TECHNOLOGY by Janet M. Harvey AI and the Future of Work Imagine a Venn diagram with the word tension at the intersection of the three circles, and you see the perfect storm caused by the introduction of AI into the workplace. One of those three circles represents employees, who worry about job loss. Another circle is for technologists focused on innovation over human factors. And the third is management, which seeks efficiency to maximize shareholder value. These divergent motivations can lead to distrust, lack of transparency, and initiatives that benefit some at the expense of others. The key to overcoming these tensions is collaboration between all stakeholders to implement AI ethically and responsibly. Successful AI adoption requires input from management, employees, and technologists to balance productivity with human welfare. A collaborative approach supports all constituents in moving from tension to transformation in every aspect of the deployment. A mindset that imagines an embodied partnership between humans and technology opens everyone to a “Yes, and…” orientation. For example, human-centered AI uses technology to augment human intelligence and skills, transforming roles rather than replacing jobs. Inclusive design and development approaches build understanding and get buy-in by being transparent about AI’s capabilities and limitations for all parties involved. Ultimately, collaboration enables workplaces to gain AI benefits while empowering their most valuable asset – their people to shape the deployment in ways that optimize employees and customers. CEOs surveyed by Accenture before Davos 2024 identified technology disruption at the top of their list of changes to business; it wasn’t in the top five the year before. Three important data points apply across industry and organizational size and impact all parts of the business value chain. 1. 64% of consumers want companies to respond faster to their changing needs. 2. 88% of leaders expect an even faster rate of change in 2024. 3. 62% of every workday is lost to repetitive, mundane tasks. A crucial fourth idea arises from the paradoxical impact on the workforce and organizational climate. While it’s accurate and valuable that AI can automate repetitive, mundane tasks, the associated transformation of roles produces tension for the workforce. That tension shows up as resistance and resentment based on the assumption that opportunities for up-skilling and new deployment in updated roles won’t emerge. The paradox requires leaders who think systemically and realize that a “Yes, and…” mindset must operate throughout the change plan versus seeing everything as a win-lose tradeoff. Here are three examples for each of the CEO data points. ■ Use technology to personalize help online to meet consumer demand for speed. This will help provide solutions to consumers on the first call and free up live personnel to provide more personal and tailored interactions for concerns that require longer calls. In the process, you will produce stronger customer loyalty. ■ Use technology to fuel greater creativity from mining company data and incorporate more authority for innovation and ingenuity into job roles in every part of the business value chain. ■ Use technology to fulfill the mundane and expand roles to incorporate ideation about new products and services that the nonmundane problems discussed in live customer interactions will reveal. Expanding roles could deliver on the promise that the best consultants are inside every organization at the point of customer interaction. The workplace climate and employee experience have an assortment of impacts from that same phenomenon, technological innovation. Did you know it took 16 years for the iPhone to reach adoption by 100 million people? Or, that it took ChatGPT only three months? This data point reported by the chief technology officer from ZOOM speaks to the power of collaboration – yes, person to person and person to technology. As technology evolves to remove barriers to adoption and continues to drive ease of use across all ages and job roles, another barrier drops. Building a professional portfolio and identity based on knowledge and expert status becomes less separating. Technology empowers learning more democratically and offers individual contributor-experts opportunities to learn, practice, and value relationships and collaboration at an equal level with their technical wisdom. A potential byproduct of this transformation addresses tension from multi-generation workforces. The novelty of reverse mentoring by digital natives for other generations of leaders likely becomes necessary to accelerate the application of learning and use of the new technology. Collaboration has many upsides despite some outdated beliefs that it takes too much time. Before discounting the importance of Employees fear job loss from automation, negatively impacting morale and retention. Technologies focus on innovation over human factors. Management aims for efficiency gains to maximize shareholder value. TENSION 44 enterprising Women
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzA5OTEy