Evaluating Intra-firm LLM Alignment Strategies in Business Contexts

TL;DR

The paper investigates how enterprise instruction-tuned LLMs shape intra-firm culture through embedded perspectives and argues that deliberate alignment with firm objectives and values is both a strategic and ethical requirement. It conceptualizes AI Assistants as having perspectives influenced by data biases and fine-tuning goals, and presents three alignment strategies—Supportive, Adversarial, and Diverse—analyzing their effects on manager-employee and employee-employee relationships. Each strategy carries distinct ethical trade-offs, affecting trust, critical thinking, and the evolution of professional norms within organizations. The work provides a framework for choosing an alignment approach based on firm context, governance, and risk tolerance, emphasizing caution, transparency, and pluralism to preserve moral fabric in business settings.

Abstract

Instruction-tuned Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly deployed as AI Assistants in firms for support in cognitive tasks. These AI assistants carry embedded perspectives which influence factors across the firm including decision-making, collaboration, and organizational culture. This paper argues that firms must align the perspectives of these AI Assistants intentionally with their objectives and values, framing alignment as a strategic and ethical imperative crucial for maintaining control over firm culture and intra-firm moral norms. The paper highlights how AI perspectives arise from biases in training data and the fine-tuning objectives of developers, and discusses their impact and ethical significance, foregrounding ethical concerns like automation bias and reduced critical thinking. Drawing on normative business ethics, particularly non-reductionist views of professional relationships, three distinct alignment strategies are proposed: supportive (reinforcing the firm's mission), adversarial (stress-testing ideas), and diverse (broadening moral horizons by incorporating multiple stakeholder views). The ethical trade-offs of each strategy and their implications for manager-employee and employee-employee relationships are analyzed, alongside the potential to shape the culture and moral fabric of the firm.