5 Ways Employees Can Use ChatGPT Responsibly

Workers are discovering how much ChatGPT can help them. According to one Korn Ferry survey, almost half now use it in the course of doing their jobs.

But using the technology and using it correctly are two entirely different skills, experts say. Even ChatGPT’s creators concede that it makes mistakes and has biases.

“For so many jobs that are rote communications—a weekly status report, an email to your boss requesting time off, or an email asking the benefits department a question—there is a real opportunity for ChatGPT to offer automation to provide more efficiency,” says Juan Pablo González, a Korn Ferry senior client partner and sector leader for professional services.

As AI tools like ChatGPT grow in popularity, employees need to be careful about using them to generate deliverables and original work products, says Mark Royal, a senior client partner for Korn Ferry Advisory. “We want to be careful that we are reviewing and vetting what ChatGPT produces,” he says. Here are some tips about the ethics and logistics of using the technology in the workplace.

Conducting research

Employees can use ChatGPT to research a topic, Royal says, with the caveat that the information it provides can sometimes be inaccurate and outdated. For instance, the tool has relatively limited knowledge of the world after 2021. Royal notes that Korn Ferry recently established a policy allowing its employees to use ChatGPT for general knowledge queries that provide supporting information.

Generating a rough draft

ChatGPT can help create a first draft of a summary report, press release, or survey questions, González says. “Automating the front end allows humans to do the creative, more nuanced work that only humans can do,” he says. Before producing a first draft, he says, you should find out if your client has a policy on AI use. And if you do rely on ChatGPT to write that draft, you should disclose this both to your manager and the client, Royal adds.

Writing and debugging computer code

AI has been shown to be a productivity assistant, especially when it comes to writing and fixing computer code. González warns, however, that you can’t assume the code it produces is correct—you’ll need to check it. “AI doesn’t trump human intelligence, because the humans need to get involved in reviewing the output,” he says.

Brainstorming

ChatGPT can be a powerful problem-solving assistant. “Type in a question about a problem or challenge, and get thoughts on how to deal with it,” Royal says. Bear in mind that AI’s usefulness as an aid to brainstorming relies on its human user’s ability to construct a sophisticated question, González says.

Translating text

ChatGPT has been shown to be more accurate than Google as a language translator, Royal says. Eventually, he believes, managers and companies will encourage employees to use the tool. “It has the potential to help us do things more quickly, effectively and more creatively, if we leverage it responsibly,” he says. Even if ChatGPT takes over certain rote tasks, he says, it will create new opportunities for more creative work. Royal predicts that companies will eventually incorporate ChatGPT into their own internal platforms. This will enable employees to generate organization-specific solutions without fearing they might feed proprietary information into a public version of the tool.

For more information, contact Korn Ferry’s Coaching practice.

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