The Future of Work: Balancing AI Advancements with the Human Touch in the Workplace

Will the rise of AI spell the end for the human touch in the workplace? This episode takes you on a journey through the evolving world of AI in learning, development, and training, where the impact on jobs and work culture is no longer a matter of speculation, but reality. As industries pivot and colleagues face layoffs, we're left to ponder the implications of machines that can potentially adapt and develop soft skills, and the ethical challenges they present. Our insightful guest illuminates the real-world effects AI is having on our professional landscape and the innovation it drives within teams, while also recognizing the invaluable proprietary knowledge and human interactions that technology can't replicate.

Amidst the convenience and speed of AI tools for automating tasks and generating content, we uncover a critical truth: the essence of meaningful conversations and conflict resolution remains irreplaceable. The instant gratification AI provides risks reducing our communications to shallow, transactional exchanges. In this thought-provoking dialogue, we predict a renewed need for leaders to offer personal coaching, despite the allure of AI for performance assessment. Discover how maintaining a balance between embracing AI's efficiencies and fostering the human elements of our work culture may just be the key to navigating the challenges ahead.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

In the learning and development and training space. We're getting the questions all the time and the questions are related to how will AI change what we do? I personally think, as a business, what we see is a dramatic change in the conversations in terms of their needs. About two years ago, when AI started to hit the marketplace, I remember a friend of mine who was an editor at a newspaper went to her boss and she said is AI going to affect my job? And he said, no, I don't think so. Two weeks later she was laid off. Now he may not have known to give him some latitude, the organization may have overreacted to chat, or you know they're using tools to now replace editors. I'm not sure of all the details either is my friend, and as she and I talked, we talked about it and I said you know it's interesting because I think those things are going to happen more and more. So we can't have an overreaction to AI. But when I think about AI, how is AI going to help people adapt to change? How is AI going to develop soft skills? Now let's think about ethics. If I go to somebody and they complain about that's an ethical challenge, what is AI going to do that? What is it going to do to solve that? And I think about innovation and managing complexity between teams. How is AI going to do that? And I think one of the greatest things that happens is our proprietary knowledge, the way we do things. Now. We teach coaching here at Progress Coaching right, and so when I think about Progress Coaching, I think about artificial intelligence. We use it. We have our own AI tool. We're all for it, yeah, but what we're finding is more and more of our clients are bringing up things like geez. I'm getting these questions about how is AI going to affect my job. We're implementing new technology. Nothing's changed. Everybody Leaders still need to talk to employees. Employees still need, from a peer-to-peer, to talk to each other and here's a big one that I don't think we've mastered at all yet in our industry. And employees need to be comfortable going to upper level management and sharing their views and perspectives without fear of retribution. Think about conflict. Have we as a society really mastered conversations of conflict? Here's the challenge that AI presents in an awkward way.

Speaker 1: 2:56

Information becomes quick. It's readily available. We can build out a newsletter, we can build out a PowerPoint. We can build out an email in seconds. The other day, I used an AI tool to build out an ebook. I built out a 40-page book in my tone with my content. In less than four minutes it was 42 pages. I was blown away. So for content generation, it's great.

Speaker 1: 3:18

So what it does is it gets us thinking, uh-oh, I can get things fast and quick. What that will lead to and we need to be careful is we're going to want fast and quick conversations from one another. Just tell me what you want me to do. No, no, no, you just need to do this. I got to move on. And what happens with technology? It becomes in our minds transferable to other situations. We need to be this. I got to move on. And what happens with technology? It becomes in our minds transferable to other situations. We need to be very, very careful.

Speaker 1: 3:46

So think about AI. Think about all the things that it can do for us. Right, you know from. You know building content, building PowerPoints, building video. You know insider organization. Does it really specifically adapt to the change that is required, unique to us? Or the soft skills or the conversations that are needed?

Speaker 1: 4:07

Here's my prediction I believe AI is going to foster a boom in the need for leaders to coach their employees. No, there's AI tools out there that leaders are starting to think geez, you know, I might get this AI tool to coach my employees At the end of the year. Review people who do that better. Be very careful, because what's going to happen is somebody is going to push back and say, well, wait a minute, you didn't spend any time with me, now you're using, you know, machine learning and AI to determine my value to this company. I'm telling you it'll happen, and here's proof in the pudding.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Think about when Zoom exploded right, zoom exploded. What happened? What did we all want? After a couple of years of being secluded from each other, we all wanted to get back together. Biggest piece of advice I would give to leaders is schedule time for people just to talk and chat with each other. That's it. Just facilitate everyday conversations, building awareness of teammates, building commonality between teammates, having conversations that are strategic in nature and slow paced, that are strategic in nature and slow-paced. Now, I love AI, don't get me wrong. I love it, but it can't situationally be transferable to everything.