“I think that we are just barely, barely beginning to understand the power it can have,” said Patricia Wilcox.
She’s vice president of strategic development at Klingberg Family Centers in New Britain, a 300-person social services agency that’s still considering how to implement artificial intelligence throughout its processes.
Patricia Wilcox
Wilcox herself has taken several courses through Charter Oak State College, and she says many of Klingberg’s employees are also dabbling in the technology.
“I know of people who’ve used AI for writing grants, for scheduling, for creating documents like a program handbook, and maybe for steps in creating presentations,” she said.
But that kind of piecemeal, individually driven adoption contains pitfalls, particularly for an organization that deals with sensitive client data. Klingberg provides services to children and families including group homes, a large special-ed school, foster care and adoption, and an after-school treatment program, among other services.
“People in our agency are very well-trained in HIPAA and in confidentiality, and I think they would know that they shouldn’t put client information in AI,” Wilcox said. “But we are just starting the process of thinking, what policies and procedures do we need to both ensure safety and to ensure confidentiality and to guard against the mistakes AI makes.”
The other pressure she’s dealing with is sales calls.
“Everywhere you look, somebody’s trying to sell you something about AI now,” Wilcox said. Specifically, she’s being pitched AI software that will record, transcribe and summarize client therapy sessions, creating progress notes for clinicians.
“What should you look for if you’re trying to think about whether to buy a program?” she asked. “Everybody’s trying to jump on this bandwagon, and the programs are probably various degrees of sophistication at this point.”
Wilcox is considering an agency-wide partnership with Charter Oak State College to answer some of her questions, and to provide comprehensive and standardized training for her staff. Such a partnership might provide a model for how the college can scale up the training it wants to provide for small- and medium-sized enterprises in the state.
