AI Capability Overhang means our soft skills become groundbreaking

ChatGPT  leverages the relevance of Learning & Development

AI Tech has just closed the gap to human intelligence. Until now, AI communication was developing quickly, but never to the standard of human dialogue. The AI Capability Overhang is here.

What is AI Overhang and why does it matter in the context of soft skill training?

AI Overhang refers to the capability to build transformative AI without people realizing it was possible. In simple terms, the AI algorithm develops powerful and complicated capabilities which researchers neither understand, nor have the resources to test. With such powerful AI communication, this creates ambiguity around the relevance of hard or soft skills in a business environment.

And since the AI capabilities are hidden, so too are the changes and challenges. These changes are now entering our workspace and they are reshaping how we should approach talent upskilling.

Welcome to the era of ChatGPT

With AI going mainstream, we mark a turning point where Capability Overhang becomes accessible via a new tool – ChatGPT. ChatGPT went viral because of its accessibility and ability to produce human-like dialogue. It helps users to execute time-consuming, often mundane communication tasks.

And even though we’re not fully aware of the Overhang capabilities, the possibility to execute on projects quicker and dedicate time to other tasks is so attractive that people are flocking to test it and use it in their work.  

Distinguishing AI trends from groundbreaking changes in the future of work

When a new AI trend arrives, we are faced with two options: we can be fearful or curious. Humanity is designed to adapt, optimize and progress. Those that make groundbreaking changes will use resilience, intuition and adaptability to evolve their skillset. They are not fearful of new trends, but inquisitive.

ChatGPT is an opportunity to move with a new trend and excel to define the future of work. By allowing this AI model to do the foundational work for us, we have more time to be more creative and execute on our business growth strategies. ChatGPT enables us to utilize AI tech to accelerate and optimize the upskilling of our workforce.

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We need soft skills to turn ChatGPT into excellence

AI text is still 92% detectable and the ChatGPT Overhang cannot produce new content, but repeat phrases. The algorithm only scans patterns and auto-generates pre-existing combinations of words . What’s more, since more content will become available and it will be repetitive, people will be more selective and their tolerance for substandard content will decrease.

That means our organization’s messaging and communication to target audiences has to cut through the mediocrity. And more than ever, we are reliant on the human intelligence of our talent to communicate and engage our audience with messaging that resonate beyond the surface level.

When an employee is engaging a new client, ChatGPT can efficiently produce the building blocks of a promising pitch. But soft skills integrate humor, empathy and creativity to excel. We still need to curate language because only originality and human emotional intelligence built on top of AI content will accelerate our business growth.

Soft Skills cultivate consciousness in business decision-making

AI messaging can never fully influence our decisions, as this neglects our responsibility for the impact we have on our people.

Remember, ChatGPT produces repetitive information without empathy. Its hidden capacity – the Overhang – still generates text with biases against people of color and gender.

That’s where soft skill training builds awareness into our communication in business.

Decision-making involves communicating with people around us to understand the wider implications. In business, we need to be able to problem solve, rationalize and discuss to make difficult decisions. Especially when managers deal with delicate situations which impact lives and emotions such as terminating a contract. Soft skill training empowers us to reflect, collaborate, and think independently before we make decisions which impact others and our organization.

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The Overhang pushes our workforce to the next level

Now that ChatGPT is in the public domain, people leaders need to push the workforce’s soft skills to the next level.

ChatGPT is a new trend. If we are curious and learn how to use it, we can optimize and drive towards our business goals.

AI content helps us become more efficient with mundane tasks and free us to accelerate and focus on our talent’s upskilling. We can spend more time developing soft skills such as creativity, awareness and emotional intelligence. These skills are what define the future of work and push us to be resilient, yet innovative.  

If the Overhang has suddenly produced ChatGPT, then we can expect more powerful tools to emerge in 2023.

But no matter the AI Tech to come, these hidden capabilities can enable us to build the most efficient and competent workforce. We need soft skill training to navigate the ambiguity with resilience and adaptability and become even better at how we work.