Knowledge Management in a World of Generative AI: Impact and Implications

Abstract

The management of organizational and worker knowledge is a critical part of any organization. Knowledge management recognizes the explicit knowledge that workers contribute to an organization, as well as the organizational knowledge and skills acquired over time. The potential impact of generative AI (GenAI) raises many issues and opportunities related to effective knowledge management as organizations explore the impact and implications of its adoption. This research explores issues related to an increasing world of GenAI and proposes a Framework for Knowledge Management in the GenAI Era. Knowledge management workers, who are novices, might be more inclined to use generative AI for performing their tasks. Expert knowledge workers might focus on quality evaluation and quality assessment. Adoption of GenAI may help with the progression from novice to expert, while freeing up time and resources for other work. Challenges include the potential loss of critical organizational knowledge, definition of job-related requirements, expectations, and tasks, as well as over-reliance and loss of tacit or unarticulated knowledge. These challenges must be balanced against available access to large amounts of general and domain-specific knowledge from GenAI to capture the value realized from its adoption.