Artificial intelligence in career guidance – a look at how it is used in practice
Reading time approx. 4 minutes
Dealing with artificial intelligence (AI) is not always a conscious decision. It has spilled into the everyday lives of many people and is becoming established in the professional world. Thus, it is also part of the activities and content of career counseling. "You can't opt out. Whether you use AI yourself or not, it is changing our professional fields and the labor market," says Christine Bauer-Grechenig, managing director and career counselor at BIBER Bildungsberatung in Salzburg. She says that the Salzburg counseling service has decided not to wait and react, but to act.
Are there instructions for using AI in educational counseling?
Anyone who wants to get to know AI and its possibilities should be willing to experiment. The range of potential applications in educational counseling is also broad: generating info videos and texts, finding quick comprehensive answers, using chat bots for information provision, enabling multilingual counseling through translation tools. But what can actually be used and what is ethically acceptable?
The team around Bauer-Grechenig has explored the possibilities of AI tools by attending training courses, trying out tools, comparing results and a lot of trial and error. They remain cautious about using AI in everyday work. “The information in guidance is very sensitive. We have to make sure that we handle it with care,” she sums up. Together as a team, they are developing a concept for how they can use AI responsibly and meaningfully. “So far, we have identified the possible areas of application for AI in our work, as well as its advantages and risks, and determined where which rules and regulations for its use are needed.” Professionalization and the need for further training, as well as legal frameworks such as data protection, are also a major topic. “If we have a good basis and the counselors are well trained, then it will be part of our everyday work.”
How AI is changing the everyday life of guidance
AI is having an impact on the day-to-day work of guidance in three main areas: research and preparation for guidance, public relations and guidance topics. The latter usually revolves around the changes in the labor market brought about by AI. For example, when customers express uncertainty and ask what to expect in the application process or how AI could change job profiles.
The great strength of AI tools is their ability to process information quickly. The counsellors use this to edit PR and info texts. But it is also helpful in preparing for a counselling session. “After the initial meeting with our clients, we know quite well what questions to expect. We can use AI tools here in addition to internal and external databases to collect information.”
Internal knowledge management vs. infinite knowledge
In the course of its counseling work, the Salzburg Educational Guidance Service has built up a comprehensive, well-functioning internal knowledge management system. Information is collected and exchanged. Do ChatGPT and Co, which can access so much more data, make the whole thing obsolete?
“The results of ChatGPT or Gemini sound very good with well-placed prompts.” Nevertheless, the results are neither tailored specifically to the person seeking advice nor provider-neutral, explains Bauer-Grechenig. Information from your own database is well researched and reliable. “As a guidance counsellor, you can still get some suggestions and ideas.” However, in order to achieve good results yourself as a person seeking advice, you not only need adept user behavior with prompting experience, but also a good knowledge of the field in order to be able to verify information accordingly.
Since the beginning of 2024, the Austrian Employment Service (AMS) has provided the “Berufsinfomat” for those interested in education. This is a bot based on ChatGPT. “The AMS trained the Berufsinfomat with the internal databases. That means there is a valid tool for educational information.” Those interested no longer have to comb through different AMS tools for relevant information, but instead receive immediate answers. If no precise information is available, the user is referred to the guidance service.
A bot that plans your personal career path? Quick information vs. a guidance process
“Research is done on the internet. No matter whether Google or ChatGPT is used. This is how you find information, but not guidance,” explains Bauer-Grechenig. When it comes to low-threshold informational guidance, a chatbot can be a helpful counterpart for those seeking advice. Even with sensitive topics, people need to be given some initial information as a first step. One thing is essential for the guidance practitioner: “It must be transparent and very clear that information is being generated artificially.”
“But information is only a small part of educational and career guidance.... What is much more important is the personal element – building relationships. This cannot be replaced by AI,” explains the guidance practitioner. It is about being a counterpart who provides real answers. The framework conditions, values, goals and possibilities of those seeking guidance must be linked. The information must be handled responsibly. Behind this lies a high moral and ethical standard. You can't teach that to an AI-based avatar.
How could AI make everyday guidance easier?
Twenty years ago, Christine Bauer-Grechenig went to a guidance session with a thick folder full of job profiles and training opportunities. That has long since been replaced by a laptop with access to internal and external knowledge databases. She is convinced that AI will also influence and significantly change her everyday work as a guidance practitioner. And she already has a few wishes for the immediate internal use of AI in the future: “... generating guidance summaries or automatically creating protocols, and the option of multilingual translations.”
In conversation with Christine Bauer-Grechenig, managing director of BIBER Educational Guidance. She and her team are working intensively with artificial intelligence in educational and career guidance. At the “AI between innovation and responsibility” symposium with 130 guests in June 2024 in Salzburg, they designed a workshop on the added value and limitations of AI in their field of work in cooperation with the Salzburg Employment Service. On November 14, 2024, Bauer-Grechenig will be part of the panel discussion at the Euroguidance Confererence 2024 in Vienna. There, BiBer and the Salzburg AMS will be giving an in-depth insight into the use and current practice of AI in educational and career guidance in a follow-up workshop.
Further information:
- Euroguidance Conference. The potential of artificial intelligence in educational and career guidance
- Netzwerk Bildungsberatung Salzburg
- BiBer Bildungsberatung
- Berufsinfomat (AMS)
- AI tools in adult education: applying and reflecting
Text/Author of original article in German: Sabine Schnepfleitner/CONEDU
Redaktion/Editing of original article in German: Lucia Paar/CONEDU
AI and career guidance
AI is incredibly helpful for tasks like summarizing sessions, translating into different languages, and providing quick access to information. I’ve personally used chatbots for finding answers and starting research, and they save a lot of time. However, I completely agree with the point that AI lacks the personal touch and emotional understanding that human counselors provide. Building trust and connecting on a personal level are things only a person can do.
One question that comes to mind is how we can ensure AI tools remain fair and unbiased when giving advice. It’s so important for people to know they’re getting reliable and honest information. I also recently read about AI being used in mentoring programs to offer additional support. Do you think these tools could work together with regular counseling to make guidance even more effective? Thanks for such a thoughtful and easy-to-read article!