There’s No Automation without Intentions

The alarm rings and I’m already behind. I fumble around getting showered, dressed, and ready for another day. I lock the front door and realize that my lunch is still on the countertop. By the time I've reached my desk, I'm already feeling today's toll. Today, I have to help our team craft language for upcoming client communications. I’m not sure where to start.

While working, I think about how all across the globe, communities, organizations/companies, and governments utilize various software to complete complex tasks. Automations send push notifications to our phones, reminding us of doctors' appointments and late payments. Air traffic control systems rely on data being delivered and evaluated in real-time. Amazon’s robotics automations handle thousands of products daily. The half-life of technology is such that we hurtle towards revolutions in AI and robotics technologies at a pace that the human race has trouble preparing for. Individually, when working, I often bounce between software before I’ve reached a solution I’m happy with. And I wonder, what good are these tools without vision?

Fortunately, most bots don’t act without being prompted by an event in their programming. Computers do not perform calculations without input, which means that someone somewhere first intended for an action to take place. Luckily, folks smarter than me have developed models to help us define those intentions. Like the artist pausing before the next brush stroke, Learning Forte spends much energy ensuring that our work decisions are mission and values-aligned before we act. In this way, we can use our intentions to make excellent use of our tools.

As I’m unsure of what to write about for those upcoming communications, I look back through the goals and notes left for me by my team members. With this clarified understanding of intentions, I can provide more accurate prompts to the AI writing tool that evaluates my sentiments and crafts language that I can refine.

As much as AI tools and automation streamline our work, nothing happens until we are first inspired, write and define goals, set our intentions, and only then engage the technology to support our actions.

written by Brynna Exley
June 2024