A recent study, The Cybernetic Teammate, found that “having an AI on your team can increase performance, provide expertise, and improve your experience.” One key factor is that, while human-only teams tend to work in silos, AI helps participants bridge divides between functions and roles. But if organizations roll out new technologies carelessly, people will rapidly conclude that AI is coming for their jobs. Watch out for these three potential impacts:
A sensible and clear definition of a team’s boundaries is critical to effective collaboration. Will team members willingly include AI as an additional team member, or will they attempt to exclude it? These attitudes will be central to the effectiveness of AI-powered teams.
Complex interpersonal relationships shape team dynamics. AI will process data and generate insights faster than any human teammate, but will miss the unspoken social dynamics that humans naturally detect.
Teams are subject to conflict around tasks, processes, and relationships. How will AI affect this? People might find AI difficult to work with or assume it is inherently correct. This could give rise to counterproductive resistance – or even attempts to sabotage the AI’s functioning.
Promote an experimental mindset within clear boundaries (including around privacy and bias), while going to great lengths to reassure colleagues that AI’s prime function is to help human workers, not replace them.
AI can read human emotions from facial expressions. Train it to recognize the warning signs of problems in a team, such as growing tension or emerging conflicts.
Try providing employees with access to AI principally as a personal tool. This offers them a stronger sense of control, sidestepping issues around team boundaries, emotional responses, and conflicts.
Another option is to set up AI team members as passive listeners who participate only when asked (but remember that this and the above approach constrain AI from adding maximum value).
The way we think about AI is changing fundamentally. CHROs have a key role to play in guiding its adoption to maximize its potential benefits and minimize possible adverse impact on teams.
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