ORLANDO, Fla. – There’s a new man in author and leadership expert Alison Jones’ life. His name is Nigel. He gives her fashion tips and medical advice as well as strategies to play Mahjong. He knows her better than her own family.
Nigel is the nickname for Jones’ artificial intelligence bot.
But even though Jones has a close personal relationship with AI, that hasn’t prevented her from seeing its faults. Jones’ Thursday SHRM26 session, “Be More Human: Authentic Leadership in an AI World,” was all about helping HR professionals find a sweet spot when using AI at work.
Jones asked SHRM participants to reframe their approach to this emerging technology. Instead of focusing on AI, HR pros should focus on “authentic intelligence” — in other words, human intuition. “We’ve got to double down on what makes us human,” Jones said.
A framework for maintaining humanity
Jones suggested focusing on the following five concepts to keep their humanness at the forefront amid the AI age:
- Awareness
- Acceptance
- Authenticity
- Abundance
- Appreciation
For “awareness,” the SHRM speaker invited HR professionals and people managers to read subtle emotional cues of their reports; for “acceptance,” she asked session listeners to hold space for their workforce’s emotions. Emphasizing “authenticity,” Jones asked SHRM audience members to champion their own thinking before using AI.
Regarding “abundance,” Jones challenged participants to see their workforce’s potential, highlighting the fact that AI often focuses on what already exists instead of what a worker could be. The latter is a human trait, she suggested. Lastly, for “appreciation,” Jones stressed the importance of personalized recognition for workers.
At every point of the conversation, Jones also highlighted where AI could help. Agentic AI that has worker data can spot career milestones, for example, or help HR professionals flesh out communications or make worker recognition feel more personal.
Jones’ presentation provided a distinct approach amid all the bullish tech talk at SHRM26, especially in the sea of numerous AI-related sessions each day and SHRM’s forecasting of a more AI-friendly “Chief Work Officer” to be the future of work for HR professionals.