THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) AND DIGITALIZATION AT THE WORKPLACE
International Labour Day also known as May Day is celebrated every year on 1st May. This day is celebrated to remember and appreciate hardworking and dedicated people around the world. International Labour Day or worker’s day has grown into a forceful symbol of solidarity, social justice and the continuous struggle for worker’s rights.
In line with this year’s theme on revolutionizing Health and safety, the role of A.I and digitalization, this article will analyze the impact of Artificial Intelligence (A.I) at the workplace.
Artificial Intelligence (A.I) is a new and slightly intimidating concept for so many people. In its short existence, it has gained traction in the world and is fast becoming an indelible tool. It has quickly assimilated into the way of life of people around the globe.
Artificial Intelligence (A.I) has become an integral part of work life in a short period of time and has revolutionized the way we work and enhanced employee experience in a number of creative ways.
To begin with, A.I has enhanced efficiency and productivity at the workplace; employees’ existence is fraught with repetitive and mundane tasks. This leads to boredom, disengagement and in extreme cases depression. Fortunately, this is A.I’s forte. A.I can handle boring and repetitive tasks without tiring, freeing up employees to focus on more complex and creative work. This boost in efficiency has allowed teams to achieve more in less time, ultimately increasing productivity. A.I driven automation is streamlining processes, reducing human error and ensuring consistency in tasks such as data entry, scheduling and customer service.
For instance, A.I is fast becoming an invaluable tool that is helping lawyers and law firms work effectively. Legal research is a tedious task that lawyers engage in. It is time consuming and previously required lawyers to sit and sort through huge data log of case law, statutes and precedents but now A.I has made this process seamless and less stressful. Currently what lawyers need to do is insert keywords into chatbots like chatgpt and Eskwai and these tools will generate the necessary case laws and precedents for them in a few minutes. This has cut down the hours that lawyers previously had to use to do legal research.
Secondly, A.I is enhancing employee engagement through learning and development. A.I is helping employees increase their learning capacity. A.I creates personalized learning and development opportunities by identifying skills gaps and recommends tailored training programs which helps employees grow and advance in their careers.
Furthermore, A.I has also improved decision making; A.I is able to analyze huge amounts of data at an astonishing pace providing cognizance that can lead to better decision making. A.I identifies trends and patterns that helps managers make informed decisions based on data rather than pure intention. This leads to precise predictions, improved levels of employee engagement and ultimately better business outcomes.
Moreover, A.I provides better work-life balance. A.I powered tools help employees manage their workloads better. For example, A.I can optimize schedules, automate routine tasks and provide insights into how employees can better manage their time. Workers are using A.I to script, write and solve various problems at the workplace and this allows employees to focus on high priority tasks during work hours and enjoy their personal time without work related stress.
Lawyers and law firms can use A.I to automate the process of drafting contracts and other documents to help them work efficiently. The use of chatbots to respond to client queries will also help the work of lawyers since these A.I tools can work 24/7 to provide quick and faster responses to clients.
On the other hand, there are cons to the revolution of A.I such as potential job displacement. One of the primary concerns about the use of A.I is its potential to cause job displacement. As human are relying more and more on A.I and its being used to carry out different work tasks, some jobs are bound to become obsolete. People are likely to lose their jobs since A.I can do the job and even better than them.
Also, there are bound to be problems if workers rely too much on A.I because over reliance on A.I can be problematic if the system fails or there is a crash. Crashes and system failures are a natural occurrence with the use of technology therefore if there’s too much reliance on technology and it fails work may come to a standstill.
Again, data leaks and privacy concerns are issues associated to the use of technology and A.I. Hackers can hack into systems and access the data of people and use these data for dubious means.
A.I may also be difficult to adapt to for non- tech savvy employees. This may cause delays in using A.I and some workers may abhor its use.
In conclusion, A.I is a great innovation that is greatly impacting the world of work and causing a shift in technological advancement. It has made work seamless and easy to carry out. Tasks that previously needed man power to carry out are now being done by robots and A.I. However, despite its capabilities, it cannot carry out tasks that require empathy, emotional connection and personal connection. There is therefore a need to balance the use of A.I at work.
By Mary Darkwah, Esq.