By Gregg Wartgow, Special to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) --
If you spend enough time on LinkedIn, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve seen posts about how artificial intelligence (AI) is replacing not only certain jobs, but sometimes even entire departments.
“You may develop a fear of missing out when you see these types of stories, and may be wondering if you should even be hiring people anymore,” said Sander Mangel, founder and senior solutions architect for Open Commerce, a Dutch-based e-commerce consulting agency.
“But let me tell you, anecdotes like those are not the norm.”
Mangel, who is also VP of technical solutions for AEM member company Above the Fray, an e-commerce agency based in Portland, Oregon, believes we are still a long way from seeing AI replace entire departments and teams on a widescale basis. That said, AI tools can certainly be used to augment team performance.
According to Mangel, managers who are wrestling with how to alleviate personnel bottlenecks should consider the following three options:
1. Enable existing employees -- Giving existing employees AI tools to help do their jobs can be an effective approach when tedious tasks are a regular occurrence. “Tasks like creating daily reports that must cross reference several documents is easily accomplished with AI,” Mangel shared as an example.
If a manager decides this is the best solution to their bottleneck problem, it’s relatively easy to execute. “The manager (and employer) simply needs to give the employee a license for Claude, Perplexity, or some other AI tool,” Mangel said. “They must also make sure the employee receives the proper training.”
2. Build an AI tool that will automated targeted functions -- According to Mangel, it’s very difficult to build an AI tool that can automate a process capable of handling every conceivable scenario. “It’s those 20% of edge cases where we usually see the idea of replacing an entire department with AI begin to break down,” he said.
However, an AI agent can often handle those 80% of cases that aren’t outside the norm. Mangel said it’s relatively to build one, too.
“We have several people here at Above the Fray who have developed their own AI agents to handle certain daily tasks,” Mangel related. “Another trend we’ve seen is that people with 20 or 30 years of experience are pouring that experience into building AI agents for their organizations.”
Mangel’s advice for managers?
“Think about the tasks your people are doing that take a lot of time,” Mangel said. “Can you build an agent that abstracts away the complexity and does the heavy lifting? Could the agent also scale well across colleagues and even departments? If so, it might be worth building your own AI agent to automate certain tasks, which could simply be a set of prompts in a tool like Claude or ChatGPT. On the other hand, a task performed once a year is probably not worth it.”
3. Hire additional people
Mangel already touched on the 20% of edge cases that AI can have a tough time handling. If that 20% can make or break a team’s success, it might make more sense to hire someone who possesses the proper knowledge and logic. The same goes for situations where an existing role is trying to do too much and needs to be split into two roles. If the new role requires someone who adds value to the process through their experience and knowledge, hiring another employee could be the best option.
Want to learn more about how to attract and retain the workforce of tomorrow? AEM is here to help bring them to light through its Workforce Development Committee. Learn more.
Navigating the shift from human to human+AI
As you can see from the three options discussed above, there isn’t necessarily a shift taking place where AI is replacing entire teams. Rather, a shift is underway where human work is transitioning to human+AI work.
AI can handle:
- Repetitive, data-driven tasks
- Processing large volumes of information
- Recognizing patterns
- Analyzing data
- Performing administrative tasks
- Generating content
- Providing customer self-service
- Scheduling
Then humans can focus on:
- Creativity
- Empathy
- Strategic thinking
- Leadership
- Coaching
- Managing ambiguity
- Relationship building
- Negotiation
- Ethical decision making
- Accountability
“Think about the tasks your people are doing that take a lot of time. Can you build an agent that abstracts away the complexity and does the heavy lifting? Could the agent also scale well across colleagues and even departments? If so, it might be worth building your own AI agent to automate certain tasks, which could simply be a set of prompts in a tool like Claude or ChatGPT. On the other hand, a task performed once a year is probably not worth it.” -- Sander Mangel
Understanding the impact of AI adoption on employees
Anytime a transformative workplace shift like this takes place, organizations feel the impact in a variety of ways.
Positive impacts:
- Increased productivity due to less time spent on repetitive administrative tasks
- More effort directed toward strategic work and creative problem solving
- Overall improved employee experience
Negative impacts:
- Potential job displacement
- Employee anxiety
- Loss of human connection
“As organizations introduce AI into the workplace, transparent communication becomes essential to maintaining employee trust and engagement,” said Sue Monroe, people strategy executive and workforce transformation leader at Publicis Sapient, a technology company that provides enterprise AI platforms and services. “Managers can play a critical role in addressing employee concerns by openly explaining why AI is being adopted, how it will be used, and most importantly, how it will help support, not replace, the workforce.”
Monroe, who has also been consulting with Above the Fray, said it can be useful for managers to frame the implementation of AI as way to automate repetitive tasks, improve efficiency, and allow employees to focus on higher-value work. Doing so should help alleviate some of the anxiety many employees have been experiencing over the emergence of AI. Additionally, Monroe said it’s wise to emphasize the opportunity for employees to develop new skills that will make them more valuable.
“When organizations lead with transparency, education, and a commitment to employee growth, they are far more likely to foster adoption and maintain morale,” Monroe said.
“When organizations lead with transparency, education, and a commitment to employee growth, they are far more likely to foster (AI) adoption and maintain morale.” -- Sue Monroe
Legal implications of AI in the workplace
When you consider the many ways AI is being used in organizations, a wide door swings open regarding the legal implications of that use. Monroe pointed to a few of the big ones.
- Discrimination. Many companies are using AI to screen job applicants and rank candidates. That raises the risk of discrimination in several ways. At the end of the day, even if an AI tool makes a hiring decision, the employer is still legally responsible. Monroe offered an example of how this could unfold. Say a certain manufacturing company has primarily hired white men. An AI tool may intuitively lean in that direction when screening or ranking applicants. Monroe said HR departments should regularly audit their AI algorithms and test outcomes. “It’s very important to monitor the potentially adverse impact of using AI in this area,” she added. “It’s important to maintain a level of human review.”
- Privacy. AI is often used to process employee data, emails, chat history, and certain biometric information. Monroe said employers must comply with applicable privacy laws and must clearly communicate how employee data is being collected, used, maintained, and protected.
- Intellectual privacy. “Who really owns the work that is generated by AI?” Monroe asked. Can copyrighted information being entered into AI? Can confidential company data be uploaded into public AI tools? These are all questions managers and organizations must be asking themselves in the early stages of the human+AI workforce transformation.
“Organizations need clear AI governance policies in place, and must accept responsibility for making sure these policies are being followed,” Monroe said.
As a parting thought, Monroe reminded managers that most people do not fear technology, they just fear uncertainty. That’s why it’s so important for managers to continually reinforce the concept that AI is an enabler for better employee performance, not a direct threat to every employee’s job. Maybe that will be the case sometime in the future. But as for now, AI is not about replacing humans in the workplace. AI is about creating that human+AI connection that can help remove personnel bottlenecks and boost employee satisfaction.
