Why Confronting The Artificial Elephant In The Room Is Essential For Your Engagement Strategy

With INTENT: our 5 minute deconstructions of the current trends to inspire healthy rethinking and reconstructive action.

by Chris Wickenden, Chief Creative Officer at FROM:TODAY

In a world of rapid change and evolving market dynamics, leaders are increasingly embracing the integration of AI technologies within their organisations. The potential is huge. Leaders are embracing this potential with 65%, globally,  acknowledging its capacity to elevate performance across organisations. However, this enthusiasm isn’t matched by workers with 53% saying they don’t feel equipped to integrate AI into their work.

So: How do organisations empower workers, fully involving and supporting them in their AI strategies, so that they don’t feel blindsided? How do we also address the potential deeper, existential challenges that AI presents to what it means to be human, have meaning and contribute value. It’s crucial that organisations don’t neglect these fundamental human needs when making decisions about AI moving forward.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey, Chris here from FROM:TODAY, and this week we're discussing the artificial elephant in the room when it comes to employee engagement, the increasing and probably irreversible influence of AI into almost every aspect of our working world. Now, leaders are generally enthusiastically buying into it, opening up and being proactive about the opportunities to use it within their organisations.

65 percent of leaders globally say that most of the roles within their organisations in terms of performance could be improved by the integration of more AI technology. However, this zeal is not matched by workers. Generally, there remains an overall disconnect. And behind that, fear, complacency, a bit of scepticism, natural resistance to change.

In the US, only 1 in 10 workers say that they use AI in their work on a weekly basis. [00:01:00] And 53 percent said that they don't really feel confident enough about making use of these things. different available technologies on a day to day basis. So what do we do about this mismatch now on a surface level, it seems really important that leaders are clear and transparent about their vision for the organization, engaging workers on that level, and also involving them, being really inclusive in how they support their workers in using these new technologies so that they don't feel blindsided.

But I can't help think that there is something deeper and potentially more existential at play in this conversation and I was reading an article the other day about A study which happened back in 2018 about the potential impact of AI on our working lives by 2030. So we're, you know, we're fast approaching that.

And there seemed to be, so the [00:02:00] people that were involved in the discussion were tech pioneers, business leaders, policy makers, different, uh, strategists. And there was a shared concern about the challenge that AI represents to what it means to be human. To feel valued. relevant and productive and Humans need to have a sense of meaning and I wonder if this whether it's consciously or subconsciously is having an impact on the general level of connection amongst our workers with their work.

And it was the human computer interaction professor, Batia Friedman that warned our scientific and technological capabilities will always surpass our moral ones. That is the ability to use wisely and humanely the tools and knowledge that we develop. And with this, I think there's a great warning.

Organizations have to be. [00:03:00] Both intentional and boundaried in their application of AI moving forward. It's absolutely crucial to engage the whole organization within this conversation and along the journey so that they don't feel like this is just something happening to them. That they are the victims of change.

There are also other really creative opportunities to use AI. Thank you. Beyond the simple sort of pursuit of profit more and more quickly, AI can be used to engage workers more in different creative ways to help maybe create that greater sense of connection and meaning that workers, particularly younger workers are actually crying out for more in their work more than ever, but they're not getting it.

And we see that in the UK. Only 10 percent of workers are actively engaged in the work in their organisations. That is a tiny amount. And it's also borne [00:04:00] out in the fact that 51 percent of workers globally are either actively seeking or open to new work. And I wonder what the impact of not having a bigger sense of meaning in your work, a bigger sense of connection to the organization has on a worker's sense of loyalty.

And perhaps we're starting to see more of a mercenary approach to work, which I think could develop further if people don't feel that they are valued beyond what they are able to produce. And if they don't feel valued and they don't feel a greater sense of loyalty to the organization, then what's to stop them from looking for other opportunities?

If they happen to be offered more money, for example, and that sense of disconnection can be increased. If you get the sense that many aspects of your work can be replaced by AI at the drop of a hat. So [00:05:00] why should you be loyalty to your loyalty to the organization? If you don't get that sense of loyalty and connection from them, it's a two way street and it's absolutely crucial for organizations to get the foundations right to be able to make The right decisions about AI moving forward.

So that's my challenge that I open out to you and my question. To end with, how are you navigating this? And I say navigating because it's nothing new. It's been around for quite some time, but how are you striking that balance between a really creative, exceptional use of AI within your organization, serving greater productivity whilst keeping people at the core, because ultimately organisations

are people, for people, and it will be your people that power your sustainable success. So please do read our blog piece on this where we delve into it in a little bit more depth. Also take five minutes to fill in intent. Now we [00:06:00] spoke about it last week. These are the five founding elements to high performance and what this can do can give you some insight on where you're at as an organization on what steps you might need to take to create more solid foundations that will allow you to get the boundaries in place and establish the right conditions for making empowered decisions about AI moving forward.

I really look forward to hearing from you. Get in touch with me at chris@fromtoday.com com or you can simply reach out on LinkedIn. Thanks very much. Speak to you soon.