Businesses of all shapes and sizes have had to rapidly adapt to remote working in the past 12 months, thanks to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fact that this pandemic has dragged on longer than anyone thought it would originally, and with the government’s advice changing on a daily basis, it also looks as though our working lives will never go back to the way they were before.
If we look at remote working as a phenomenon that has rapidly grown recently, we could say that it is very similar to the growth and adoption pattern of AI (artificial intelligence). In recent years, AI was still thought of as something that would maybe happen in the future, whereas now it is seen as something that needs to be grasped in order for companies in all industries to transform. And it will be a huge help to those wanting to continue to offer remote working to employees once the COVID-19 pandemic is under control.
The current state of AI conversational agents
At the moment, when you think of AI, you probably think of robots, or conversational agents, such as Alexa or Siri. So, thinking of talking to an AI agent and relying on it for assistance is something that most people are probably comfortable with already. But this is only tickling the surface of what AI agents can do – if we look at them from a business point of view, they have the potential to not only enhance our leadership capabilities but also empower all of us to thrive in our workplaces too.
The future of AI conversational agents
If you think about it, AI-powered robots are adept at detecting patterns in our speech that can help us to improve our workplace performance. Some of the things they are looking for include:
Whether we repeat certain words or phrases
What meaning underlies the words or phrases we most commonly use
How we are communicating
Are we narcissistic or self-conscious when we communicate
Do we avoid asking certain questions
and so on.
This shows that they have so much potential when it comes to remote work settings – as well as in the field of mental health (which is also so important at the moment). There are lots of studies available that show that remote workers are increasingly suffering from depression and stress as the Coronavirus outbreak drags on into its second year. AI conversational robots could therefore be put to great use to help remote workers to continue to be productive without it having a negative effect on their mental health.
Engagement feedback in real-time
Many companies have found that their employees are complaining about a lack of engagement this year, due to having to work from home and not being able to work in a physical office. This is potentially down to the fact that not having your colleagues, physically by your side, can make it easier for motivation and therefore engagement to swiftly drop.
AI robot coaches can help with this, by relying on natural language processing and sentiment analysis to understand employees’ levels of morale and engagement – which is why more and more companies are looking to use them in the hope of optimising employee engagement while continuing to navigate the minefield that is remote working.
Learning and development
Learning and development is one of those topics that is always at the forefront of many employees’ minds – and never more so than today. In fact, some research has shown that more and more employees are shifting their focus from pay rises to prioritising opportunities for learning and development when it comes to investing in their careers.
One problem with learning and development in the workplace at the moment is that many managers don‘t have the time they need to be as involved in the learning process as they would like to be, including selecting the development programmes for their employees as well as administering them.
Again, AI can help with this. AI-powered tools offer employees access to learning and development opportunities that they may not otherwise be able to access in their workplace. They are able to not only provide content recommendations suitable for each individual worker but also identify skill gaps and ensure each employee’s development journey is dynamic (instead of linear) – taking into account the way each employee prefers to learn as well.
Remote working is here to stay. We all need to understand that as businesses. And having the right technology in place is something that is critical for businesses if they want to allow their remote workers to continue to thrive. AI is one such technology that will help many businesses to do this through the use of AI-powered robots, engagement tools and learning and development platforms.
ebb3 is delighted to be an AI Champion 2020, in partnership with Dell and NVIDIA, as we have demonstrated (and continue to demonstrate):
A thorough understanding of the EMEA markets dynamics
Best-in-class expertise in NVIDIA AI technology
Timely delivery of high-quality AI projects
The most updated deep learning competencies
With this in mind, if you are looking to enhance your businesses remote working technology, through the use of AI or vGPU enabled IT infrastructures as a managed service, please get in touch with the ebb3 team today. You can call us on 0203 8181 000 or email us at info@ebb3.com
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