Artificial Intelligence (AI) is augmenting our workplaces and transforming the employee experience. In this article, we look at what this means in practice and explore practical examples, benefits, and drawbacks.

1. In The Workplace:
How AI Is Transforming
Artificial Intelligence
Your Employee Experience

2. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
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IntroductionIntroduction
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly changing just about every aspect of how we live our
lives, and our working lives certainly aren’t exempt from this.
Soon, even those of us who don’t happen to work for technology companies (although
as every company moves towards becoming a tech company, that will be increasingly
few of us) will find AI-enabled machines increasingly present as we go about our day-to-
day activities.
Artificial Intelligence In The Workplace:
How AI Is Transforming
Your Employee Experience

3. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Title
Text
IntroductionIntroduction
From how we are recruited and on-boarded to how we go about on-the-job training,
personal development and eventually passing on our skills and experience to those who
follow in our footsteps, AI technology will play an increasingly prominent role.
Here’s an overview of some of the recent advances made in businesses that are
currently on the cutting-edge of the AI revolution, and are likely to be increasingly
adopted by others seeking to capitalize on the arrival of smart machines.
Artificial Intelligence In The Workplace:
How AI Is Transforming
Your Employee Experience

4. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Before we even set foot in a new workplace, it could soon be a fact that AI-enabled machines
have played their part in ensuring we’re the right person for the job.
AI pre-screening of candidates before inviting the most suitable in for interviews is an
increasingly common practice at large companies which make thousands of hires each year,
and sometimes attract millions of applicants.
Pymetrics provides tools which use a series of "games" based on principles of neuroscience to
assess candidates before they are asked in for an interview. It works by assessing cognitive
and emotional features of the candidate, while specifically avoiding demographic biases
based on their gender, socioeconomic status, or race.
This is done by matching candidates' performance against that of existing employees who
have succeeded in the roles that are being recruited for. If it finds that they may not be a
particularly good fit for that role, it might recognize another role they would be suitable for
and recommend they instead apply for that one.
Recruitment and Onboarding

5. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Another company providing these services is Montage, which claims that 100 of the Fortune
500 companies have used their AI-driven interviewing tool. It enables businesses to carry out
on-demand text interviewing, automated scheduling, and reduce the impact of unconscious
biases on the recruitment process.
When it comes to onboarding, AI-enabled chatbots are the current tool of choice, for helping
new hires settle into their roles and get to grips with the various facets of the organizations
they’ve joined.
Multinational consumer goods manufacturer Unilever uses a chatbot called Unabot, that
employs natural language processing (NLP) to answer employees' questions in plain, human
language. Advice is available on everything from where they can catch a shuttle bus to the
office in the morning, to how to deal with HR and payroll issues.
Recruitment and Onboarding

6. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Of course, learning doesn’t end once you’ve settled into your role, and AI technology will also
play a part in ongoing training for most employees in the future.
It will also assist with the transfer of skills from one generation to the next – as employees
move on to other companies or retire, it can help to ensure that they can leave behind the
valuable experience they’ve gained for others to benefit from, as well as take it with them.
Engineering giant Honeywell has developed tools which utilize augmented and virtual reality
(AR/VR) along with AI, to capture the experience of work and extract “lessons” from it which
can be passed on to newer hires.
Employees wear AR headsets while carrying out their daily tasks. These capture a record of
everything the engineer does, using image recognition technology, which can be played back,
allowing trainees or new hires to experience the role through VR.
On-The-Job Training

7. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Information from the video imagery is also being used to build AR tools which provide real-
time feedback while engineers carry out their job – alerting them to dangers or reminding
them to carry out routine tasks when they are in a particular place or looking at a particular
object.
On-The-Job Training

8. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
One of the reasons that the subject of AI in the workplace makes some people uncomfortable
is because it is often thought of as something that will replace humans and lead to job losses.
However, when it comes to AI integration today, the keyword is very much "augmentation" –
the idea that AI machines will help us do our jobs more efficiently, rather than replace us. A
key idea is that they will take over the mundane aspects of our role, leaving us free to do what
humans do best – tasks which require creativity and human-to-human interaction.
Just as employees have become familiar with tools like email and messaging apps, tools such
as those provided by PeopleDoc or Betterworks will play an increasingly large part in the day-
to-day workplace experience.
These are tools which can monitor workflows and processes and make intelligent suggestions
about how things could be done more effectively or efficiently. Often this is referred to as
robotic process automation (RPA).
Augmented Workforce

9. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
These tools will learn to carry out repetitive tasks such as arranging meetings or managing a
diary. They will also recognize when employees are having difficulty or spending too long on
particular problems, and be ready to step in to either assist or if the job is beyond something
a bot is capable of doing itself, suggest where human help can be found.
Augmented Workforce

10. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Of course, there’s a potential dark side to this encroachment of AI into the workplace that’s
likely to leave some employees feeling distinctly uncomfortable.
According to a Gartner survey, more than 50% of companies with a turnover above $750
million use digital data-gathering tools to monitor employee activities and performance. This
includes analyzing the content of emails to determine employee satisfaction and engagement
levels. Some companies are known to be using tracking devices to monitor the frequency of
bathroom breaks, as well as audio analytics to determine stress levels in voices when staff
speak to each other in the office.
Technology even exists to enable employers to track their staff sleeping and exercise habits.
Video game publisher Blizzard Activision recently unveiled plans to offer incentives to staff
who let them track their health through Fitbit devices and other specialized apps. The idea is
to use aggregated, anonymized data to identify areas where the health of the workforce as a
whole can be improved. However, it’s clear to see that being monitored in this way might not
sit particularly well with everyone.
Surveillance in The Workplace

11. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Workplace analytics specialists Humanyze use staff email and instant messaging data, along
with microphone-equipped name badges, to gather data on employee interactions. While
some may consider this potentially intrusive, the company says that this can help to protect
employees from bullying or sexual harassment in the workplace.
Surveillance in The Workplace

12. © 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Physical robots capable of autonomous movement are becoming commonplace in
manufacturing and warehousing installations, and are likely to be a feature of many other
workplaces in the near future.
Mobility experts Segway have created a delivery robot which can navigate through workplace
corridors to make deliveries directly to the desk. Meanwhile, security robots such as those
being developed by Gamma 2 could soon be a common site, ensuring commercial properties
are safe from trespassers.
Racing for a space in the office car park could also become a thing of the past if solutions
developed by providers such as ParkPlus become commonplace. Their robotic parking
assistants may not match our traditional idea of how a robot should look, but consist of
automated “shuttle units” capable of moving vehicles into parking bays which would be too
small for humans to manually park in – meaning more vehicles can fit into a smaller space.
Workplace Robots

13. © 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website
© 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website

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