As companies embrace cutting-edge technologies like AI and automation, there will be a shift in how businesses operate and the way in which employees perform daily activities. Company culture will also be heavily affected by this wave of transformation. We share three possibilities for the use of AI in planning the future of business.
There’s a wealth of commentary on Artificial Intelligence (AI), and its impact on our lives, both personal and professional. For businesses, AI has a massive impact as has been written about in articles and research papers, detailing its multi-faceted benefits. For company culture, the advantages of using AI are just as substantial. Briefly, AI will: reimagine employee roles, streamline customer interactions, and realign collaboration among the workforce.
Here are three ways in which company culture will evolve, over time, in the age of AI.
1. It Will Foster an Environment of Creativity and Innovation
When routine tasks are intelligently automated, employee roles are bound to witness a paradigm shift. Freed from staid, iterative jobs, employees will focus on new, strategic initiatives and creative ways of problem-solving. Performance metrics will also move from conventional models, towards the gathering and collection of data on how employees are creating business value through creative applications. For instance, when your IT staff is freed of daily tasks such as password resets or inventory maintenance, they can focus on identifying and actioning new technologies that could positively impact the workplace.
2. It Will Let Companies Consistently Experiment with New Ideas
A game-changer for company culture, AI will allow organizations to become more experimental. Companies will now be able to try new modes of customer interactions, enhance customer experiences, improve employee engagement, and always push for the best outcomes in product/service delivery. Any experimental program in the past would be more costly and complex, with its human middle-layer and the immense effort required to fix an instance of failure. Today, AI will let companies cut through time and cost considerations, mitigating risks through easily configurable business rules, letting workers try out new ideas without any anxiety. Naturally, companies who foster experimentation will stand out in today’s highly competitive market.
3. It Will Push Company Culture Beyond the Barriers of a Conventional Workforce
As AI continues to make inroads into various organizational functions, the workplace – and therefore, company culture as a whole – will witness a dramatic transformation. From bots to automated tasks, from freelance and remote workers managed by AI to employees moving into experimental terrain, workplaces around the world will have a refreshed mix of skills. Virtual and analog workers, new roles/tasks, and the coming together of diverse ideas across locations will transform how everyday assignments and issues are addressed. Needless to say, company culture will also evolve, becoming more dynamic, inclusive, and technology-empowered.
Disruptive Approaches to Ensuring Culture Fit – the Role of AI
While company culture is poised to completely transform as AI enters the workplace, several pioneers in this space will actually be using AI to proactively ensure a culture fit. Defining company culture, however, will remain a strategic initiative, based on organizational goals/values combined with data gathered from employees. “Organizations often struggle to define their own cultures. There is an opportunity for technology to provide a more real-time definition of what people hold in common, though it is unlikely to take the form of AI. I’m excited at the rise of ‘Employee Engagement’ tools like Culture Amp and 15Five which help an organization survey its employees on a regular basis and provide signals to HR leaders as to how employee sentiment is trending,” said Sarah Nahm, CEO at hiring solutions company, Lever.
Once the definition of company culture is in place, employers can look at using AI hiring candidates who better it their culture code. Only the right skills aren’t enough; they should be able to fit in, work together, and also be adaptable enough in a workplace that constantly shifts in the face of AI
For culture, therefore, AI will prove to be an external driver as well as an internal lever – “Using intelligent algorithms and Facial Recognition Analysis recruiters can identify professional skills like complex problem-solving capabilities, critical thinking, cognitive flexibility, etc. as well as personality-driven soft skills. While technical skills can always be taught on the job, the assessment of soft skills is very important while hiring a candidate,” Jessica Herrin, founder of online marketplace Stella & Dot, told us in this context.
In Conclusion
The potential of AI is truly limitless. It has the ability to make our lives better, jobs easier, and push human efforts as well as enterprise direction towards the next epoch. This is why organizations must stay in tandem with these revolutionary tech forces and allow their company culture to be challenged, changed, and finally improved for the better.