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Artificial Intelligence
Bosses: Stop telling staff that AI won’t take their jobs
IMD’s Amit Joshi has six suggestions for how CHROs can help businesses move past fear and mistrust of AI and support workforce adoption through leadership and cultural change.
There is a great deal of top-down pressure on organizations right now to accelerate AI adoption. But despite widespread heavy investment in new AI solutions and training, many employees remain reluctant to embrace the new technology.
The real barrier to AI adoption is not technical or skills-based; rather, it’s cultural. The natural anxieties that AI initiatives provoke in staff are undermining implementation. Leaders must convince the workforce that the personal benefits of AI adoption far outweigh the risks. CHROs play a critical role in instilling this mindset and driving cultural change across the business.
Here are six ways to make that happen.
1. Stop telling staff that AI won’t lead to job losses
When senior leaders say their investments in AI aren’t going to result in job losses, there is an immediate credibility issue. The promise of increased efficiency and productivity that AI brings inevitably makes employees feel vulnerable. This is further exacerbated by constant news of current and upcoming job cuts.
If staff feel that management is trying to deceive them in terms of the likely workforce impact of AI, they may resist its implementation or even attempt to actively undermine it. Why spend time and effort helping to embed a solution that you expect to replace you?
CHROs must persuade their fellow leaders to avoid hollow promises that employees perceive to be disingenuous. Rather, the goal should be to communicate openly and honestly, with an exchange of views about how both employer and employee see roles changing. It is still possible for leaders to paint a positive vision of AI implementation, but it should be one developed in collaboration with staff, so that everyone can believe in the end result.
More human-centered organizational and technological design will facilitate the implementation of AI technologies in a way that supports, rather than undermines.
2. Improve the employee experience
Some employees are grappling with ‘upskilling fatigue’ – a constant discourse around improving their skills relating to new technologies, with ever-shifting goal posts. These workers require convincing that it is worth investing their time and professional effort in AI adoption and application.
More human-centered organizational and technological design will facilitate the implementation of AI technologies in a way that supports, rather than undermines, staff. The CHRO should lead this initiative. When organizations achieve a granular view of their business processes, they put themselves in a much stronger position to embed new tools within those workstreams.
3. Ensure transparency around new AI solutions
Organizations and their employees worry about issues such as AI safety, ethics, and hallucinations. Neither managers nor their teams will be keen to blindly trust a ‘black box.’ Instead, research has consistently shown that users are much more likely to adopt AI technologies that are perceived to be more ‘explainable’ or ‘understandable.’
When introducing new AI capabilities, particularly GenAI, CHROs must ensure that staff understand how models reach their conclusions. They will want to feel comfortable that these tools are acting without prejudice, and that they’re not putting data privacy at risk. Until organizations are confident of being able to provide this level of transparency to their staff, they should hold back on AI implementation.
“Not only are business leaders keen to claim AI implementations won’t cost jobs, but they are also fond of telling staff that AI will enhance their roles.”
4. Be specific about the upside
Not only are business leaders keen to claim AI implementations won’t cost jobs, but they are also fond of telling staff that AI will enhance their roles and liberate them to devote more time to strategic work. But asking them to give clear details of what this might look like can take the wind out of their sails.
For one thing, leaders may not be 100% clear on the details themselves. If this is the case, it’s important to be honest about it. Vague claims and unsubstantiated promises will only add to people’s unease about AI. Where leaders do have a clear view of the likely impact of AI, they should be ready to set that out early. That way, they can start giving workers the support and reassurance they need to take advantage of the opportunity.
This can be a two-way conversation. The person with the most advanced idea of where AI could help in a given role will be the worker who currently fills it. CHROs should work with staff and managers to design new job roles that incorporate AI as a supportive element, building confidence and even keen anticipation.
Finally, CHROs are in a strong position to support cultural change and encourage innovation.
5. Ensure HR takes the lead
All the arguments set out above point in the same direction: CHROs and the broader HR team are crucial to successful AI implementations. They’re best placed to manage internal communication and to lead on training and upskilling.
Moreover, the HR function is well-placed to monitor the use of new AI tools and to collect feedback, as well as manage and address concerns about ethics, privacy, and safety. It can also provide useful feedback to IT on the effectiveness of the roll-out from the UX perspective.
A related responsibility is to address employees’ use of “shadow AI.” These are the AI tools embedded in the apps that many employees are now using of their own volition and often on personal devices. Such unregulated use exposes organizations to a range of risks. Bringing AI into the light in the workplace keeps individuals, organizations, and their data safer.
6. Create safe spaces for experiments and mistakes
Finally, CHROs are in a strong position to support cultural change and encourage innovation. When employees expect their failings – or, more accurately, the learnings from their failings – to be celebrated, they will feel more comfortable experimenting with new technologies.
Organizations are reporting the benefits of appointing “innovation champions” – individual employees who are excited to try new technologies in their area of the business and to share the learnings. Many of the most valuable gains from AI will come from the workforce exploring different use cases.
Once employees accept AI as a gateway, rather than a barrier, to their personal progress, whole new horizons will open up to them and the organization.
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