Until humans are able to quickly and consistently read one another’s minds, there will always be room for improvement when it comes to workplace collaboration. According to Abraham Thomas, Intrinsic Technology Group, ‘the process of marrying ideas and actionable steps is challenging enough, but the effort required to organize, recall, and use gathered information takes a great deal of time. Artificial intelligence, or A.I., is one way of cutting through the tangle of logistical implementation with one undeniable “silver bullet”: data’.
Taking the “Busi” Out of Business
Anyone that’s ever tried to set up a meeting in a workgroup knows what a struggle it can be. Checking when everyone is free, determining which meeting room is open, figuring out if a projector is needed. Properly-implemented A.I. programs have started to reduce the work required for these steps by automatically identifying mutual free time, space, and availability of specialty equipment. It’s able to do this on systems such as Microsoft Outlook, which links email inboxes, work calendars, and equipment checkout logs that the system can use to identify useful overlaps.
What Your Customers Really Want
In the age of A.I., there’s no need to rely on the overworked memory of a customer service agent to recall a specific customer contact. With audio transcription on voice calls and automatic logging on live chat contacts, details of a customer order, solutions, and issues are made searchable and index-ready. Some companies take this a step further as well, using this same data to feedstock level predictions or to trigger a quality control check or recall in the event of several similar customer complaints. It’s become common practice for live chat interfaces to offer the consumer an option to have their transcript emailed to them at the end of their conversation; this builds customer confidence and offers a convenient point of reference for all parties involved.
Status Updates and Efficiency
The eternal timeline of “end of day” doesn’t help much when so many work projects are inter-dependent. If an employee isn’t able to complete her stage of the project until another employee is finished with his, constant emailing or “popping by” will only delay things further. Instead, A.I. can inform the entire team where each member stands on their contribution, infusing transparency into the completion process. This method also helps managers locate and identify choke points in the workflow to be re-routed for faster results next time.
Abraham Thomas continues to say that while businesses aren’t quite ready for cyborg office workers, A.I. is the first step in a connected workplace that values unique human contributions over mindless rank-and-file busywork. In short, if a computer can do a specific task better and more quickly than a human, the smartest choice for profitability is to simply step back and let it work.
