An employee experience remedy to AI Kool-Aid
There is no denying that the tech sector is having a feeding frenzy selling all manner of artificial intelligence (AI) infused products to IT buyers even if they don’t actually require the functionality.
The AI in office productivity suites like Windows 365 is built into the product. While there is enhanced AI Copilot functionality available as a paid-for add-on, there has been a price increase on the base Office suite, which means people are paying more.
Given it is already embedded in enterprise software, Gartner analyst Helen Poitevin sees AI rather like the introduction of business email. Organisations will need to pay for the technology even if employees are not using it.
Perhaps a valid question is what the tech sector would be doing if there was no AI. Computer Weekly recently asked that very question to one tech executive three times: the answer given was less than satisfactory. Each time the exec tried to steer the conversation back to AI. The takeaway is that there’s no other innovation in tech, apart from AI.
But since they can’t talk about anything other than AI, it is no surprise that Gartner’s recent Symposium in Barcelona was heavily focused on AI. Among the interesting conversations taking place during the conference was the role of people, in a world where AI is being sold as the answer to every organisation’s woes. For Poitevin, employees are going to face major disruption and perhaps some may indeed find they no longer wish to have a role to play in the business they currently work for.
AI is being sold to business chiefs as a way to drive business growth by automating the mundane tasks people have to do, freeing them to focus on growing the business. The greater the use of AI, the greater the business benefits, is the line business chiefs are being spun. And the easiest way this can be achieved is to use AI to pick the low-hanging fruit – the easy tasks people tend to do as part of their normal working practices.
No longer needing to do these things, people gain more time to focus on business benefits. Any business chief who believes that will happen should probably stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
People may well feel that those tasks that have been automated actually brought them joy and happiness and the freed up time does not correlate with a positive business outcome.
But with competition in the jobs market heating up, using AI to help deliver a more fulfilling employee experience, may be the way employers make their organisation stand out as a great place to work.
Listen to the podcast interview with Gartner analyst, Helen Poitevin >>