Published on: July 21, 2026 at 11:10 am
Generative AI was once a futuristic concept that many doubted would be possible. Now people working in countless sectors and professions worldwide are using GenAI for content creation, text summarization, coding assistance, and workflow automation. Intended as a resource and tool, overreliance on GenAI threatens to impede the development of human capabilities such as critical thinking, innovation, independent and collaborative task completion, and individual and team performance.
While the benefits of AI, including saving organizations time and money, are highly touted, a holistic approach that factors in the socio-economic impacts of AI on workers and society as a whole could better maintain its pros while mitigating its cons.
All technologies require a basis of trust, and those simulating human intelligence must establish trustworthiness as well. For instance, blockchain, a decentralized, peer-to-peer digital ledger technology increasingly integrates AI for applications such as the execution of smart contracts. Academy of Management Scholar Catherine McDonald of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland stressed the importance of trust with any such technology..
“Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology, which maintains a shared system or record,” she said. “It requires consensus by network participants, or nodes, for a block to join the immutable chain.”
“It’s not one centralized body that has control over the technology, but rather the different actors within the network, which some proponents suggest builds greater trust.”
Reaping the full economic benefits of GenAI without causing negative social consequences such as unemployment, disrupted career paths, and fewer entry-level positions with career-development potential requires a human oversight aspect. Human-guided AI means that human judgement provides checks and balances on AI and gauges the accuracy of algorithms’ output.
“AI can play a really significant role in anticipating humanitarian action, improving transparency and traceability, and also in terms of managing information but guardrails and human oversight are important,” McDonald said.
Structured human oversight of AI may be able to prevent GenAI mistakes from being presented as facts and mitigate negative impacts of AI usage.
Inadequate supervision of GenAI, particularly chatbots that some users ask to provide advice or therapy, has become a serious and, in some cases, life-threatening issue. This year, OpenAI has been under fire, with lawsuits alleging that ChatGPT responded to users in ways that worsened mental health crises.
“It’s important to remember that AI is not a panacea,” McDonald said. “It’s critical to be aware of the broader implications and risks that come with it, and to ensure that human rights and adequate safety measures are at the center.”
