The ‘prompt school’ scheme will train the company’s staff to work effectively with artificial intelligence. Human8 has also launched an AI research assistant for its staff, based on a series of experiments conducted with research data using the ChatGPT algorithm.

In generative AI, a prompt is a piece of text used to guide the AI model. In the ‘prompt school’, Human8 will train employees to prompt the AI assistant for different use cases.

The company has introduced the tool across the business with the aim of boosting efficiency. Human8 hopes the move will allow ‘more room for human interpretation’.

The move is led by Annelies Verhaeghe, chief platform officer at Human8 (pictured), who said: “To safely and creatively experiment with AI, we first needed to overcome the data privacy obstacle. We defined a series of A/B experiments to gain a better understanding of the potential and implications of generative AI systems for our business and the industry at large.”

Human8 designed the trials to explore issues including AI data quality and sampling.

Ahead of the launch of the training initiative, the company used the AI assistant tool to generate a hypothesis about research outcomes prior to a project focused on wellbeing among Generation Z participants in Hong Kong. The model outlined six dimensions for wellbeing that researchers used as input for the project. They later also used the tool to analyse the data.

Verhaeghe said: “Effectively using AI requires mastering the art of asking the right questions, fully understanding clients’ needs and context, and prompting the system appropriately. This is where trained humans come into play.”

“We firmly believe that relying solely on AI algorithms trained on public internet data will not provide the necessary insights for companies to gain a competitive advantage. By engaging the right people in more versatile ways, we can gather diverse deep data. And when this is combined with consultants who thoroughly understand the clients’ business and know how to prompt AI systems effectively, fresh and actionable insights are generated. Just as humans need machines, machines also need humans.”