ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE IMPACT

OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Brandon Nelson
OGL 340: Artificial Intelligence: The Human Side
Bill Erwin
2/26/2022

Total Word Count: 1535 words

Addressing the Economic/Political AI Issues

In paper number 1, I identified the loss of jobs due to automation advances in

artificial intelligence. Importantly, potential job loss due to automation extends beyond

the sector of manufacturing. In fact, many would be surprised to learn that artificial

intelligence is also making inroads on impacting jobs in the sectors of law, medical, and

finance. To begin mitigating the unknown impacts of job loss in several prominent

middle-income sectors, there is an immediate need to increase awareness about

artificial intelligence and its potential impacts.

My Organization Plan
My organization, like many others is not insulated from the impacts of artificial

intelligence. Most would not consider the government sector when identifying job

sectors impacted by AI. However, government agencies have public facing divisions

such as customer service that are impacted by AI like their counterparts in the private

sector. As previously stated, awareness about the direct impact of AI on jobs needs to

be improved to make enlightened decisions.

In my organization, I am the information technology project manager for our

customer service division. This puts me in a unique position as a technical advisor for

leadership of customer service division as they strategize on the future of technology for

their team. In effort to better serve the public and ease the workload on call center

agents, department leadership is considering the implementation of chat bots for a

defined set of customer interactions. While easing the burden of calls for call center

agents is well intentioned, it could potentially be the first step toward a slippery slope of

job loss by diminishing the need for human call center agents.
 To mitigate this there are two specific approaches that can be explored. The first

is to ensure that there is a clearly defined roadmap and guidelines for all

implementation(s) of artificial intelligence technology solutions within the department. It

is imperative for leadership to plan for the impacts of AI based technology solutions on

the viability of their employees’ positions. For example, with AI chat bots there needs to

be a clearly defined set of basic, repetitive scenarios in which the chat bots should be

permitted to resolve. Additionally, career development in alignment with AI solutions

should be created. Employees impacted by AI chat bots should be trained on how the

AI solution functions and intervene when the chat bot is not able to identify an

acceptable resolution for the customer. This provides employees with an upward path

within the agency in addition to supporting the department’s goals.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, potentially impacted call center agents

should be in constant contact with their labor union and communicate AI concerns.

Labor unions exist primarily to ensure acceptable working conditions for their members

and can influence organizational decision-making during labor negotiations. It is in their

best interest to address potential job loss of their members. Through labor negotiations,

customer service agents can secure a written agreement on AI solutions that can

minimize job loss.

My Personal Plan (your recommended response for your Career, Education,

Family, Community)

My personal plan is to utilize recently accumulated knowledge about AI to

educate others about what its potential impacts can be on their employment and

livelihood. This includes guiding leadership within my organization on AI considerations

when technology solutions can have negative long-term impacts on employees. As an

IT project manager, I am uniquely positioned to influence software decision making and

I believe it is my duty to bring all considerations to decision-making discussions.

Including those that may be outside the scope of information technology. I’ll continue to

emphasize the importance of transparency in software solution roadmap development

so that employees are aware of what solutions are on the horizon and how they could

be impacted.

Addressing the Sociological AI Issues

Many of the respondents in the course’s survey identified AI takeover and social

emotional wellbeing as their primary artificial intelligence concerns respectively. These

concerns likely have overlap, or otherwise a circular relationship with each other. As

such, any solution developed to mitigate artificial intelligence takeover, likely supports

the improvement of social emotional wellbeing in the context of AI.

Although more recently there has been more acceptance and understanding of

mental health issues, there is still much work to be done to be prepared for the

impending advancements of AI on our society. One method to address potential mental

health issues because of AI implementations is for government and education

institutions to emphasize careers in fields that support mental health that are more

hardened to the impacts of AI. This would advance initiatives that both serve society

and support businesses.

My Organization Plan
Within my organization, I encourage leadership to identify methods that lead to

increased human interaction where appropriate and include those methods in the
organizational charter. This would demonstrate to employees that social wellbeing while

at the workplace is grounded in the organization’s vision. Charters are helpful

aspirational documents that have the potential to improve morale and, in some

situations, begin cultural shifts within an organization.

I also propose that my organization allocate resources to develop a steering

committee that will advise on AI impacts on employee social wellbeing. This committee

can be cross functional, and not be solely staffed by human resources staff. Multiple

points of view could contribute to dynamic brainstorming and solutions that lead to

better outcomes and sense of belonging among employees. Again, grounding

something like this within the company’s strategic planning demonstrates to staff that

the organization is not viewing them as commodities that can be replaced by

technology.

My Personal Plan
My personal plan is to utilize my increased knowledge of AI to identify how AI can

improve my quality of life as well as develop a framework for coexistence. Without

sounding defeatist, the reality is that AI is here and will continue to advance in unknown

paths throughout our society. So, my approach is to identify methods in which I can

utilize AI to support my emotional wellbeing. Ignoring AI advancement or hoping it will

not impact me directly because I work in the information technology sector is short-

sighted. Only through deep understanding of AI and its impacts, can one identify

methods in which AI can support, instead of harming them. To that end, I would identify

AI solutions that provide me with the ability to spend more time in community and with

family. Human interactions are essential to my personal development and additional

time with community would be welcomed.

The Psychological Impact of AI

Like the social wellbeing impacts of AI, the psychological impacts are difficult to

predict and even more difficult to plan for. Human psychology is inherently a complex

topic and when combined with a similarly complex topic like AI, the issues can seem

overwhelming. Which is partially the source of the issue in terms of psychology and AI,

knowledge. These are enormous topics and planning for them at a large scale requires

expertise and resources.

My Organization Plan
As stated previously, identifying beneficial methods of coexistence are essential

as society explores a future with artificial intelligence. In terms of psychological

coexistence, my organization can begin to identify tools that can support employee’s

psychological wellbeing. This could include partnering with employees and AI solution

experts to develop appropriate implementations of AI within the organization that

support the psychological effects on employees. Artificial intelligence based facial

recognition, for example increasingly can identify the mood of humans. Paired with a

psychological support system within the organization, the AI mood predictions could

improve difficult psychological conditions. Going a step further, it could assist in

diagnosing conditions such as anxiety or depression that can be difficult even for those

that suffer from the condition to be aware of.

My Personal Plan
My personal plan to address the psychological effects of artificial intelligence is

identify methods in which I can emotionally support myself and those important to me. I

am still learning the nuances and scope of mental health conditions such as anxiety. As
I continue my knowledge journey in becoming educated in these areas, I plan to ensure

that I consider artificial intelligence.

Developing a scalable cross generational model of coexistence with artificial

intelligence is a near term goal of mine. I plan to research psychological impacts on

some of the major demographics in my family in preparation to support and educate

them to extent that it is beneficial for them. For example, those in advance age

demographics may not be as prepared as younger generations to have candid

discussions about how technology is impacting their wellbeing.

Finally, I cannot emphasize enough the urgency to immediately develop

governmental legislation that guides AI implementation in our society. This should be a

participative process that includes input from those that will be impacted. Without

comprehensive legislation that provides a framework of coexistence with AI, the

outcomes of AI solutions are more likely to be catastrophic. However, I believe that

while our society will likely stumble through the early stages of AI, we have all the tools

and expertise required to coexist alongside AI solutions.