Technological progress is no longer time-stamped by the turning of one generation to the next. It’s now being measured in smaller increments of time, from years down to months to even weeks.
These new, truncated transition periods, initiated by technological advances that most recently include the introduction and evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, are often viewed through distinctly different lenses. For some, the rapid rise in the adoption of AI workplace capabilities can seem threatening.
For others who choose to see the value of AI in the workplace, each advancement represents an opportunity. From workflow improvements to customer service engagements to more efficient backend systems, the use of artificial intelligence improves the modern workplace and elevates the user experience.
We already see leading organizations prove this theory in real time across a number of industries.
Breaking Down Boundaries, Scaling And Achieving Success With AI Workplace Technology
Consider these 2 situations:
- A leading telecommunications company is using AI in a customer service role, like countless companies have begun doing in recent years. However, in what has become perhaps a striking or surprising outcome, AI service techs are receiving higher customer service satisfaction scores than their human colleagues.
- Similar results were experienced by a global software company using AI tools for their diagnostic capabilities and bedside manner in the healthcare space. As seen in the telecommunications industry, AI technology was preferred over the human resources in that setting.
Those 2 examples alone illustrate AI’s ability to not only improve the customer experience of any given interface but also how AI allows technology solutions to break free of a one-size-fits-all environment and instead hyper-personalize interactions.
By rapidly analyzing data, machine intelligence eclipses the capabilities of human intelligence, creating space for efficient interactions that benefit from natural language processing and aren’t interrupted or impacted by uniquely human experiences, such as mood or tone.
Put simply, AI isn’t emotionally affected by getting stuck in traffic, feeling under the weather or the outcome of a previous customer service interaction. It just does what it is supposed to do, every time. Its adoption, across a variety of use cases — beyond customer service — can help operations remain competitive.
Taking a bird’s eye view, artificial intelligence has evolved from simply existing as a buzzword into an organizational differentiator and game changer.
Current & Potential Future Impacts of AI Workplace Technology
From employee recruitment and retention to internal operations and workflow to external interactions and customer engagement, companies ripe with opportunity are those with a hybrid workforce model.
Statistics indicate that the adoption of a hybrid workforce has transitioned from being necessary only for a brief period to one that is preferred over the long haul. Projections suggest that by 2025, more than 75% of companies will embrace some type of hybrid workplace model.
What does that mean for HR professionals, job candidates, business processes and associates already embedded within organizations? If optimized, companies will create efficiencies and improve connections by offloading repetitive tasks and shifting their reliance on human intelligence to human oversight.
And it should be noted that any company that adopts and utilizes AI tools can do so by embracing a “low hanging fruit” philosophy, allowing employees to get acquainted with AI skills and computer programs that are designed to modernize the workplace.
Meeting rooms are a perfect entrypoint.
AI skills that include intelligent voice recognition, automated camera positioning and other types of technologies allow employees to enter a meeting space and have it configured to function exactly how they need it to, almost as if they have a virtual director at their disposal.
And once within those meetings, employees have the ability to access real-time transcription, virtual assistant technology and more. As AI continues to evolve and integrate fully into systems that are widely used, more options will become available.
Microsoft Teams, and its generative AI tool known as Microsoft Copilot, is focused on improving the quality and functionality of hybrid meetings. Aimed at making collaboration “smarter,” Microsoft Copilot has the ability to provide insights from a meeting chat in addition to a meeting transcript.
While some Copilot features, such as sounding like a pirate, may not come in handy as often as support with generating new messages or intelligent call recaps, AI features make hybrid meetings a little more personable and engaging.
Webex offers a suite of AI assistants for hybrid meeting support, intelligent collaboration workspaces and for the customer experience, utilizing an industry-first generative AI model for audio and video and tapping into language intelligence with its large language model. Similarly, Zoom’s AI assistant helps summarize meetings and chat threads, generate emails and messages and its “smart recordings” feature catalogs meetings into easy-to-explore chapters.
5 Benefits To AI Workplace Technology Implementation
The benefits related to the use of generative AI in workplaces and other AI skills and tools are numerous and can be specific to the application or setting in which they’re being used. However, the overarching benefits of today’s artificial intelligence capabilities fall into a handful of key categories, giving user experience a huge boost:
- Creating efficiencies: AI applications allow repetitive or mundane tasks to be automated, reducing the time employees need to spend on them. Even key administrative tasks such as meeting notes can be completed by an AI assistant to allow employees to focus efforts elsewhere.
- Enabling productivity: More productive workplace environments enabled by AI allow employees to focus more on the substance of a meeting rather than making sure the technology powering it is functioning.
