Tool or talent – how is your organization using AI?

Checklist: How is AI affecting our teams?

• Are we alert to every implication of the implementation of new technology for the workforce?
• Do people feel it has been imposed on them in a way that undermines their professional identity?
• Are we taking care to retain a focus on soft skills (human creativity, empathy, emotional intelligence, communication) as we adopt AI?
• Are we using it as a junior analyst, rather than an all-knowing Oracle?
• Are we treating AI as a tool or a trusted colleague?

Three impacts on team dynamics…

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:

• Team boundaries

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.

• Emotional impact

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.

• Conflicts

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.

… and how to mitigate them

• Adopt an experimental mindset

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.

• Train the tool to read team dynamics

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.

• Get personal

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.

• Make AI a passive listener

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).