Case Study

PROGRAMME Advanced Diploma in Business Management

MODULE Advanced Management Principles

YEAR $1$

INTAKE July $2024$

Marks $30$

Answer ALL questions.

Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow:

Employers are racing to catch up as workers experiment with AI without knowing the risks.

Employees are rushing to experiment with artificial intelligence tools that can help them do their jobs more efficiently, but in

the process they might be putting their employers at risk, according to a new report by KPMG Canada. Interest in artificial

intelligence has exploded in recent months, said Zoe Willis, who leads KPMG Canada$$s data and digital practice. Though

the technology has existed for two decades, it has only recently become accessible to the public through tools such as

ChatGPT, the AI chatbot released in November. Some companies have been caught off$-$guard by employees$$ sudden

adoption of AI$.$Businesses just haven$$t been ready,$$ Willis said. $$They don$$t have the policies or the frameworks in place to

actually understand how employees and people at work can use it in a safe and responsible way.$$ Willis said that while

employees are trying to do things $$faster and smarter,$$ a lack of understanding of the technology and its limitations may

lead to problems $$ if$,$ for example, the responses from chatbots are not checked for context and accuracy $$because it$$s not

$100$ per cent factual what you get back.$$ Some workers have also been putting sensitive information into ChatGPT, such as

private company financial data, information about customers and clients and proprietary company data. Since the chatbot is

open$-$source, that information could become available to individuals outside the company, Willis said.

$$At the end of the day, there is risk associated with using AI$,$ but it$$s also an opportunity,$$ said Robert Piasentin, a partner at

McMillan LLP and national chair of their technology law group. $$If businesses can get on top of it and understand how the AI

tools can be used, and how the risk can be mitigated in a reasonable way, there is a lot of potential for businesses to be

much more efficient and way more profitable.$$ For example, AI could be especially useful for a lawyer that is trying to

negotiate a merger or acquisition, Piasentin said. The lawyer might need to review thousands of documents and flag

potential risks by hand.

$$If you can use an AI bot to take that task and do it a lot more quickly than an individual can, and still produce high quality

results, businesses will be saving a lot of money,$$ Piasentin said. But such work is high stakes. Companies in a regulated

environment who go offside could be hit by lawsuits or find themselves shut down entirely, Piasentin said. AI is a powerful

tool, but it$$s still just a tool, he said. It requires supervision. $$Someone needs to exercise some level of judgment to ensure

$($the AI is$)$ capturing the right information,$$ he said. $$Is the tool working the way you expect it to$,$ so that you$$re not missing

something down the line?$$ A business might need to hire a specific person or team who understands how the bot has

learned, and what data set it has used, in order to periodically assess the accuracy of its output. However, the cost of hiring

these specialists might exceed the money a business hoped to save by using the AI in the first place.

The KPMG report advises businesses to take a proactive approach and develop an AI policy before they start using the

tools, not after. $$What the report is showing is that $($employees$)$ are using it anyway,$$ Willis said. While some workers have

jumped feet$-$first into the world of AI$,$ others are more wary. Some fret that the technology will take their jobs. $$I really don$$t

think it$$s going to replace humans, I think it$$s actually going to empower humans,$$ Willis said. $$It can$$t make you a cup of

coffee. It can$$t do a whole bunch of things.... It$$s never going to replace humans, to a certain extent, but I think it can

empower.$$

Nicholas Walker, an English professor and chief executive of Conversolo, an AI$-$powered software, echoed that AI can,

indeed, make employees better at what they do$.$Artificial intelligence is a game$-$changer in education,$$ Walker said. He

said his company$$s technology can be used for training purposes, allowing a worker, for example, to interact with an AI that

has adopted a specific persona $$ such as an angry or distracted customer $$ to practice likely scenarios. $$We can create

these kinds of role plays that are meaningful, that are supported with detailed feedback and provide the repetitions that

learners need to remember the lesson,$$ Walker said. Whether businesses decide to implement a tool like Conversolo, or

stick to more traditional training programs, AI will be present in the workplace, no matter what.

Coulton M $2023,$ Employers are racing to catch up as workers experiment with AI without knowing the risks, Financial post,

viewed $29$ September