When adopting AI, focus on the work—not the workers

Earlier this year, I attended a conference of Fortune 500 executives, where the topic inevitably turned to AI’s potential to transform the workforce. But when asked, “How many of you are actually starting to do this?”, only one executive (from a leading Technology player) had a specific response. She said the company had deployed AI chatbots to respond to routine employee queries. AI automation now handles some 3,000 inquiries monthly, at a cost of 25 cents each instead of the $1.75 that the company was spending when HR professionals were fielding inquiries. Those professionals, as a result, can devote their time and talents to work better suited to their human skills and expertise.

That example is emblematic of the way all of us in the business world should be thinking about how to integrate AI into our organizations. We need to focus on the work that generative AI and other forms of artificial intelligence can truly automate, even as we carefully consider the impact on workers.