AI is an opportunity to reimagine work. What's your strategy?
AI will fundamentally change how we work - and smart leaders seize the opportunity to make work more productive, valuable, meaningful, and impactful. What do they need? A work design strategy.
Everybody is talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI). ChatGPT reached 100 million users in two months. Tech companies are pouring unprecedented sums into developing AI-powered solutions. Pessimists predict massive layoffs; optimists envision us quickly moving towards the singularity Ray Kurzweil anticipated back in 2005. Clearly, this technology is incredibly powerful, and despite some significant challenges ahead, it will become only more capable over time.
A recent study by Goldman Sachs estimates that nearly half of administrative and legal jobs could be substituted by AI, fueling concerns that AI will replace human workers and lead to massive job losses. In its Future of Jobs report, the World Economic Forum predicts that AI will replace 85 million jobs globally by 2025 - but may create 97 million new roles.
If you are embarking on an AI journey, here are three good reasons why you not only need a plan to implement the technology but also a strategy for the people side of the equation:
We cannot implement AI without people
Employees are rightfully concerned about being made redundant by AI. Take insurance underwriters: given AI’s ability to handle vast amounts of data to make better predictions, it is only a matter of time until these algorithms will make better underwriting decisions than humans. But pursuing a strategy of replacing the underwriters with an algorithm will likely run into real problems. They are likely to resist the change given the potential job loss, which is a major obstacle since the same employees are needed to train the algorithm. If employees do not see a compelling future for themselves, they are unlikely to get on board. Smart leaders realize the need to involve those impacted in rethinking their roles. If employees do not feel ownership, they will have no incentive to train the algorithm and make the technology work.
We need people to create the future
Marshall McLuhan famously said: “We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.” When adopting new technologies, our vision is restricted by our previous experience - that is why so many AI projects are aimed at automating existing processes. This view severely limits the design space for AI. But as Duke University professor Tony O’Driscoll puts it, “if all you ever do is always applying new technology to do the same thing cheaper, you're making a very tenuous decision today strategically, which is that what you do today will continue to deliver value tomorrow and the next day and the next day.”
AI is very powerful in using historical data to make better predictions, but AI is unable to envision a different future. Human beings however have imagination - and taking advantage of the opportunities this new technology could help create will require lots of that.
We have a unique opportunity to reimagine work
How we structure and organize work is deeply rooted in an industrial era model that has led to highly fragmented workflows and massive bureaucracies. Take the example of hiring a new employee or onboarding a new client. For a typical large company, that requires coordinating a significant number of employees spread across several departments, each with their own domain expertise. The introduction of AI creates the opportunity to fundamentally rethink those processes and design jobs to be fit for humans – creating whole jobs where employees own the entire process from start to finish, augmented by smart technology.
The Work Design Opportunity
Work design is about defining and aligning tasks, roles, structure, responsibilities, tools, and process in a way that optimizes performance. As a leader, you can either start implementing AI and sort through its implications on work design on a case-by-case basis - or you can take a more intentional approach that considers not only the objectives of the organization, but also the needs of the employees.
We advocate for the latter and suggest you consider the following questions to help you develop a vision that considers how AI can make work not just more productive, but also more valuable, meaningful, and impactful.
Job Design
How can we leverage AI to create ‘good’ jobs with a clear purpose?
Can we create opportunities for employees to own the work from start to finish?
What new skills and competencies do employees need to thrive in this new world?
Workflows and Processes
How do we utilize AI to streamline workflows and processes?
What new processes do we need as a result of introducing this new technology?
Where do we need humans in the loop?
Organizational Structure
Where can we flatten the organization?
Where do we have opportunities to become more customer-centric?
How does AI change the role of managers?
Performance Management
How can we use AI to improve feedback mechanisms and learning?
Do we need how we measure and recognize employee performance?
How do we enable continuous improvement and innovation?
A well-designed work strategy provides guidance to leaders. Without a clear and compelling vision of what kind of workplace we want to build, we are likely to make technology-driven decisions at the expense of people – and miss a unique opportunity to make work more productive, valuable, meaningful, and impactful.