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AI has huge potential for businesses. But companies aren’t tracking an emerging risk, and it’s one that can be mitigated.
The tech could harm company culture by lowering employee satisfaction, eroding needed skills, or even seeding resentment. In addition to tracking AI’s return on investment, cost savings and productivity gains, firms need to track how AI affects worker behavior.
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“This is a very popular topic that we’re taking a lot of calls and queries about,” said Neil Osmond, an analyst at Gartner, a tech market research firm, in a recent presentation. AI is creating a new human-machine relationship that is unlike the adoption of past work technologies, such as PCs or the internet.
As AI chatbots become more humanlike, the tools will trigger human responses, from happiness to anger, as a real colleague would. The emotional response goes beyond fears of job loss to worries about losing parts of a job a worker loves. Rather than ROI, managers should keep tabs on how AI tools are helping employees feel more productive and engaged, said Osmond.
Work closely with affected employees and have them develop AI’s role and how the job will change. Don’t just provide Google’s Gemini, Microsoft Copilot or other AI tools to workers and hope for the best. Ask how AI is changing work and what workers like and don’t like about the shift.
As Osmond put it, “If AI is doing a portion of your job, and AI is better at it than you were, then what’s your new job?” said Osmond. Keep in mind that AI is not just about automating or augmenting. The new tools may do work that a company has never done. Reward workers for finding new moneymaking uses.
Using AI and losing skills
It’s important to keep tabs on human skills as AI handles more day-to-day tasks. For example, 75% of frontline cybersecurity teams will experience an erosion in skills by 2030 because of a dependency on AI, predicts Gartner. There are already worries that cybersecurity professionals will face an irreversible skills shortage due to generative AI taking over more tasks, noted Jeremy D’Hoinne, an analyst at Gartner, at a conference this summer.
Companies and managers must identify and cultivate must-have skills that can’t be lost with AI use, as skill erosion rears its head over the next few years. AI will sift through emails, summarize meetings or documents, create slideshows, draft legal briefs, write software, do economic analysis and perform other tasks. New and experienced workers may get rusty and institutional know-how may be lost. British law firm Clifford Chance, which is pushing AI adoption for its lawyers, is also tracking what skills atrophy, how it occurs and how to plan for it. More companies will do the same.
Consider how AI changes performance evaluations and career trajectories. For example, AI tools can make a new employee as productive as an experienced one, such as a new call center worker performing well with real-time AI responses. Or a new salesperson with an AI assistant that can answer and send emails and calls. Are all employees getting equal access to AI tools? When some get access and some don’t, that can create jealousy.
Humans make AI systems better
Focus on providing new AI skills to workers in short educational videos, brief email messages, infographics or social media-style content. For example, highlight a six-minute video that shows how to use AI to improve writing, a two-minute clip on doing research or a brief report on creating a slideshow. Share specific suggestions of a “prompt,” the specific language an employee should use to get the most out of an AI chatbot.
Avoid a vague push to use AI more. Instead, provide a steady stream of examples, especially ones that workers come across. Note that workers’ AI abilities vary widely. Time savings is one likely outcome. The time could be used for new tasks or learning. To keep employees satisfied, let them play a big part in the decision of how to use freed-up time.
The new era of AI at work represents a seismic shift.
Neil Osmond
Human knowledge remains critical and is key to continually making the AI systems better. For example, in cybersecurity, there needs to be human judgment to weed out security alerts that are false positives and improve the automated AI tools. Job postings may need updates to emphasize non-AI skills, especially for entry-level gigs. New college graduates will clearly have more experience with AI, but overreliance on it is a looming risk.
This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter.