All businesses will be affected by AI and will have AI incorporated into all of their operations. Your company culture will affect how quickly and successfully an organization can adopt AI. And, if done right, AI can improve company culture.
How can AI boost business culture?
An MIT working paper showed that ChatGPT increased productivity, decreased inequality among workers by helping employees with fewer specialized skills, and improved job satisfaction and self-efficacy. It also raised concern and excitement related to the use of AI technologies.
Among MIT respondents who implemented AI and saw improvement in efficiency and decision-making, “75 percent also saw improvements in team morale, collaboration, and collective learning,” he said. “The cultural change resulting from the use of AI transcends the legitimate, but myopic promise that AI will free workers from drudgery.”
AI’s high level of refinement means it can improve the performance of individuals and teams, streamline workflows, and even complete some tasks that allow employees to focus on more meaningful work.
Careers that were once mundane can now be exciting as employees are able to work more efficiently and branch out into other areas they may never have had a chance to explore. As this becomes a reality in an organization, employees can feel empowered to do work that increases business value with creative and innovative solutions.
Recently, Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist at Stanford University, and MIT economists Danielle Li and Lindsey R. Raymond published a working paper, “Generative AI at Work,” showing the effects of AI on a software company. who implemented it to help in its development. customer service responses.
Among their findings was that access to the tool increased employee productivity by an average of 14% and that customers and employees were happier. On the client side, customer ratings of support staff increased and customers were less likely to escalate the request to a supervisor. On the business side, new hire turnover decreased and less-skilled employees with fewer specialized skills saw a jump in performance. This improvement can be attributed, at least in part, to the AI tool that uses successful conversations to create answers for other questions.
“Before, high-skilled workers had a good response, and that just helped them and their clients,” Brynjolfsson told NPR. “Now that good feedback is amplified and used by people across the organization.”
Determining the readiness of your culture for AI
“Enterprise culture affects AI implementations, and AI implementations affect enterprise culture,” said the MIT Sloan Management Review Big Ideas Research Report. However, to reap these benefits, leaders must create a culture that supports the implementation of AI and the changes that come with any new innovation.
Each company will have its own cultural nuances when implementing a controversial and somewhat unpredictable technology. Everything from the nature of work for an organization to employee demographics to IT security infrastructure will play a role in how AI is perceived, deployed, and used in an organization.
When considering what types of AI to implement and how to implement them in your organization, one of your primary considerations should be readiness for change across the enterprise.
Questions for leadership include:
How have the above changes been received? Start by reviewing past changes within your company. What cultural issues arose and how were they addressed by leadership? Was the initiative ultimately a success, or what led to its failure?
What is the level of interest in innovation within your company? Are employees enthusiastic about new ideas and willing to take moderate risks?
How do you want your organization to use AI? Have you communicated this to all employees? Creating an approach and policy for AI helps remove doubt about its use as a tool and sets standards and best practices that are consistent with your organization’s culture.
What is the level of trust in your organization? Trust is a huge component to successfully implementing change, and it works both ways. Do leaders trust their employees to take measured risks and abide by established policies? Do employees believe leaders are honest and have their best interests in mind? Are leaders modeling transparency?
Building a culture of trust does not start when the change is implemented. If you have a culture that is not innovative, leaders who do not adequately train employees on new tools and technologies, or who are not transparent about the risks and opportunities of new innovations, any investment in AI will fail.
Research has shown that 70% of digital transformations fail, and a study shows that the driving factor is not technology, but people. “Technology is important, but the people dimension (organization, operating model, processes and culture) is often the determining factor. Organizational inertia from deeply entrenched behaviors is a major impediment.”
Consistency, transparency, empowerment, and empowerment are key, and it starts with education and understanding. When you have effective change management—clear and timely communications, targeted learning opportunities, and meaningful ways to share feedback and concerns—the introduction of innovations like AI can be less intimidating and less disruptive to an organization’s operations.
Help employees understand that AI is an augmentation, not a replacement
Leaders need to start preparing their workforce to view AI tools as augmentation rather than replacement. Whether people realize it or not, AI is already a part of our daily lives, from smartphones and smart cars to aspects of social media, spell checking, and even doing a Google search.
Suddenly, a previously challenging task can be done quickly and efficiently with the help of AI. Leaders must be enthusiastic about equipping and educating teams on the potential uses of AI, helping their employees learn why their roles matter and how they can deliver more value with AI as a tool.
Often when people are reluctant to change, it’s not because they’re afraid of technology, but because of what it might mean for their role. With AI and ChatGPT, the main fear is that AI will replace them by fully automating their position, or at least enough of their function that they are not needed.
What people sometimes don’t realize is that as tasks become automated, new opportunities present themselves. When freed from menial or time-consuming tasks like taking notes, approving expense reports, or searching for information, productivity and creativity can skyrocket. Employees find that they have time to do deeper, more meaningful, or strategic work.
Introduction and adaptation to AI will require refinement and, in some cases, retraining. In other cases, AI will simply ease the burden on employees who tend to be overworked, such as those in high-turnover roles. AI can provide a much-needed breather and help employees accept the idea of change. To be effective, leaders will need to develop training programs and learning paths for employees to thrive, as well as gain buy-in from their teams.
As leaders, it is our responsibility to create a culture that is excited about change, rather than fearful of it, with the potential to improve everyone’s work experience. To cross the bridge from skepticism to enthusiasm and help accelerate AI adoption in their business, leaders need to assess their business’s readiness for change and the gap they need to bridge for what surely lies ahead.
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