The term “expert” is surrounded by prestige, mystery and admiration. Why? Well, because experts know things that others don’t know. Experts are the ones who make smart decisions that put companies ahead of their competition. Experts come up with innovative ideas for new products and services. Experts know just what to do and what not to do as well as when to do it.
But what makes them experts?
Is it just that they know a lot of stuff – in other words, they’re just knowledgeable people? No. That’s not what makes someone an expert.
An expert is someone who applies their tacit knowledge – their insight, experience, judgement, intuition and wisdom – in order to make decisions. And that tacit knowledge (expertise) is acquired from years of experience.
Now experience alone doesn’t an expert make. After all, there are millions of people with the same number of years of experience who are certainly not experts. Experts are people who can connect the dots, and often very unrelated dots, to come to new, innovative and valid conclusions.
Now why is this tacit knowledge – this expertise – so important? After all, with AI and knowledgeable people in the workplace, surely there will be less of a need for human experts.
On the contrary …
The irony is that., despite the human race swimming in an increasing sea of information and data, we also live with increasing uncertainty. And uncertainty, put another way, is a lack of data.
I once asked the then CEO of the Institute of Risk Management of SA how she would define risk. She answered as follows: “In one word: uncertainty.”
Yes, that’s what a lack of data results in – uncertainty and risk.
And that’s where the expert’s expertise becomes critically important, invaluable and indispensable. Conventional AI mines data in order to perform its brilliant functions, but when there’s an absence of data (uncertainty) what then?
That’s when you have to rely on your expert’s judgement, intuition etc, to make decisions.
You’ve probably heard an expert say something like this, “All the numbers seem right but I wouldn’t touch it. Something doesn’t smell right.”
And experience has revealed that those expert opinions are usually spot on!
Now … here’s where things get, shall we say, interesting … did you know that there is an AI technology, developed by a South African company, that mines not data but the expertise – insight, intuition, judgement and experience – of a human expert?
It therefore doesn’t rely on data to perform its functions so is perfect for environments where there is high uncertainty (no data) and high risk, where conventional AI is not as effective.
And it enjoys high levels of credibility in the international community. It’s recently won two prestigious global awards for catching bad guys in the financial and insurance sectors. It is used by the US Government and a number of US State Agencies, as well as by banks, insurance companies, healthcare companies and in law enforcement.
The exciting news is that it has now moved into the HR space with a number of functions. Companies can now deploy or hire the Digital Twins of human experts to work 24/7/365 in making expert decisions about various matters at transactional level in an organisation, something that has been humanly impossible.
The days of HR Executives and HR Professionals not embracing technology (and particularly AI tech) are over. The purpose of HR Future over the past 23 years has been to prepare companies and their people for the future of work (we started doing this long before anyone was talking about the future!). If therefore you are an HR Executive or you head up the HR team of a large company and would like to learn more about how you can leapfrog into the future with AI that mines human expertise, let me know!
PS This is a test to see how many HR Executives and HR Professionals are genuinely as forward-thinking as they think or say they are!
Alan Hosking is the Publisher of HR Future magazine, www.hrfuture.net and @HRFuturemag. He is an internationally recognised authority on leadership competencies for the future and teaches experienced and younger business leaders how to lead with empathy, compassion, integrity, purpose and agility. He has been an Age Management Coach for two decades and is the author of parenting best seller What Nobody Tells a New Father.