HR vs AR: Differences and similarities between AI Agents and humans
Why does a manager need to understand about AI Agents?
Can’t they simply leave this to the IT team?
After all, if a manager doesn’t need to program these agents, why would they need to understand the characteristics of these agents?
Let’s think of an analogy to answer these questions.
Imagine you need to do a construction and you have at your disposal a drill and a circular saw.
To use these tools effectively, you don’t need to understand all of their technical details.
You don’t need to know how the motor works inside, how the circuits are connected, or how to fix these tools if they break.
What you really need is to have knowledge of use for each tool.
You need to know that a drill is great for making holes, but terrible for cutting wood in a straight line.
And that a circular saw is excellent for straight and curved cuts, but terrible at making precise holes.
You need to know that handling a circular saw without care can cause serious accidents, while a drill, though relatively safer, also requires care in use.
You need to understand that a drill bit wears out after certain uses, and that a saw blade needs to be changed periodically.
These are the things you need to know to manage these tools efficiently and safely.
You need to feel the weight of the drill in your hands, understand how to adjust the speed for different materials, know when to use a video bit and when to use a high-speed steel bit.
You don’t need to understand the internal mechanics of the drill for this. You need knowledge of use.
The same goes for the circular saw. You need to know how to guide the blade to get a precise cut, how to adjust the angle for different types of cuts, how to change the blade when it gets dull.
You don’t need to be a mechanical engineer to use a circular saw. You need knowledge of handling.
Now, think about the work of a manager of human teams.
Does he need to be a neuroscientist to understand how his employees’ brains work?
Does he need to be an anthropologist to understand the culture of his team?
Not necessarily. But he does need to have knowledge about people to manage them.
He needs to understand what motivates each member of his team, when they need to rest, how to avoid burnout, which failures can’t be ignored, which limits can be delegated.
He needs to know how to allocate people to the right positions, how to give feedback effectively, how to create an environment that stimulates productivity.
These are people management skills that a good manager needs to have.
A human manager doesn’t need to perform surgery on a person.
Just like an drill specialist doesn’t need to understand how the drill motor works inside.
And similarly, an artificial intelligence manager doesn’t need to know the technical aspects of the neural network of an agent.
But he needs to understand what motivates an AI Agent, how to choose the right agent for each task, how to train and give feedback to these agents, and much more.