It’s OK to not love AI. But you should care about how it can help your people

By Bryan Kirschner, Vice President, Strategy at DataStax.

In an experiment, generative AI (genAI) outperformed doctors at crafting empathetic patient communications. I recently completed another in which genAI outperformed a journalist at displaying empathy for average Americans.

Though I’m not surprised by AI-uber-skeptic Ed Zitron’s criticism of the business of genAI in a blog titled “There Is No AI Revolution,” I was taken aback by what he had to say about its value to people in general [emphasis in original]:

“Let’s be frank: nobody really needs anything generative AI does. Large Language Models hallucinate too much to be truly reliable, a problem that will require entire new branches of mathematics to solve, and their most common consumer-facing functions like summarizing an article, “practicing for a job interview,” or “write me a business plan” are not really things people need or massively benefit from, even if these things weren’t ruinously expensive or damaging to the environment.”

I knew offhand why this was way off base, but I decided to give ChatGPT-4o a shot at it. This was my prompt:

“Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Consider the demographics, education levels, and health of adults in the United States. What are 10 empathic ways generative AI could help them in their day-to-day lives?”

ChatGPT – correctly, in my view – said it could help by “enhancing job opportunities and workforce training,” including personalized job coaching and interview prep. (Notably, a Google search confirms that “practice interviewing” is recommended by the U.S. Department of Labor.)

But the meat of the matter was ChatGPT zeroing in on the genAI elephant in the room. The sad fact is that 54% of U.S. adults have a literacy below a sixth-grade level. Every one of them could benefit from an always-on, infinitely patient, affordable “explain this written material to me like I’m a fifth-grader” machine.

AI for a helping hand

Let’s take a look at what ChatGPT had to say on the topic, and then connect the dots to some real-world signals about why this matters:

AI can help adults struggling with literacy by reading aloud, summarizing complex documents, or assisting with translation for non-native English speakers.

Setting aside reducing stress, frustration, and embarrassment, this matters in dollars and cents. One quarter of U.S. adults who completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2024-2025 school year say the process was “somewhat or very difficult.” (For those unfamiliar with it, the FAFSA decisively determines how much financial aid a college student will get.)

And another fascinating signal is the adoption of genAI to help write Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaints, which one analysis pegs at 19%. It found that “[a]reas with lower educational attainment showed somewhat higher LLM adoption rates in consumer complaints.” It looks to be giving a hand to people who need one already.

AI for empathy — and as a business strategy

It’s also a fact that if you want to go out of your way to find something that genAI can’t do to help assist, augment, or elevate people today, you’re guaranteed to succeed. But the sad part about that is the reverse is also just as true.

Taking the reins on asking “what’s hard for people in life or work right now, and how might genAI help?” is not just a recipe for kindness – it likely makes for good business strategy, as well.

A case in point is one of the most incisive uses of genAI at scale I’ve seen.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, insurer Allstate is using genAI to make 50,000 emails to customers a day more empathetic on behalf of its 23,000 claims representatives. Those representatives can become stressed or frustrated – or simply miss adding a polite close or translating industry jargon. Not so for genAI.

The reps remain the arbiters of accuracy but benefit from less cognitive load and protection from inadvertently causing customer dissatisfaction. It’s a win-win for empathy in both the customer and the employee experience.

AI + your business context = better outcomes

I’m willing to bet it’s not the only such opportunity out there. Getting started ideating is easy:

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Think about the day-to-day operation of a large B2C company in the United States. In what ways might Generative AI be used to add more empathy into business processes or customer experiences?

ChatGPT’s response to this bare-bones question wasn’t bad. But it will assuredly get much better if it’s prompted using the full ingenuity and rich contextual expertise of you, your team, and your colleagues. Why wait? “More care” and “less grief” are pretty much universally appreciated outcomes.

Learn how DataStax helps organizations improve employee and customer experiences with genAI.