Can AI really replace you in office? Infosys HR head explains

The risk that Artificial Intelligence (AI) may impact jobs is far outweighed by the gains it brings to the vast majority of employees. In a recent survey of about 3,300 US-based workers, the respondents said they expected AI would improve the efficiency of their tasks by 41 per cent. The study also found that employers were willing to pay substantially higher salaries to employees with AI skills, across functions. The premium was highest (47 per cent) for IT workers and ranged from 35-43 per cent for other employees. Salary and productivity aside, AI benefits employees by enhancing their experience at work in several ways. As it happens, great employee experience is also in the interest of employers, since it is linked to 31 per cent higher revenue growth. Here are some ideas on how employers can leverage AI for this purpose.

Act on insights 

First millennials and then the Covid-19 pandemic underscored the importance of people-centric employee experiences. Employers can use AI models to build employee profiles, acquire insights into what really matters to today’s employees, and initiate appropriate actions to meet those expectations, which can range across a sense of identity and purpose; social and emotional well-being; work-life balance; and having agency at work. Organisations can also use AI tools to gather and analyse feedback to understand employee sentiment, get ratings for training programmes and other initiatives, identify improvement areas, and more. This applies equally to employees who work from home as to those who work from office. Remote workers face specific challenges, such as having to set up and manage IT infrastructure on their own, without expert assistance or service. AI can assist helpdesk agents in identifying common issues found in remote working environments and sharing the learnings from employee interactions to speed up problem diagnosis and resolution.   

Onboard employees, and onward 

Onboarding – traditionally a fragmented process that required new recruits to contact different teams for getting their hardware issued and email set up, understanding company rules and policy, and meeting co-workers across functions – is now a highly automated, frictionless experience thanks to digital technologies. AI can enhance every step of the employee journey by automating onboarding, supporting daily jobs, facilitating employee development, enabling information access, and more. Among other things, it can straightaway answer the typical questions of new employees, provide easy access to onboarding documentation, and escalate issues that it cannot resolve to the right personnel.   

Help employees and those who help them 

Not only does AI assist helpdesk agents as mentioned earlier but it is also capable of handling many types of requests on its own. For example, an advanced conversational bot can offer round-the-clock support, helping employees resolve most issues themselves. Only in the case of a complicated or unresolved issue does the bot forward the ‘incident ticket’ to the helpdesk. AI can also “sense” if an employee is stuck in some activity and proactively offers helpful resources. This can significantly help to improve employee experience and productivity. Additionally, AI can also improve the well-being of agents by identifying early signs of burnout and helping them get through it.   

Enable cross-functional, cross-regional, cross-language collaboration 

With the hybrid work model firmly in place, more teams are now distributed across locations, in geographies with different languages and time zones. AI helps them stay connected, exchange information, and collaborate on projects. If the people involved in a conversation speak different languages, AI can even provide real-time translations, thus enabling the participants to understand each other perfectly. Virtual assistants can facilitate coordination by fixing meetings and managing calendars; other tools can take notes during meetings, summarise discussions, and track the progress of deliverables. And when a project needs specialists, AI can even suggest names and where to find them.  

Take learning to new levels 

Unlike traditional learning and development systems, which offer standardised content and defined paths of learning, AI-powered learning management platforms can personalise training to the needs, strengths, motivation level, performance, and preferences of every employee. Since employees cannot spare any time from work for learning separately, AI integrates micro-learning modules into their work processes exactly when required without interrupting their routine. By gamifying learning to motivate and engage learners, AI improves learning outcomes. Through multimodal tutoring and pedagogy, AI makes the learning experience more immersive. It can also gather and piece content together to make it easier to consume, and curate training materials to suit every employee’s needs and context.  

Think, then proceed 

There is usually a direct correlation between employee experience and productivity. AI can improve the productivity and performance of employees and organisations by elevating the employee experience in the ways described above and more. AI-powered automation can also take over mundane, repetitive, or potentially dangerous tasks, thereby improving their efficiency and leaving employees free to focus on more value-added work. Furthermore, by augmenting many of the existing job roles and processes, AI allows more space for innovation that can create new growth opportunities for the business. However, the use of this technology calls for careful planning and responsible implementation. Due consideration must be given to data privacy and, of course, to the laws and regulations that may apply to the organisation in the countries where it operates. When done right, AI enables us to do more – much more – with less. 

Views are personal. The author is Group Head, Human Resource Development, Infosys