Artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is becoming more and more common all over the world, in various industries. Not only do AI systems save businesses valuable time and money, but they also re-arrange the workplace in a sense as they look to take over many of the roles that management would have previously carried out. Below are five ways in which AI systems will redefine administration in the near future for many businesses:
- Intelligent Machines Need to be Treated as Colleagues: Trust AI to make the right decision. This is what they are there for. One company that’s following this practice currently is Kensho Technologies. They have a system that allows investment managers to ask investment related questions and get a reply within a few minutes. This could be especially useful when considering possibilities and different scenarios.
- Administration is AI work: It’s what AI has been built for – making repetitive tasks easy and more accurate. We all make mistakes. At the end of the day, we’re only human. But machines are not like us. They can crunch through masses of data without the need for a break, without making any silly mistakes. With AI taking over many of the boring, administrative jobs that managers have to deal with on a daily basis, such as vacation requests, payroll, absences, etc., it leaves them free to do much more important tasks such as making money for the business.
- Strengthen Social Skills and Networks: While AI brings many advantages to a business, it can also bring issues. One thing to be careful of in particular is the integration with the workforce. If a business is about to integrate AI into their model, the last thing they want to do is alienate their staff, so they have no one to work along side it.
- Focus on Judgement Work: Managers need to remember that AI will not produce all the right answers all the time, and to get the best from them, collaboration is the key. Often, ethical decisions need to be made that are out of the realms of a computer. Layne Thompson, director of ERP Services for a U.S. Navy IT company said, “More often than not, managers think of what they’re doing as requiring judgment, discretion, experience, and the capacity to improvise, as opposed to simply applying rules. And if one of the potential promises of machine learning is the ability to help make decisions, then we should think of technology as being intended to support rather than replace [managers].”
- Get Creative: Managers will need to learn how to harness other’s creative abilities and embed these into the companies’ practices. As AI takes over administration work it’s important for management to stay creative in order to stay successful. CEO of Insurance Australia Group, Peter Harmer, said, “We need people who can actually layer ideas on ideas. Not somebody who has to win in competition around ideas, but somebody who can say, ‘Crikey! If we bring these two or three or four things together, we’ve got something very, very different.’ That’s the creativity, the curiosity [we need in managers].”
We should look at AI not as a hindrance, but as a tool to help us in our daily lives, in work and at home. The more we use them, the more we will become accustomed to them and the more we will learn to get out of them. If managers learn to embrace them and work with them they will spend less time on meaningless tasks and more on the important aspects of running a business. AI is here to stay so businesses, managers, and worker all need to make the most of it.
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