Rao Joins National Panel on the Human Side of AI in the Workplace

Professor of Communication Anand Rao, who is also Director of the Center for AI and the Liberal Arts (CAILA), was alongside a national lineup of artificial intelligence (AI) and leadership experts on June 4 for “The Human Edge: Flourishing in an AI-Driven Workplace,” a panel hosted by George Mason University’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being.

Rao brought a liberal-arts perspective to a conversation otherwise weighted toward industry and defense. The midday webinar was based on the premise that while AI is reshaping how people work, leadership and human judgment determine whether that experience strengthens connection, trust and purpose.

The panel spanned the private sector, national defense and the academy and included co-panelists Steve Gladis, CEO of Steve Gladis Leadership Partners; Loretta Li-Sevilla, vice president and global head of Future of Work and AI ISV Ecosystem at Hewlett Packard; Julia Ochinero, founder of Ochinero GTM; and Jane Pinelis, chief scientist for special operations at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Nance Lucas, executive director and chief well-being officer at George Mason, moderated.

Rao’s contribution reflected the mission of CAILA, which he founded to bring humanistic inquiry to bear on how AI is taught, governed and used. His scholarship advances what he calls “AI pluralism,” the argument that diverse models, perspectives, and human voices yield more trustworthy outcomes than any single system acting alone. Drawing on a background in competitive academic debate, he has developed pedagogical frameworks that treat argumentation and human judgment as essential complements to automated analysis rather than casualties of it.

“The question is not whether AI will change our work, but whether we will stay in the habit of judgment,” Rao said. “The tools can do the analysis. People still have to decide what is worth doing, and why.”