Artificial Intelligence (or AI) is regularly touted as being revolutionary. It’s going to transform the way we work, live, travel and spend our leisure time in ways that we might not yet fully comprehend. Its potential is vast, and nowhere is going to be impacted more than the workplace.
AI is set to slash overhead costs, drive innovation and improve productivity. Some of the world’s largest companies are already investing heavily in AI, with tech start-ups proliferating to meet the growing demand for the services that AI will be able to offer.
So, how might AI change the way we work and do business over the coming years and decades?
AI Will Provide Workplace Assistance
AI technology is growing more sophisticated by the day, but there’s still some confusion and questions about how it might be implemented in the office space. Whereas once it was predicted that a robot revolution would end up replacing human workers with smart machines, the reality is likely to be more of a complementary relationship.
AI is likely to take over mundane and routine tasks freeing up human employees to concentrate on core tasks. Al assistance will take care of tasks such as data entry automatically, and workers will be able to instruct their AI assistance to perform simple tasks such as note-taking, logging on to their computers or conducting website searches. They may be able to do this via their voices or through simple gestures. In time, the relationship will become symbiotic and instinctive.
Employees may need to learn new skills
How staff are deployed in an organisation where AI plays an integral part may need to change. Some roles may become redundant as they are taken up by AI. The investment will need to be made in skills training, helping people move into new roles, perhaps with greater responsibility.
AI will also play a role in helping to develop a well-trained and adaptable workforce. AI-powered adaptive learning programs may become the norm, automatically modifying the programme to suit different knowledge bases and learning styles. AI could, for instance, analyse which modules have the lowest and highest levels of engagement, test different variations and measure the return a company has on its training investment.
Recruitment and retention
AI is increasingly playing a part in recruitment. AI technology can review applications using advanced machine learning techniques. It can answer common questions from job candidates and can take care of the routine administrative tasks that surround recruitment. By doing so, AI can allow hiring managers to concentrate on the human aspects of the recruitment process such as assessing how well a candidate fits with company culture.
By collecting data, AI can also assess how likely an employee is to stay in position, developing predictive models that can guide future recruitment policies.
Are some roles, or some of the tasks they incorporate, more likely to lead to someone leaving their employment prematurely?
AI can be utilised to provide an answer,
These are just a fraction of the possibilities that AI innovation could bring to the workplace over the coming years. Wherever we work and whatever we do it’s likely our working lives will be impacted by artificial intelligence and that’s something we need to prepare for.
At Flow Office design Birmingham, we design office spaces for the future. We are based in the heart of Birmingham, offering our office design services across the UK. For more information on how you can start to design your office and future-proof your workspaces, speak to our expert team.