Thank you so much for taking the time and be with us today.
We'll have a conversation about how AI changed your organization,
how you work with it.
Initially,
could you tell me a little bit about how did you begin
working with AI at the Nordisk Foundation and what has sort
of prompted you guys to begin thinking along these lines?
I think as any other organization,
we were quite surprised with the release of
ChatGPT and I would say our CEO was
very interested in this technology.
I think that's the primary reason of why we acted so quickly on this.
We started out with prohibiting any use
of ChatGPT for work-related matters,
but quite quickly we faced that we needed to get this
technology in the hands of our employees to actually start
exploring how this could provide value to the organization.
I think at the same time,
I think at the same time,
I think at the same time, we faced some exciting challenges.
Our previous growth,
of course,
but primarily our future growth,
internationalization,
many drivers for looking into us as an organization in the future,
how can this technology actually help
us handle these different challenges.
When you put this technology in the
hands of people in the organization,
what kind of things happened?
Like,
were there any moments that really inspired you?
Actually, actually,
actually,
actually, actually, at the same time,
maybe uncoordinated.
So,
I think if we didn't set the right target and
the right training and supported the employees,
it would have evolved in a very different way than it did.
And I think
it benefited us a lot to have a clear ambition and
application areas where we wanted to apply the technology.
And this was both in terms of how we are scaling our operations.
Like any other organization of 260 employees,
we needed to look at,
are there any
efficiency gains or efficiency gains or productivity gains?
Can we raise quality with this technology?
But I think
one of the very interesting perspectives that we found out when
we developed this strategy was it nudged us into asking these
really high-level questions of what is the role of our foundation?
When our applicants can all use this
technology to write the best applications,
how do we find the best ideas?
So,
where I started was in how can we,
in smaller ways,
a low-hanging fruit project,
how can we,
in smaller ways, we enhance efficiency?
But where we ended up was asking these huge questions around,
what is the role of our foundation?
I think there's a lot of interesting things in what you just said.
And I just want to launch onto a couple of them.
For one,
I think that idea of the grassroots movement,
it's really,
really cool because we see that in a lot of places.
This is a really intuitive technology.
And when you put it into the hands of people,
people start working with it.
And we oftentimes see that,
like,
the same idea crops up multiple different places in the same
organization at the same time and having to balance that kind of thing.
And at the same time,
that prompts many organizations just like yours to ask these bigger,
more strategic questions that,
okay,
if we can do this,
then what else might it enable?
And you start to see,
and I think that's some of the cool things working with you,
that seeing those early shifts of what it enables,
the role of you guys,
in terms of working with the applicants
and your positioning in the ecosystem.
Finally,
I would like to touch a bit upon sort of recommendations
to other people who might want to get started.
If the technology is a few years down the line now,
people want to get working with it,
maybe they have something in their organizations already.
Have you had any experiences that you want to give
on to people who might be jumping into it now?
Sure.
I think we have a lot.
One of the most important choices that we made
was actually making this technology available in
a secure manner to everyone in the organization
and recognizing that we would not be able to come up with all the
great use cases ourselves in a closed room in our digital department.
We needed to engage the entire organization to start
thinking about how can this technology improve my work?
How can it have an effect on the entire organization?
So I think
supporting this grassroots movement and really
supporting the ambassadors around the organization.
Can we even use this technology and
still have a solid reputation of trust?
And can our applicants trust us to evaluate their applications in a
manner that aligns with how we perceive ourselves as an organization,
as a foundation?
And I think balancing this,
the fear that all the questions around sustainability,
security,
the ethical questions with the whole interest and potential and ideas
has been the tricky part.
And this is,
I think,
our experience is very much from our
governance model and how we structure this.
So we
open up for all the questions.
We have established a sounding board of some of the important
leaders in our organization to discuss these ethical measures.
And especially if we're in our own manners and
especially if use cases are high risk or could affect
our reputation as a foundation you can trust.
But at the same time have a really swift operating model
in how to turn ideas to proof of concepts to see the value,
to prove the value for the organization.
I think that is really,
really cool and interesting.
I'm looking very much forward to following
you on where this journey goes next.
So thank you so much, Mede, for your time.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you.