In the 2016 movie Hidden Figures, the very human, relatable protagonists worried that the installation of an IBM mainframe at NASA in 1961 would make their jobs redundant.
“This IBM’s going to put us all out of work.”
“There’s only one thing to do: Learn all we can. Make ourselves valuable.”
“Somewhere down the line, a human being’s going to have to push the buttons.”
Many employees today are equally nervous about alarmist headlines related to the creeping influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace. Yet most managers and HR leaders aren’t fully prepared to deal with these concerns.
You need to make your people comfortable with the future by explaining what AI will mean to them in real terms, what it's going to look like in your industry, how it's going to benefit them and even how it may impact them if we all don’t proactively get in front of it.
The first step to leading your employees through this cycle of change is to educate yourself. Before you talk with your employees about AI, you have to understand what it is, and its potential impact on your business and your team. Do some reading about AI in your industry, and take advantage of software vendors that can give you great free advice while delivering their pitches.
Anticipate The Fear
Ever since the Industrial Age, machines have replaced jobs and people. Of course, AI is going to replace some jobs, but it won’t replace all jobs. There will be new occupations we haven’t yet imagined, which McKinsey says could account for 10% of all jobs created by 2030. The scrivener job market evaporated with the invention of the typewriter, and the cycle repeated when copy machines appeared. What we are only just beginning to experience now with AI is the latest stage in the journey of technical innovation.
AI is not HAL 9000, motivated by self-preservation. It’s really just an algorithm that looks at data. Jobs will evolve as human work blends with algorithms in acknowledgement of AI’s capabilities and limitations. It will make some jobs better, freeing people from repetitive tasks to handle more stimulating work. And there will remain functions requiring emotional intelligence and other human factors that machines will never do well.
My company recently commissioned a survey of over 4,200 employed adults in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Our research revealed that 69% of workers aren’t currently using AI-based technology tools. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that most employees don’t feel that AI has had an impact on their job … so far. However, 21% fear AI could take their job within the next decade.
Demystify The Technology
The earlier you have meaningful, honest conversations around how AI may change your industry, and demystify it with simple and relatable terms, the more quickly you can put people at ease about the skills they need to develop to remain marketable.
While AI will not impact all industries to the same degree, or on the same timetable, it’s important for employers to explore how AI can level up your team and enhance your processes. Find some good examples, and brainstorm with your employees how the use of AI within your company could benefit them from a personal perspective, while openly recognizing that the unknown can be a little scary.
For example, within the HR department, you don’t want recruiters to fixate on how AI-powered software could replace them through automated candidate sourcing. Instead, you want recruiters to ask themselves, “How can I leverage AI to help me do my job better?” HR already uses tools that provide matches related to keywords. An AI-enabled resume parser to make predictions, for example, is simply the next generation of that tool set. AI also offers an advantage in recruiting when it’s trained to alleviate faulty human bias and promote a diverse slate of candidates.
Fight The Inertia
The 2019 World Bank report on The Changing Nature of Work finds that technology may destroy low-paying, lower-skilled jobs, but it also creates new jobs demanding more skills, for more pay. The accumulation of new skills can be incremental. Futurist Byron Reese has commented, “The question to ask is not whether the people whose jobs are replaced by automation can do the new jobs. The question is, can everybody do a job a little bit harder than the one they're doing now?”
Our survey indicated that only 47% of workers believe they possess the skills required for the AI-enabled workplace, with a whopping 83% agreeing employers should have primary responsibility for providing training to meet this challenge.
How might technology change the way your team approaches work? If you can conceive of ways AI will (or could) eliminate rote employee tasks, consider the training you can provide to prepare your team for the future. The World Economic Forum’s 2018 "Future of Jobs" report indicates the human qualities that a machine can’t replicate are trending in value for 2022 — skills such as creativity, leadership and emotional intelligence. Examine how you can uplevel your team and leverage your people in different capacities.
Mitigate The Changes
We’re nowhere near realizing the vision of AI. It’s the iceberg that’s only 10% visible. But we can be certain that changes are coming, even if we don’t know exactly what they will bring.
Many companies like mine have established guidelines around ethical AI usage. Even if you're not a technology vendor, consider developing and documenting your philosophy because AI has the potential for cross-industry disruption. This is not a one-time conversation before filing your policy in the archive. It will need to evolve as AI makes greater inroads, providing a jumping-off point for meaningful discussions with employees.
Hear your employees’ concerns, and bring them into solution-oriented conversations. The path to reducing fear and loathing of AI in the workplace is through demystification, change management, action and education.
