In an increasingly digital world, it is important to clearly understand how industries can collaborate with the likes of AI to ensure they are not left behind.
Gaining this insight early on will prevent panic-mongering and allow companies to use the development of technology to their advantage, rather than allowing it to become a threat.
While I realize that digitalization is inevitable, I have learned that it is a fine line between using technology to enhance roles and allowing it to destroy important human needs. I’ve spoken before about my use of a ‘dumbphone’ after I became aware of how the dependence on digitalization can blindside many crucial elements such as empathy and recognition, only to be replaced by the urge to compare and brag. Now that I’ve established boundaries for where and when I allow life to be digitized, I better understand how it’s appropriate to use technology in industry and when it can even be harmful.
AI can be used productively in mentoring, allowing people to make the process more efficient. It’s incredibly effective at sorting through large amounts of information at an incomprehensible pace, which can be useful for matching suitable mentor partners, distinguishing people with similar interests and compatible ways of working. Furthermore, AI can be used to construct customized learning paths based on a range of inputs. It can decipher the right steps, learning styles and relevant resources for each student. This can be a useful guide that a human mentor can adapt and help implement accordingly, but should not be relied upon.
While AI is a useful tool that, when integrated properly, offers many positive effects, it is important to be aware of its limitations and not use it as a shortcut to human-to-human mentoring. AI can only produce output using pre-existing information. Unlike the human mind, it is unable to formulate new answers to problems that require unique information. The answers that AI currently produces must already exist, which limits how customized the answers given can be. While many circumstances encountered in mentoring are unlikely to be a unique experience, AI does not take into account the implications of individual thoughts and feelings on the appropriate methods for different individuals, vastly reducing the impact of what mentoring can provide.
People are needed not only for the implementation of the learning process, but also for their ongoing support and monitoring. Having a human mentor overseeing the process allows for in-depth observation. While AI can only use the information provided to generate feedback, humans can read between the lines and interpret results through other senses, such as a person’s mannerisms and overall behavior.
The qualities associated with human interaction remain indispensable to the role of mentoring because their value cannot be replicated with AI. Empathy and other elements of emotional intelligence are a big part of effective mentoring. The relationship built between mentor and mentee is of infinite value and lays the foundation for how successful mentoring can be. A level of mutual respect and trust is necessary, and mentors often act as a role model of what the mentee aspires to become. It is not possible to form this bond with a “fake” being – and if it is, it is not healthy.
In conclusion, AI should be used to support and enhance the mentoring experience, not as a replacement for human interaction and the features that come with it. AI is exclusively logical, while human scenarios often require a combination of logic and empathy.
It is important to recognize that the development of technology is unknown and can only be assumed. It is likely that one day the capabilities of AI will imitate human traits much more convincingly. However, the bonds necessary between mentor and mentee for successful mentoring can only be sufficiently achieved through human-to-human, rather than human-to-machine, mentoring.