|
One idea from Harvard's sharpest business minds, daily
Get Better, Not Just Faster, With AI
AI can now easily help generate the first draft of most communications, which means the challenge now lies in exercising judgment about the quality of that output. To collaborate effectively with AI, you have to articulate things that used to go unstated. Below is a four-step process to build this skill. It applies to any task where AI is involved and your judgment matters.
Four shifts to put into practice
Principle 01
Establish an initial point of view.
Before opening any AI tool, ask: What specific question are you answering? Who is the audience? What will they do with the output? And what would make the result useful versus merely competent? Develop your own hypothesis that you can later compare against the AI's output.
Principle 02
Collaborate with AI across multiple modes.
Most people interact with AI only to generate output. But you should also be using AI to critique what was produced, compare the tradeoffs between alternatives, simulate outputs against what you know about real stakeholders, and challenge what the output can't know.
Principle 03
Analyze the differences between your view and the output.
Not every difference will matter; sometimes AI will have a better take than you, sometimes the reverse. The point is to diagnose which differences reflect AI's limitations and which reflect your own.
Principle 04
Deliver the output with an explanation of how you got there.
This reasoning trail should capture two things. First, what AI initially produced, the starting point. Second, what you changed and why, to make your judgment visible.
The real challenge with AI is no longer speed. It's judgment. HBR Management Insight
Liked today's read?
This was just today's. Members get one every morning.
Subscribe to ETPrime for a fresh HBR Exclusive in your inbox each day, the full HBR archive, and sharp, ad-free reading made for people who want to lead a little better every day.
|
