Do New Hires Know Company Better Than AI? Uncovering the "Pretends to Understand" Traps of General AI
Is AI truly omnipotent? When you ask ChatGPT about internal company matters, it might be "pretending to know." This article reveals the knowledge illusion trap of general-purpose AI for Hong Kong SMEs, analyzes why a new hire can sometimes be more reliable than AI, and provides enterprise-grade AI solutions that turn AI into your true expert, not a "master storyteller."
Nowadays, it is believed that many bosses and employees of Hong Kong SMEs have tried using general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT and Claude to handle work. From writing emails and brainstorming marketing copy to analyzing data, AI seems omnipotent and incredibly efficient. But when you try to ask more "down-to-earth" internal company questions, you might get an answer that looks plausible on the surface but is actually completely wrong. This leads to an interesting and critical question: when it comes to understanding your company's internal operations, could a newly hired, completely unfamiliar person be "smarter" and more reliable than an AI with vast knowledge? The answer might surprise you: Yes, in many cases, absolutely.
This isn't to deny the power of AI, but to reveal a trap many businesses easily fall into when embracing the AI wave—the "pretending to know" of general-purpose AI.
The "Knowledge Illusion" of General-Purpose AI: Why Does It "Pretend to Know"?
The tools we commonly encounter, like ChatGPT, belong to "general-purpose AI." You can think of it as a "super scholar" who has read all the public books, articles, and websites on the internet. Its knowledge is broad. But the problem is, its knowledge is limited to public information.
It has never set foot in your office, never met your colleagues, and cannot read your company's internal servers, CRM system, or any confidential documents. When you ask it about internal company information, it uses its massive language model to "create" a most-likely-correct answer based on general patterns. This is called "hallucination" in the AI field.
Imagine the following scenarios:
- Querying Sales Data: You ask the AI about the best-selling product last quarter. It might tell you it's a trendy electronic product based on public market trends, but in reality, your company's top seller was a traditional office supply.
- Finding Internal Procedures: You ask the AI how to apply for annual leave. It gives you a very standardized HR process, completely overlooking your company's simple practice of just filling out a Google Form and notifying your direct supervisor.
- Understanding Client Background: You ask the AI to summarize the cooperation history with a long-term client. It cannot answer at all because all communication records and transaction data are stored in your company's private database.
New Hire Beats Old "AI"? The Human-Exclusive "Situational Awareness" Ability
Now, let's look at that new hire on their first day. They might know nothing about the industry, but they possess several core advantages that AI cannot match:
- Knowing They "Don't Know": The most valuable trait of a new hire is the clear awareness of their own limitations. They will proactively ask questions. This curiosity is the first step to solving problems, whereas AI often thinks it knows.
- Direct Access to Internal Information: The company can grant the new hire access to shared drives, internal communication software, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, and past project documents.
- Observing and Learning "Unwritten Rules": The new hire can quickly learn office culture by observing colleague interactions and meeting dynamics. This "Contextual Intelligence" is incomprehensible to purely data-driven AI.
| Comparison Dimension | General-Purpose AI (e.g., ChatGPT) | New Hire |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge Source | Public internet data | Internal documents, colleague guidance, firsthand observation |
| Handling Internal Company Issues | Makes educated guesses, provides generic answers | Proactively asks, looks up authentic internal information |
| Reaction to "Not Knowing" | May "make up stories" (hallucinate) | Will directly admit "I don't know, let me ask/check" |
| Learning Specific Knowledge | Cannot learn confidential internal corporate information | Can quickly absorb company-specific culture and workflows |
Clearly, when it comes to the depth and details of internal corporate operations, the new hire's learning and adaptability far surpass the general-purpose AI's "broad but shallow" knowledge.
The "Pretending to Know" Trap: Potential Risks for Hong Kong SMEs
If business managers fail to recognize this trap of general-purpose AI and over-rely on the answers it provides, it could trigger a series of serious problems:
- Faulty Business Decisions: If you base your next quarter's procurement and marketing strategy on a sales report "made up" by AI, the outcome is predictably disastrous.
- Decreased, Not Increased, Efficiency: Employees might need to spend more time verifying and correcting AI-generated content. This "cleaning up" work can be more time-consuming than starting from scratch.
- Severe Information Security Risks: This is the most critical point. To help the AI "understand" the question, employees might inadvertently copy and paste company-sensitive information into public AI tools. This is tantamount to handing over the company's core secrets.
- Damaging Team Trust and Culture: When employees find management or colleagues habitually using vague, inaccurate AI responses to handle work, team communication and collaboration efficiency suffer greatly.
Escaping the Trap, Making AI Truly Work for You: Enterprise-Grade AI Solutions
Reading this, you might ask: So is AI useless for SMEs? Of course not. The key is that you need an AI that truly understands your company, not a "know-it-all" neighbor. The solution is shifting from "General-Purpose AI" to "Enterprise-Grade AI" or "Private AI."
This type of AI solution doesn't rely on public internet data but is built on your own corporate knowledge base. AI Rapid Development makes this feasible for SMEs. It operates as follows:
- Building a Private Knowledge Base: We can integrate all your company's important data from past years into a secure, private database.
- Dedicated Model Training: Then, use this internal data to "train" or "feed" an AI model dedicated to your company. From "day one," this AI learns your company's language, processes, and success stories.
- Secure Deployment: The entire system can be deployed on your private cloud or internal company servers, ensuring all data and query processes are tightly protected.
This "Enterprise-Grade AI" is like a senior expert who has worked at your company for ten years. It can:
- Provide Precise Answers: When you ask about contract details, it can instantly pull the exact clause from the contract files.
- Automate High-Value Work: It can automatically generate a tailored sales proposal for a new client based on the most successful past cases.
- Accelerate New Hire Training: New hires can directly ask this internal AI all questions about company policies and product knowledge, getting immediate and accurate answers.
- Preserve Corporate Wisdom: Even when senior employees leave, their years of accumulated experience and knowledge can be preserved and utilized by the AI.
General-purpose AI is a powerful public tool, but it can never replace the wisdom that comes from deep understanding of your company's business. True wisdom lies in combining AI technology with your enterprise's unique knowledge and data to build a truly helpful, secure, and reliable dedicated AI expert.
Your Next Step: Build Your AI Super Team
Frasertec Limited has extensive experience and is committed to helping Hong Kong SMEs navigate the AI wave and avoid potential pitfalls. We can assess your business needs, design, and deploy secure, efficient enterprise-grade AI solutions, making AI your most trustworthy business partner.
Want to learn how to make AI truly "understand" your company? Contact us immediately for a free consultation.
