(5-7 min. 1,321 words)
Written by Brad Zirulnik.
The unpredictable, inevitable, and ubiquitous nature of leading with AI in human capital to solve the talent crisis.
Strategy is often a euphemism for procrastination. - Peter Thiel
The 'View Perception Ratio,' a term I coined to make an abstract concept more tangible, is not just a factor but a guiding force in our actions. It's a measure of how our perception of a task or situation influences our actions. I realized this while pondering the issue of procrastination and how it can hinder us, even when we are fully aware of the impending task.
When applied to artificial intelligence (AI) in Human Capital Workforce Management (HCM), this ratio can help us understand how AI influences our perception of tasks and actions. It is a significant influencer in our actions, regardless of our efforts to incite or prevent the task from occurring. More importantly, it is a practical tool for overcoming procrastination in HCM.
Systemic technological procrastination is a common challenge in HCM and talent technology. However, the 'View Perception Ratio' (VPR) can be a game-changer. Here's my perspective on how AI, with its potential to address and mitigate procrastination, can bring about a transformative paradigm shift in HCM. This practical application of AI can instill a sense of hope in our ability to manage the talent crisis, sparking optimism in the face of challenges.
To democratize talent in an AI-driven world, we must inspire a shift in our mindset from 'abundance of caution' to cautious optimism. This change in perspective is crucial, and it's the key to embracing AI's potential in HCM.
Infinite Blue
Like an onion, VPR has multiple layers and requires peeling. Each layer represents a different aspect of our perception and how it influences our actions. But in its rawest form, VPR works as a clarifying force to alleviate procrastination when the stakes are high or specific events are imminent, such as AI's unpredictable, inevitable, and ubiquitous (UIU-AI) rise.
VPR is an idea, an experiment, a mental model for organizing our rationality, data, or information — optimized to achieve a desired outcome. VPR can even be a spatial computing program or simulation that widens any property's total addressable landscape (TAL) as a prerequisite for assessing and diagnosing the problem or challenge.
Equally important, VPR is a catalyst for advancing mutually beneficial outcomes, especially regarding the unpredictable nature of AI and the changes it brings. Slightly different than consensus (agreement about something), VPR is a neutraland precise force that relies on intuition, unpredictability, perception, and inevitability to foster “chemistry” and a sense of collective collaboration. In this sense, you might think of VPR as a clean, well-lighted place that advances AI transparency and puts a premium on pragmatism, sensibility, and our collective intelligence to manage AI uncertainty — opening up the “Infinite Blue” horizontal lights of AI.
VPR
When view perception is high, two parties benefit greatly, sending their “shared interests” and resulting outcomes through the roof. I call this maximum clarifying moment “high VPR” or simply VPR 100.
We should always strive for and seek to attain high levels of VPR because when two or more parties have a stake in the successful outcome of something new (like AI), a healthy VPR baseline matters (a lot) since the net gains the AI tech is supposed to provide becomes the solidifying force of the perception value that it creates. And when it comes to 'AI' and HR, perception might be the only thing that matters. This emphasis on striving for high VPR is not just a goal but a driving force that can motivate us to push the boundaries of our perception and achieve better outcomes in the AI landscape.
The bad news
Fact: HR, talent-vendors, and workers suffer from a bad case of low VPR—the exact opposite of what’s needed for lifting the desperate thick fog of procrastination surrounding inadequate levels of early adoption, implementation, and deployment of AI. It’s almost like people don’t trust themselves with the stuff. Why is it this way? Why is our collective view perception or perception view of AI so low and clunky that no one—not HR, not recruiters, not job seekers—are leaning into it, publicly bullish, or “all-in”? . . . thus begging the question: How can we utilize VPR to fix things and turn the dial up to VPR 100?
What's your perception of AI in HCM?
Like ice cream for AI
Drawing a parallel with ice cream flavors, most people like ice cream, but not everyone enjoys the same flavors. That doesn’t mean one kind is “bad” or the other is “good.” It just means that until there are more flavors for more people to enjoy, ice cream will have less market reach and appeal. The same is true for AI. That is to say, until more people have access to an algorithm/model (i.e., flavor) of their choice, that’s right for them — especially in terms of taste — AI, like ice cream, is neither bad nor good. At the very worst, it’s just not available yet.
It's much like robots can’t actually enjoy waffle cone freezer creamers (yet).
In a nutshell, VPR is a response to artificial intelligence's unpredictability, inevitability, and ubiquity (UIU). Given UIU's creative constraints, high VPR emerges when two or more parties agree to adopt, implement, and deploy the proper phasing, sequencing, and series of AI first principles within its ambiguity and inevitability constraints.
Can we at least agree on that?
Further to this point, how can we switch lanes fast, cut to the chase, and continue increasing/scaling everyone's perception of AI in the same way that producing novel and new ice cream flavors brings people together for more universal appeal?
Here’s an idea:
What if we increased the VPO dial to 100 and leveraged a cautiously optimistic embrace of the excellent UIU interface and transformational revolution?
Instead of treating the UIU nature of AI with an abundance of caution, we shall adopt a cautiously optimistic mindset instead and get a little uncomfortable. After all, if we genuinely want to get serious about solving the “talent crisis,” shouldn’t it hurt a little? Shouldn’t the medicine and the cure taste a little evil? Shouldn't we be expanding our view perception towards the edges of AI to see what we can’t see with the naked eye instead of pretending to know what’s there as if we’re some fortune-telling, cyborgoptic robot?
Formula VPR: Getting temporarily uncomfortable
Like a mindset, idea, or model, VPR is also a secret formula that expands our conscious awareness of understanding — and dealing with — the intended and unintended consequences of AI’s mass ubiquitous (and mostly free) availability. Working first to expand our collective and individual view perception of AI horizontally, VPR establishes mutually beneficial, ephemerally connected notions and equitable shared experiences of AI-UIs concrete and hidden powers. This hyper-linkage that we share is where we can begin building from, on top of, brick by brick, and bottom-up led, not top-down. From here, our perception of AI narrows, giving us a clarified vision of ourselves towards truth - and others - in the pursuit of working on AI more together.
But if we keep procrastinating, we’ll never get to the rest of it, including the “ethics in AI” part.
The time to act is now. Procrastination will only hinder progress, leaving essential discussions on the ‘ethics of AI’ in human capital untouched. Let us embrace the change, challenge ourselves, and seize opportunities to reshape the future. By increasing our View Perception Ratio, we can unlock the full potential of AI in talent management, democratizing access and driving us towards a brighter tomorrow.
To democratize talent in an AI-driven world, we should skip the "abundance of caution" part and go straight to cautious optimism.
Conclusion
- If we want to change the perception of AI in talent, we must change the view.
- If we believe AI is inevitable and unpredictable, then it’s time to build an AI strategy from scratch with that in mind.
- AI’s ubiquitous availability is a creative constraint that spurs us to develop new ways of working and living.