make the process more efficient. It is incredibly effective at sorting through massive amounts of information at an incomprehensible rate, which can be useful for matching suitable mentoring partners, and differentiating between those with similar interests and compatible ways of working. Additionally, AI can be used to create personalized learning paths, based on a range of inputs, and can decipher the appropriate steps, learning styles and relevant resources for each learner. This can be a useful guide that a human guide can adjust accordingly and help implement, but it should not be relied upon.
Although AI is a useful tool, and offers many positives when integrated correctly, it is important to be aware of its limitations and not use it as a shortcut to human-to-human routing. AI can only produce outputs using pre-existing information. Unlike the human mind, it is unable to generate new answers to problems that require unique information. The answers currently produced by AI must already exist, which limits the extent to which the answers provided are tailored. While many of the circumstances we encounter in mentoring are unlikely to be an individual experience, AI does not take into account how individual thoughts and feelings have implications for appropriate approaches for different individuals, significantly underestimating the impact of what mentoring can offer.
Humans are not only necessary to implement the learning path but also to continuously support and monitor it. The presence of a human guide supervising the process is ensured through monitoring. While AI can only use the information provided to generate reactions, humans can read between the lines and interpret results through other senses such as an individual’s behaviors and overall behavior.
Attributes associated with human interaction remain indispensable to the mentoring role as their value cannot be replicated using AI. Empathy and other elements of emotional intelligence are a huge component of effective mentoring. The relationship that is built between a mentor and mentee is of infinite value, laying the foundation for how successful mentoring will be. A level of mutual respect and trust is essential, along with mentors often acting as role models for what the mentee can aspire to be. It is not possible to form this bond with a “fake” object – and if so, it is not healthy.
In conclusion, AI should be used to assist and enhance the routing experience, not as a substitute for human interaction and its associated features. AI only makes sense, while human scenarios often require a combination of logic and empathy.
It is important to acknowledge that the evolution of technology is unknown and can only be assumed. It is possible that AI capabilities will one day imitate human traits more convincingly. However, the connections between mentor and mentee required for successful mentoring can only be adequately achieved through human-to-human rather than human-to-machine mentoring.