The Rise of Custom GPTs and Talent Mobility: A future trend in AI-driven business

As AI systems increasingly centralise knowledge, talent mobility will become the key to maintaining the adaptability and innovation businesses need to thrive in an ever-evolving market

By Dr. Sanchita Kuchi and Dr. Simarjeet Singh

Published: Dec 19, 2024 11:23:17 AM IST

Updated: Jan 2, 2025 12:41:42 PM IST

Talent mobility could become the mechanism by which companies avoid intellectual isolation from relying solely on internal AI systems. Image: Shutterstock

Imagine you're a business leader faced with filling a critical position. Who should you hire—an internal candidate with deep knowledge of your operations or a talent from a competitor, someone who can bring in fresh ideas and insights? This choice is poised to become more critical as businesses increasingly build their own AI models (Proprietary models) or custom GPTs to avoid the risks of using public platforms like ChatGPT.

While custom GPTs promise to revolutionise operations and protect sensitive data, they also come with an unintended consequence: the centralisation of knowledge within the company. As organisations rely more heavily on their own AI systems, the challenge will be to ensure that they do not become intellectually isolated. This is where talent mobility comes into play. To maintain a competitive edge, companies may need to rely on external hires from competitors or other industries to inject fresh insights into their AI systems—sparking a future trend of increased talent movement across businesses.

The Rise of Custom GPTs: Scaling While Protecting Data

Generative AI, like OpenAI's ChatGPT, has shown immense potential in automating tasks, generating insights, and scaling operations. However, many companies are now wary of using public AI models due to concerns over data privacy. By feeding proprietary information into a shared platform, businesses risk their knowledge being aggregated with that of competitors, leading to potential vulnerabilities.

This concern is driving a future trend toward the creation of custom GPTs—AI models trained exclusively on a company's internal data. These bespoke AI systems offer the best of both worlds: They provide the power of AI-driven insights without the risks of sharing data with a public platform. By centralising knowledge, companies can scale more efficiently, using AI to optimise internal processes and decision-making.

However, there is a potential downside: the echo chamber effect. As custom GPTs become more entrenched, they may inadvertently limit a company's exposure to external trends and innovations. AI models that draw solely from internal data may reinforce existing biases and ideas, creating an echo chamber within the organisation. This can lead to intellectual stagnation, where the AI strengthens the knowledge it already possesses but fails to bring fresh insights from the broader market. Over time, this isolation could hamper a company's ability to innovate and respond to external shifts, making talent mobility even more essential.

An interesting parallel can be drawn to creative fields. As seen in MIT Sloan Review's article "Will AI Help or Hurt Sustainability? Yes," AI has the potential to commoditise creative processes. The article points out how AI could democratise filmmaking, enabling people from all walks of life to create movies and potentially uncover new talents, like future Spielbergs and Gerwigs, from unexpected places. Similarly, custom GPTs could commoditise internal processes and knowledge within businesses, reducing the diversity of insights that drive innovation. The challenge, then, will be to ensure that these AI systems do not stifle creativity or external thinking within an organisation.

Talent Mobility: The New Lifeblood of Innovation

As businesses build their own custom GPTs, they could face a future where internal innovation plateaus. To combat this, companies will increasingly look outward—seeking to hire talent from competitors or other industries to keep their AI systems dynamic and relevant.

Talent mobility could become the mechanism by which companies avoid intellectual isolation from relying solely on internal AI systems. Just as AI could unlock hidden creative talent across the globe, it could also drive businesses to hire employees with external experience, bringing fresh ideas into their otherwise insular AI systems.

Also read: Is India's talent pool ready for India Inc's AI requirements?

Hiring Decisions: Internal Promotions vs. External Talent

In the future, hiring decisions will become even more complex. Should companies promote from within, favouring candidates familiar with their proprietary AI systems, or should they bring in external talent with new insights? Promoting from within ensures continuity. Internal employees are already familiar with how the company's AI system functions, and they understand the nuances of its operations.

However, while internal promotions may seem like the safer option, they can also reinforce the intellectual isolation that custom GPTs might create. Employees who have worked within a single AI system for years may lack exposure to broader industry trends or fresh approaches, which could be critical in maintaining competitiveness.

On the other hand, hiring from outside brings new ideas and perspectives that can invigorate a company's custom GPT. External talent—particularly those from competitors—can offer insights into different approaches, emerging trends, and new strategies that internal candidates might miss. In a world where AI systems are becoming central to decision-making, external hires won't just fill roles; they will provide a critical source of competitive intelligence that AI models alone may not capture.

AI's Role in Driving Talent Mobility

As companies build more customised AI systems, the role of external hires will shift. Instead of simply being valued for their technical skills, employees moving between organisations will become carriers of competitive intelligence and diverse experience. Their real value will come from the fresh insights they bring—insights that custom AI systems, relying solely on internal data, might overlook.

A New Trend in Competitive Intelligence

This emerging trend of custom GPTs could lead to a rise in what might be termed "GPT poaching," where companies actively seek competitors' talent to infuse their AI systems with competitive intelligence. Just as AI is transforming industries by automating tasks and generating insights, it will also reshape the job market by making external hires an increasingly essential part of staying competitive.

In this new landscape, companies will need to strike a delicate balance between promoting from within and bringing in external talent. The challenge will be to leverage the continuity and deep knowledge that internal hires offer while ensuring that external perspectives keep their AI systems fresh and adaptable to changes in the market.

Conclusion: Preparing for a Future of AI-Driven Business

As businesses move toward developing custom GPTs to protect their proprietary data and scale their operations, they will face a growing need for external input to keep their AI systems innovative. This will likely lead to a new era of talent mobility, where companies seek external hires for their skills and the competitive intelligence and diverse perspectives they bring.

In the end, the most successful organisations will be those that can strike the right balance—leveraging the strengths of internal talent while continuously refreshing their operations with insights from the outside. As AI systems increasingly centralise knowledge, talent mobility will become the key to maintaining the adaptability and innovation businesses need to thrive in an ever-evolving market.

Dr. Sanchita Kuchi, Associate Professor - Data Analytics, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon and Dr. Simarjeet Singh, Assistant Professor - Accounting and Finance, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon