Edosa Odaro: ‘HR is so central’ in constructing the future of AI

The trap that individuals, and organizations, are falling into with AI is to look too short term.

“We’re not spending enough time trying to envision” “where we’re trying to land with AI”, what the future can (and should) look like.

That’s the perspective of Edosa Odaro, AI expert, influencer and advisor with accolades from the Financial Times, LinkedIn and beyond.

Speaking exclusively to UNLEASH, Odaro says organizations, and leaders, are keen to look at the pay-offs from AI – what are the benefits of leveraging this technology?

However, to get the full picture, they need to look at the trade-offs too. “What are the things you have to let go of to get this benefit?”

Leaders need “to be intentional about mapping out” both the pay-offs and the trade-offs of AI tools and use cases.

It’s important to step back and recognize that change always has implications,” notes Odaro.It’s important to step back and recognize that change always has implications,” notes Odaro.

“There are very transformative [tools] – they’ve got the powers to create and powers to destroy”.

It’s crucial to ask the ‘to what end’ question: “What is this creating for us? What problem is it trying to solve? What’s the value in solving it?”

Then bring all of that together to make conscious decisions about AI, ensuring that “the net effect is positive”.

The risk of not being intentional in creating the future we want is artificial general intelligence (AGI), where AI is in charge (not humans).

What’s HR’s role in the future of AI?

Odaro is very clear that “HR is so central to how we construct the future” of AI.

HR departments need to be leading the conversation about pay-offs and trade-offs about figuring where “we’re trying to land” with AI.

This requires HR to “step away from the operational side” of AI and HR, and “actually start to be more strategic” in building the AI-enabled organizations of the future.

“It’s easy to get stuck in the operational HR, but all of that is changing” – we haven’t seen disruption like this in our lifetimes – “the sooner we appreciate that”, the better.

Odaro continues: “We’re going to find success when a HR department actually enables the organization."Odaro continues: “We’re going to find success when a HR department actually enables the organization."

He calls for there to HR to have “much more open conversation around what the future landscape looks like” – it is okay to say “these are the bits we don’t know”, but mapping out a plan is key.

It can be hard to admit you don’t know, but honesty and transparency builds the trust that is essential to getting people on board with AI.

Odaro’s advises that HR leaders work with their vendor partners on figuring out the pay-offs and trade-offs with AI.

“A lot of vendors do the ‘wow factor’ around AI” – they show demos of perfect scenarios when everything has gone right, but that’s not real life.

Vendors should be able to give examples of other companies’ experiences, and talk about the good, the bad and the ugly; the reasons for success, the challenges and what went wrong.

“If you move away from the tech, and actually bake all your questions around outcomes, and the things that actually did go wrong, then you’re in a better place to make that decisions around the vendors you deal with,” shares Odaro.