- Improving communications: By capturing key details of hybrid meetings and supporting meeting equity for remote participants, AI technology keeps everyone on the same page, alleviating concerns that tasks or priorities may fall through the cracks.
- Boosting customer service: The integration of artificial intelligence into customer service roles has the potential to improve the quality, speed and quantity of customer interactions.
- Data analysis: AI systems, with their ability to analyze vast amounts of data, provide actionable insights across the spectrum, help to mitigate risks and respond to queries in intelligent ways.
Responding to the AI Workplace revolution
If we’ve learned anything from the speed of technology , it’s that systems can no longer be built and left alone to operate for years on end. Flexibility and agility are vital characteristics that companies need to embrace to maximize system performance across the organization.
Companies are adopting AI capabilities and best practices to enhance the overall workplace experience. Spanning the alphabet, AI runs the gambit from HR to IT, streamlining processes, fostering collaboration and mitigating potential human errors.
Here are 3 examples of how AI can move the needle in your business for today and beyond:
1. Maximizing Remote Onboarding with Interactive Media Tools
The increased adoption of hybrid workforces is making interactive media tools even more valuable during the onboarding process for new employees. Just as the need for a remote or hybrid workforce necessitated its adoption, so too did the need for virtual onboarding processes.
Now that they’re here, they are actually preferred by candidates and companies, according to experts in the field taking a page from engagement seen across video platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Video, combined with project management-focused AI capabilities, is a formula that human resources professionals are able to leverage when engagement and progress through the onboarding process are the goal.
According to an industry survey, virtual onboarding has led to more engaged employees who stay with the company longer, while also providing better outcomes when compared to in-person onboarding procedures. A number of platforms in the employee training space are capitalizing on this intel.
Talmundo, as one example, offers a software platform that streamlines the onboarding process by offering real-time progress tracking, automated tasks and engaging content, among other features. BambooHR offers a similar platform, where it offers applicant tracking and onboarding processes while also providing HR-related data and reporting through automated workflows.
2. Enhancing Your Hybrid Meetings With AR and VR
With teams scattered across the globe, and the ability to connect with clients through video conferencing and hybrid meetings, AR and VR are set to revolutionize the workplace. Virtual whiteboards have already transformed collaboration, making brainstorming sessions dynamic and interactive, ensuring teams stay engaged and creative.
Tools like the Apple Vision Pro step up the interactive game in an entirely new way. A device that engages both AR and VR programs, the spatial computing technology tools have the ability to bring hybrid or remote meetings to life by using avatars so every meeting attendee is “in the room.”
The use of AR and VR, in essence, has the power to create meeting parity. And the models being used now are only going to improve with each iteration, becoming lighter, easier to use, less expensive and more capable of tasks that may not have even been considered yet.
3. Improving Accuracy And Risk Mitigation In Security Functions
Like other rising technologies, the use of AI applications and platforms comes with challenges. It also offers opportunities to mitigate human error and other deficiencies such as data accuracy and security.
A recent report that surveyed data security professionals revealed that an overwhelming majority of them share concerns about the security of data as AI is more widely used. However, a number of data security experts are confident their security strategies are prepared to respond to artificial intelligence-related challenges, and many are using AI tools to support anomaly detection, advanced encryption, training, phishing detection and security app development.
As data threats continue to increase, AI skills are able to shore up the security stance of an organization by offloading human tasks and integrating AI wherever it can be useful.
Allow AI To Maximize Your Organization’s Ability To Succeed
AI can come with risk in the workplace, especially if an organization accepts it and implements it blindly. A great first step is establishing a policy that governs AI usage. Doing so opens the doors to workplaces that have educated freedom to embrace an incredible amount of reward.
From improved efficiencies and productivity to a more engaging and personalized customer service environment, the benefits of artificial intelligence have only just begun to unfold throughout the business world.
Learning to implement AI takes insight, adaptability and an eagerness to stay ahead. At Diversified, we’re dedicated to creating highly-functional, intelligent workplaces of the future, and that kind of future includes AI.
AI in the workplace is here to stay. The irony of “artificial” intelligence is just how real the impact and results can be for users. It is already undeniably improving meeting equity, unlocking new operational efficiencies, and covering more administrative tasks to improve speed and scale for users.
How it looks and how it is used today is not how it will look or be used tomorrow, that is for certain. But finding ways to integrate AI now, in ways that make the most sense to your organization, is critical to keep pace with the speed of technological progress.
We firmly believe that AI will become the air we breathe as it relates to how companies approach technology into the future. We can help you prepare for that; contact us today.
