How is AI impacting the workplace?

In the year 2020, the entire globe faced a different and unique phase. When the whole world went into the phase of lockdown and economic slowdown. And we all remember how rapidly a four-walled office has been replaced with machines like laptops and mobile phones. Well this is what we call, importance of artificial intelligence in professions and the workplace.

 

Let us understand the role of AI in the workplace briefly.

 

AI and the workplace

 

AI and workplace are closely knitted to each other. The role of AI in the workplace is hard to define in a limit of words. Let us not get too far. If you remember a decade back, getting our salaries is a task for all of us. Obviously, we have to stand in a 2 metres long queue in front of the accountant. After an hour or two, we used to give him our bank or employees details.

 

And then only, we get our salaries. But now things have changed. We just get a random message showing, ‘your salary is credited’. This is the evolution AI has made in the employees and employers lives.

 

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How does AI support big businesses?

 

The basic strength of a business, whether it is big or a mere startup lies in its insights. The insights are directly responsible for the heights of the business. And here the ways in which AI and big data assists with business insights:

 

1. To recognise important changes in patterns.

 

2. Help in creating a report which can help companies to see that they are on the right track or not.

 

3. Analyse the deep content and do evidence based reasoning. 

 

4. It uncover the changes in the customer behaviour which might affect the bottom line of businesses.

 

5. It predicts the key business metrics which are needed by a company to track and optimize performance. 

 

By gaining the data from insights- it requires a lot of time and manual effort but now it can be done with the help of AI. So due to this a lot of potential unlocks from the employees that can be used to improve the customer service. And this use of AI has turned into a big benefit in the workplace.

 

Related blog - AI in Human Resource Management 

 

 

Case Study- AI in workplace

 

Though, everything around the workplace from software to a machine is an application of AI. But to make things more clear, we are here with a case study. Let us consider a technical example of Chatbots.

 

Chatbots which are operated by AI have become a must for the teams having direct interaction with the customer and these rely on accurate, fast and customer support on time.

 

From the gathering of the information to initiating the process of filling the complaints of customers, the manual time which is needed to complete these tasks has been reduced by the chatbots. 

 

It has also improved the experience of the customers. Reduction in the administrative tasks will also help to eliminate the human errors from your customer operations. 

 

Relevant article: How is AI used in Business Functions?

 

Chatbots don't quite have human touch, they are getting better day by day. They would not completely take over customer support, but chatbot can handle repetitive tasks and help customer support to perform better at their jobs. 

 

AI tools are also there which use behavioral science to help customer service to provide better support. So this will help in increasing the productivity and job satisfaction for the employees.

 

 

What are the advantages of AI in the workplace?

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Advantages of AI in the workplace

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 AI plays a vital role in the workplace. Here is the list of some major advantages and merits of artificial intelligence in the workplace.

 

Increases productivity

 

To improve the productivity of the employees , businesses are using artificial intelligence. AI handles repetitive tasks across an organization so that employees can focus on complex problem solving, creative solutions and Impactful work. e.g. chatbot.  

 

Turn the complex data into the simpler insights

 

Data is very important to run a competitive business, without data is impossible to run a business. If you obtain it and hiring someone who can read all this data and provide the valuable Insights is even harder. 

 

The scientist who is good at data reading is harder to find nowadays. AI can help companies to read their data and gain valuable insights from it without a data scientist on staff.

 

Related blog - Data Scientist Skills

 

Increases data safety

 

Let us understand this with a day life example. You all are aware of the movie, ‘catch me if you can’ in which Leonardo DiCaprio plays Frank Abagnale. He is a con artist who managed to deceive people out of millions of dollars. 

 

But Abagnale turned his life around confessing wrongs, serving a brief prison sentence and he finally ended up working with the FBI to help to catch the other con artists. Abagnale created a security company and has been a security consultant for the last 30 years.

 

Abagnale said one thing at Google talk was quite scary, "what i did almost 50 years ago, and it's about 4000 times easier today to con people than when i did it. 

 

There are some data security breaches which leak personal data, and most of the time, the company that has the breach is aware of that information.

 

Suggested Read - Data Security Practices

 

But AI helps to change it. AI keeps data confidentiality and integrity a top priority and invests a lot in data and information security.

 

A safety to the frontline workers

 

According to a report of chrome, 53% frontline workers use messaging apps such as Facebook messenger or WhatsApp upto six times a day for work related reasons. 

 

Using WhatsApp for work purposes is very dangerous because it is very bad at protecting the securities and the security breach is about to happen anytime. 

 

 

What are the limitations of AI in the workplace?

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Limitations of AI in the workplace

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 With mentioned merits AI has the following drawbacks too. There are few sectors where AI lags in the workplace and needs immediate improvement. The disadvantages of AI in workplace are as follows:

 

High Cost

 

To make a machine which works or copies human intelligence is not a small thing and definitely not an easy task to do. AI requires a lot of time, effort and money. It works on the latest hardware and software to stay up to date and to encounter the latest requirements.

 

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No human creativity

 

AI is capable of learning overtime and pre nourishing data and from past experiences.but it can't be creative. e.g. bot Quill who writes a report on Forbes earning. This kind of reports contain data and the facts which are already provided to the bot.

 

Increases unemployment

 

One of the biggest disadvantages of AI  is that it is replacing a number of repetitive tasks with bots. Reduction in the needs of humans has reduced employment for humans. 

 

According to a study report, AI will replace at least 30 % of human labour by 2030.

 

Make humans lazy

 

Applications of AI automate the majority of repetitive tasks. Before this technology things were very difficult but now it's very easy to solve any puzzle and we can say it eases a lot of things and saves human time but also makes humans lazy. The addiction of AI can cause serious problems in the future generations. 

 

Hard to maintain ethical policy

 

Ethics and morality are the aspects of human feature and it can't be incorporate into the artificial intelligence. The growing progress of AI has raised a number of concerns that one day it will wipe out humanity. And this moment of AI is referred to as the AI singularity.

 

Suggested blog: Is AI gender biased?

 

A way forward

 

The advent of AI is responsible for bringing various changes in the world. When we talk about the workplace, the contribution of this technology is comparatively high. If you are someone who is working in a profession for a decade, you yourself have noticed the changes AI has brought in your field. 

 

Work from home and the HR sector are the most recent huge scale applications of AI in the workplace. Different professions and work have moulded it as per their needs and requirements. And AI still has a long way to go in different sectors.