Confronting The Artificial Elephant In The Room Is Essential For Your Engagement Strategy

The Artificial Elephant In The Room
BACK TO Insights

AI. The potential is huge.

Leaders are embracing this potential with 65%, globally,  acknowledging its capacity to elevate performance across organisations.

However, this enthusiasm isn’t matched by workers with 53% saying they don’t feel equipped to integrate AI into their work.

So: How do organisations empower workers, fully involving and supporting them in their AI strategies, so that they don’t feel blindsided?

(Read or watch - your choice!)

On the whole, leaders buy into the increasing integration of AI into their organisations.

Workers, somewhat less so.

In a world where things are changing faster than ever - markets, consumer needs and expectations - clever use of AI can help organisations to do more, quicker and more effectively, whilst freeing up talent to focus on strategic thinking.

72% of Fortune 500 CHRO’s foresee AI replacing jobs in their organisations in the next 3 years.

65% of leaders agree that AI can be used to improve the performance of most roles in their organisation.

BUT

The same zeal is not being seen amongst most workforces.

There remains a general disconnect.

So, what about serving THEIR needs and expectations?

Complacency, scepticism, fear, and a general lack of clarity prevail.

In the US, only 1 in 10 workers say that they currently use AI on a weekly basis.

53% of workers say that they don’t feel prepared or equipped to integrate it into their daily working lives.

So what does this mismatch in expectations mean?

It’s clear that leaders need to communicate their vision with employees and implement the right support to ensure that they are not left blindsided.

Being intentional about how you do this, if you haven’t already, is crucial. This much seems obvious.

HOWEVER, I can’t help thinking that this conversation demands a deeper one.

A deeper, more existential disconnect.

Back in 2018, some 979 technology pioneers, innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers and activists came together to discuss the projected impact of AI on our working worlds by 2030.

Batya Friedman, a human-computer interaction professor at the University of Washington’s Information School said this:

“At stake is nothing less than what sort of society we want to live in and how we experience our humanity…..Our scientific and technological capacities have and will continue to surpass our moral ones - that is our ability to use wisely and humanely the knowledge and tools that we develop.”

Perhaps it’s not as simple as providing workers with the necessary technical support and training when it comes to integrating AI.

Perhaps the disconnect runs somewhat deeper than this.

It could even be somewhat existential - challenging what it means to be human, productive, valued and relevant.

A more imaginative, value driven use of AI

Organisations need to be more imaginative in their integration of AI than the simple pursuit of profit - the service to more, more quickly.

The use of AI for your organisation needs to match your purpose and values.

What are those? How well have you articulated them?

Your compass when maybe feeling a little lost or faced with important, potentially challenging moral dilemmas further down the line.

In our diagnostic organisational performance tool, INTENT: we use the following statements to assess how well an organisation scores against these factors by getting workers to assess how strongly they agree or disagree with them:

  1. I am intrinsically motivated by my work

  2. I am aware of my organisation’s performance and strategic direction

  3. I am contributing to the big picture goals of the organisation

  4. My organisation has articulated a shared purpose

  5. I truly connect to my organisation’s shared purpose

How do you think your organisation would score against these?

At a time where workers want more meaning from their jobs, but are simultaneously feeling more disconnected, especially millennials and Gen Z’ers, it’s essential for organisations to help employees feel valued beyond their output. 

The more that AI is used exclusively in service to productivity, the more danger there is of alienating and further disconnecting employees.

“Well if I’m not valued beyond what I produce, and if they’ll give no second thought to handing my role over to AI, then why should I feel any loyalty to them, beyond what they pay me?”

And with 51% of the global workforce actively seeking or watching for new job opportunities, perhaps this is a reflection of a more mercenary approach to work. An approach to which the growing influence of AI could well be a significant contributor. (Hybrid working undoubtedly has a strong role to play as well.)

Back to basics for a better future?

In a recent internal learning session, I was discussing our model for a high performance culture, INTENT at length, and my c-founder Jonny said something brilliant.

“Look, it’s all about building a culture that absolutely serves fundamental human needs.”

I loved the simplicity and clarity.

With INTENT: we have the unwavering conviction that by getting these foundations right, you most effectively set yourself up for sustainable high performance.

By building a culture that gets the balance right.

Cultures that aren’t simply in service to more, more quickly.

Cultures with moral intent, and a more mindful, boundaried integration of AI that keeps people at the centre. 

In the words of Friedman, quoted above, ensuring that we “use wisely and humanely the knowledge and tools that we develop.”

After all, businesses are people, for people, and it’s your people that will power your success. Make sure that you don’t neglect them in the blind pursuit of more.

Take the first step to set yourself up for success right now with INTENT:

(You can assess your business or team, for free, by clicking here.)

Christopher Wickenden 18.04.2024