Delete [Google] - Insert [ChatGPT]

Everyone is in the race for Generative AI, searching for ways to incorporate it into their businesses. It’s the hottest topic in town at the moment and another example of the accelerating change that new technologies are driving. 

But really, to effectively incorporate any new technologies into your products and services, we need to understand how younger people are - and will be - engaging with that technology. The way future generations will use it will vary so dramatically that we can’t imagine it today, at least not without research and conversations with younger generations. They provide us with signals. 

This is the easiest way to explain it:  If you’re a GenX’er like me, then you likely interact with technology in a vastly different way than GenZ’s do. In one of my companies’ studies on the technological influence of GenZs social behaviors, we had a participant express the collective thought held at that time: "Google everything. Feeling sad - google it, Don't know what to do with your life - google it. Feeling motivated to learn something - google again.” Within the last several weeks, it seems this quote would say: delete [google] - insert [ChatGPT].

GenZ interactions with Alexa or Siri are more humanized and connected than ours are. Where you and I might say, “Alexa. Turn on the timer,” a GenZ’er would say “Alexa. Let’s play a game.” 

On any Friday night, you can find teenage boys sitting on a video game while talking with their friends. And to them, that’s a great night. 

There’s the little girl who tells Alexa that she loves her. 

Kids will even text with each other while sitting in the same room. 

In all of these contexts, they ARE socializing. It may not be the way you and I would socialize, but who are we to say what’s correct? Tindering is a verb. A Snap is a way to flirt. A Ping is a way to talk, as we know. 

So, it’s not for us to decide - we are the wrong generation to determine how useful technology can be. We need to watch younger people engage with it because they are growing up with it as part of their lives. They are complete digital natives. 

Ultimately, it’s how they are engaging with it that will help us learn how to accurately incorporate it into our products and services. This kind of research - having the youth in the room - can inform hiring strategies, product development and even risk mitigation. I’ve watched the mouths of leaders from Microsoft and Google drop when the youth are in the room because it’s changing beyond anything anyone could imagine. 

It’s not just about AI, either. 

It’s all technology. When organizations are adopting new technologies, they should be well thought out and grounded in actual understanding, acceptance and usage. They’re the future.