No matter who you speak with, everyone has an opinion about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Some fear losing their jobs, while others believe this is a bold new frontier and a natural evolution for humanity.

A recent report from Stanford University revealed that AI has surpassed humans in various basic tasks, necessitating new benchmarks for assessing AI performance. This progress underscores the excitement around AI’s potential to revolutionize industries but also amplifies fears about job displacement and the ethical implications of increasingly autonomous systems.

This range of concerns and opportunities isn't new. Human history is filled with technological advancements, and with each new one, the same rollercoaster of emotions is present.

For example—while the Gutenberg Press replaced scribes, it also made a massive amount of knowledge accessible to everyone. Yes, in the short term, a few people lost their jobs. However, the long-term benefits to humanity cannot be denied. I’m certain people of that era had the same hopes and fears as we do now.

We don't have to go back very far in time to see this pattern repeated, either. In my professional lifetime, I've seen it with the introduction of the desktop computer, the internet, the iPhone, digital marketing, and social media. Now, it’s AI’s turn.

Will some people lose their jobs? Absolutely. But it will also open up entirely new industries and opportunities that people can't even imagine, dramatically increasing human productivity and effectiveness. However, don't mistake this opinion for the idea that AI technology will replace humans as a whole or that human behavior and emotional intelligence need not be part of the AI ecosystem.

The importance of taking a human-centric approach to AI

As we embrace more AI tools, we must also integrate the human condition into their development, adoption, and implementation. This is especially important for public relations professionals to help their clients understand and focus on the evolving behaviors, mindsets, needs, and attitudes of people in this new AI-driven era.

A major part of that process is resetting the expectations surrounding AI. In behavioral science, reframing a subject is one of the best ways to reduce people's fear and increase their understanding. This is why I have been referring to AI not as Artificial Intelligence but as artificial interpretation.

On closer examination, one can easily see that AI is not really Artificial Intelligence. It is not sui generis. And it’s certainly not a sentient entity. It does not make up information, even if you think it does.

For now, Artificial Intelligence is simply a simulation of human intelligence. It does well at performing tasks like learning and problem-solving. As of today, AI finds correlations in unrelated data. Then, it uses those findings to interpret existing information in a new way, which is why I refer to it as artificial interpretation.

Let me be clear: I'm not trying to rename Artificial Intelligence. I'm simply stating that if you approach it as interpreting human intelligence, you will find that you will be far less likely to fear it and can simultaneously work more easily with it.

Teaching to get the answer is more important than receiving an answer

During the past year, I've been teaching my son to drive. Let's pretend for a moment that he represents Artificial Intelligence. Like AI, he has a deep knowledge base of driving. He has been in cars with people driving; he has seen all of the “Fast and Furious” movies, and he has played the video game Grand Theft Auto (a lot). He has read driving manuals and studied the rules of the road. As Artificial Intelligence, I would expect that he could drive perfectly fine the very first time he is in the car. Reality tells me something different.

Instead, I did the smart thing. I took a human-centric, behavioral approach to teaching my son to drive. That starts by understanding his motivations behind driving and his expectations. His fears as well as his hopes.

I taught him all the car elements before he even started it. Once he had that down, I taught him how to start the car. How to turn off the car. Then, how to put the car in gear or take it out of gear. Along the way, he’s built a skillset by interpreting what he’s learning into what he needs to do next.

And that is the real trick to Artificial Intelligence. It’s about approaching AI not from the perspective of receiving an answer but from the perspective of teaching. You will get the answer you want but won’t get the best answer unless you teach the AI what you want.

The problem is that no one really works with AI in this way.

Public relations’ role in AI adoption

Everyone talks about AI development, mostly about AI tools and fears about the future, but we somehow lost our focus on people. How people's behavior changes, including their mindset, needs, and attitudes—especially in the era of AI and a growing lack of trust. As communication professionals, we should focus on the people using AI and how they can work with it. In short, PR professionals can bridge the gap between technology and humanity.

This can start by counseling clients on AI ethics and adoption policies. After all, a business shouldn't jump into using AI without a clear understanding of the downsides. PR professionals can help clients avoid things like plagiarism, copyright infringement, or simply copying and pasting AI output into a press release, for example.

Once there is a good understanding of how to avoid the negative repercussions of AI, public relations professionals can help clients incorporate a human approach when working with AI. This could start by identifying which AI tools make the most sense to augment processes and personnel. Then, you can move on to teaching prompt engineering so that the AI will learn what kind of answer you ultimately want.

This means moving beyond a prompt that asks the AI to write a press release about a specific new product. A better approach would be to teach the AI context around a new product. What are customers' motivations for using it? What value does the product bring?  What are any downsides to using the product that the customer should know? With each AI answer, your prompts could add complexity and richness to the ultimate outcome. Although getting to this outcome may take a little longer, your patience will be rewarded by the quality of the AI with a human-centric approach. Working with an AI through the lens of artificial interpretation will reduce the fear surrounding its implementation.