When we talk about the future of work, I can’t help but reminisce about old sci-fi films and cartoons and how they depicted the workplace of the future. Most famously, the workplace in The Jetsons
featured automation, personal robots, videoconferencing technology (literally in the cloud), and the kicker — you only needed to work two hours a day. While we are still lightyears away from that extremely short workday, the workplace already has access to one futuristic technology (cloud video), and AI in its various forms is making more possible.
Over at No Jitter, WorkSpace Connect’s sister site, I’ve taken
a deep dive on how AI is revolutionizing cloud video, sharing insights from two leading communications experts as well as an enterprise IT professional responsible for implementing collaboration technologies for his company. At this point, with a year-plus of video meetings for everybody, many AI-based features used to boost the experience are well-known to many: noise cancellation, transcription, translation, and more capabilities that simply need a click of the button to work.
While in that article I focused on AI in cloud video services, AI’s workplace value is much broader. For example, many technology vendors are providing AI tools aimed at enabling a safe return to the office. Cisco, with AI-based room occupancy capabilities for its Webex desktop and meeting room collaboration devices, is one, as detailed in
this No Jitter article. Additionally, many employees use AI-based voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, or Microsoft Cortana, which for work purposes can be used to do things like schedule meetings.
But it would be a mistake to see AI’s role — and its potential — solely through the lens of collaboration and communications. On the HR side of things, AI-based HR software is already used to streamline the employee recruitment, interview, and onboarding process. For a few examples,
Talmundo provides onboarding software that features an AI-based, multilingual chatbot for new hires, as shared in
this “Academy to Innovate HR” article. Another example is the AI-based video interviewing platform
Talocity, which provides behavioral insights on applicants (positive, neutral, or negative language used), the article shared.
While we certainly have a lot of AI already at our disposal, AI in the workplace is just getting started, and workplace leaders need to be ready. When strategizing for the future, you should consider what AI brings to the table and how you might leverage AI to accomplish your own departmental goals, as well as the goals of the workplace at large. And if your top executives aren’t yet strategizing about AI and how it fits into business plans moving forward, get them involved.
Over time, the workplace will get smarter with AI, so workplace leaders need to be ready to take full advantage of that moment. And maybe, just maybe, AI can then finally get us down to that two hours a day as promised in The Jetsons.
Learn more about preparing your workplace for the future in the "Workplace Strategies" track at Enterprise Connect, which takes place Sept. 27-29, in Orlando, Fla. Register today with promo code WSCNEWS and receive $200 off your registration!
