On Chairs, AI and Better Questions
How the chair problem can help us ask better questions
Hi, fellow human beings, it’s been a while. Below you’ll find one thought, two paragraphs, and three takeaways on making sense of AI.
One Thought
The way we explore AI in corporate learning is much too narrow
Two Paragraphs
Sometimes we find a great answer, but we have asked the wrong question. The way the corporate learning world explores AI application is mostly focused on replacing or improving existing processes, tasks, or workflows. I believe this limits the potential Generative AI presents. Jony Ive, designer of most iconic Apple products, once illustrated this problem with the example of a chair: if you ask how to design a better chair, you will likely end up building something with four legs and an armrest. But if you ask how to create a better sitting experience, you open up room for true innovation. Instead of focusing on the existing design, it encapsulates the reason for wanting to design it in the first place. When I look at AI in corporate learning today, I see a lot of chair questions. We ask how we can use AI to…identify learning needs…create learning content…analyze feedback—you name it. I’m not finger-pointing, I’m guilty of it, too, but I believe it’s time we ask better questions to enable significant progress.
What if we don’t have to assess learning needs anymore because people know how to identify their skills gaps with the help of an AI that is aligned with business objectives? What if we don’t need to curate learning content centrally, because an AI does it each time someone identifies a learning need? What if people continuously learn with AI partners and learning ‘interventions’ become obsolete? So, let’s say we’ve been asking the wrong questions, what would better questions look like? We could start thinking about how people will learn in five years from now. How about in ten? Think about how we can enable skills acquisition when everyone has access to the condensed knowledge of the world. Or let’s imagine, if we had never learned before, how would we start from scratch with AI?
Three Takeaways
The questions we ask are too narrow, we focus on improving existing tasks and workflows, which restricts the transformative potential of Generative AI
We need to find better, more fundamental questions that open avenues for true innovation
While the way we learn as humans doesn't change, the way we enable learning can change radically
That’s it for today. As always, please feel free to start a conversation with me by responding to this email or reaching out on LinkedIn.
Stay human,
Aki