Artificial Intelligence (AI) finds its way to everybody in one way or the other. In our daily office routine, it could be an addition that can help anyone with super enhancements to routine and boring work. But the differentiator is when people understand to utilize it to a large advantage and boost workplace productivity.
As we power into the 2020s, the technological landscape is changing at breakneck speed. Companies that keep up with the pace and adopt artificial intelligence into their workflow will cruise past those that don’t. In other words, the fact is given that we will see jobs disappear.
The idea is simple: In order to thrive, companies need to work smarter and faster to find more cost-effective ways to harness their data, manage their workforce, and handle day-to-day operations. While in some countries human manpower is cheap due to missing regulations and unions we can see the industrial countries of Europe and America are fighting with overhead costs. Here comes now AI into the game where expensive labor costs can be replaced with machines with benefits.
But keep in mind, importantly, this isn’t about replacing humans. It’s about boosting productivity, allowing workers to focus on the more human aspects of work. The most important way Al is transforming the workplace is by making it more human.
Here are some quick facts:
- The Artificial Intelligence market is set to grow by 50% year on year, over the next 5 years. – Research & Markets
- Incorporating AI into the workplace has the potential to increase productivity by 40% or more. – Accenture
- Currently, only 23% of businesses have incorporated AI into their processes – Forbes
The question remains when it comes to the topic to boost workplace productivity.
How can AI help my Business?
Think about your HR department. When it comes to a hiring process AI can play a big role. Recruitment is by nature a painful process. According to LinkedIn the average employee turnover rate is around 10%.
Replacing an employee can cost a business up to 60% of the employee’s salary.
According to Glassdoor, it takes nearly 24 days to hire a new member of staff and this is a really low end.
When your company is ready to hire, you need to be able to weed out time-wasters. It’s no wonder then that pre-screening of candidates is increasingly common.
Companies like Pymetrics offer a series of “ethical Al games” to assess candidates’ cognitive and emotional characteristics, whilst avoiding demographic bias.
Results are matched against existing employees who are good in their roles or used to suggest another suitable role for the candidate.
So using AI in the hiring process can reduce hiring time by 75% and increase employee retention by 50%.
So what about boring jobs can AI do it for us?
It is estimated that 47% of American jobs may be lost to automation. The good news is that there’s likely to benet positive job growth into the 2030s as the workforce transitions to higher-skilled roles. The question would be only where is our educational system, are we already prepared? We can hear the voices all the time that most educational systems across the globe are outdated.
Al & automation is perfect for certain jobs when it comes to:
- SPEED OF EXECUTION – Al systems can make millions of decisions simultaneously, compared to one by a human.
- NO BIAS – They do not bring biased opinions to the decision making process.
- SATURATION POINT – Al will not burnout, or need breaks.
- ACCURACY – No human means no human error.
- BOREDOM – Sifting through huge data sets will inevitably result in boredom, but not for a machine.
So what jobs could you hand over to AI?
DATA ANALYST/ SCIENTIST
To be ahead of the game, your business needs to be able to gather and analyze huge amounts of customer data to look for trends, spot opportunities, and so on.
WHY NOT A HUMAN? – Traditionally, this might have been done by a data scientist. And, whilst there has been a 344% increase in demand for data scientists since the early 2010s, at an average salary of $130k it’s clearly not within every company’s budget …
THE Al ALTERNATIVE – Deloitte’s LaborWise can provide managers with analytics to identify high-cost areas, roadblocks, and where departments are overworked or understaffed.
DEMAND FORECASTER
Using machine learning, systems can test mathematical models relevant to your business to predict changes in demand, supply disruptions, and product launches.
WHY NOT A HUMAN? – According to the consulting firm McKinsey, using Al can reduce supply chain forecasting errors by up to 50%.
ADMIN ASSISTANT
Again, we’re not suggesting Al can replace all human aspects of the role, but it can certainly lighten the load and learn how to boost workplace productivity in this role.
MEETINGS – Tools like X.ai can “connect all of your calendars will coordinate the best time to meet with your guests.”
TAKING MINUTES – Otter.ai can create rich notes from meetings, interviews, and other important voice conversations.
TRANSLATION – Skype Translator will translate skype calls in (near) real-time conversations.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Al is getting in on the HR scene too. Service desks like Spoke can answer HR questions (e.g. about leave). If it doesn’t know the answer it will direct the question to the right person in your team.
CHATBOTS – Train a chatbot to answer frequently asked questions on your website. If it can’t answer, the chat will be directed to an expert.
MARKETING ASSISTANT
Advances in Al and software intelligence are allowing companies to personalize their products and services more effectively for individual companies.
- 64% of B2B marketers consider Al valuable for their sales and marketing strategy.
- 83% of consumers in the US and UK are willing to trust retailers with their personal data in order to receive more tailored, targeted products, recommendations, and offers.
Now it is getting scary, did you know AI can teach us the one or other thing?
Starting a new role can be daunting, for both the new employee and those responsible for training them up – especially of your business has a certain, unique way of handling tasks.
But getting a new employee up to speed can be made easier with AI…
- SALES COACHING – AI coaching tools, like Chorus can analyze sales calls as they happen, offering tips to help sales reps e.g: “Now’s time to mention discounts to the customers”
- CUSTOMER CALLS – Another one is Cogito which offers real-time advice as to how the call is going. e.g: “You’re speaking fast. Slow down a bit.”
- VIRTUAL REALITY – Engineering firm Honeywell asks employees to wear AR headsets whilst working. This captures an experience that can be played back to trainees to experience the role via VR.
Tell me, what’s stopping your business from using AI?
Using AI in the workplace has many advantages to boost workplace productivity. Despite this, there are still obstacles form nay businesses to overcome before they integrate automation into their workflow.
- 77% of CEOs are concerned that AI will increase vulnerability and disruption to their business.
- 47% of CEOs worry about the difficulty of integrating AI projects with their existing systems.
- 40% of executives say the biggest obstacle to integrating AI is cost.
This is it, AI: Do or Die?
The future of AI is written into the modern workplace, whether we accept it or not. Businesses that embrace automation and AI in their workflow will reap the rewards of speed, efficiency, and accuracy.
Unsurprisingly, around 70% of workers believe AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates. However, the same percentage believe AI will have a “very” or “mostly” positive effect on how people live and work.
And that’s the heart of the matter: those jobs that were traditionally time-consuming, resource-intensive or laborious are those that arguably could be given over to machines in the hope that a retained workforce could take on some of the more “human” roles.
Several studies have revealed that the most important skills for the future human workforce are:
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Creativity
- Critical Thinking
To reiterate: The most important way AI is transforming the workspace is by making it more human. So, if you’re ready to grow your business and cruise past the competition, it’s time to get on board with AI.
The infographic about using AI to boost workplace productivity was put together by Adzoom, their promise is to make online advertising easy and accessible to all businesses.
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