Evaluating Intra-firm LLM Alignment Strategies in Business Contexts (2505.18779v1)

Abstract: Instruction-tuned 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.