Artificial intelligence (AI) has been regarded as a job enhancer and creator, but it may also provide a hidden benefit: With its inherent ability to eliminate mundane and repetitive tasks, many employees could find themselves with more time on their hands. And that could pave the way for a four-day workweek.
AI will more and more be recognized for its ability to greatly enhance human productivity by automatically handling the most arduous, time-consuming aspects of a job. Unlike other technologies that attempt to assist in improving productivity, AI can actually take the lead and get the job done. It is also capable of streamlining the process for completing more complex tasks, which are more suited to human work but can still benefit from AI.
Could a tech-savvy employer simply switch over to AI entirely and leave the human out of the equation? That may be a tempting way for some firms to tweak their bottom line, but they will quickly learn that is not the path to economic victory. AI is, for all intents and purposes, artificial – it cannot take the place of the verbal and nonverbal communication capabilities of human workers. If an enterprise decided to replace humans entirely, it would lose out on their ability to strategize, think critically and creatively, and solve complex tasks.
Instead of eliminating people, an employer’s greatest asset, the best step forward is a combination of human and digital employees. Think of it as a hybrid workforce that can bolster production, efficiency and lead to a happier, more engaged workforce.
Engagement remains an important factor in employee retention. Those with low engagement and well-being are 48% more likely to leave their company. At an estimated loss of $15,000 for every employee that exits (totaling a collective loss of more than $600 billion), employers simply can’t afford to lose good talent.
With human and digital employees working side-by-side to solve problems, complete projects and fulfill business goals, enterprises will be in a much better position to compete. As an added bonus, they could do so while sending their staff home for a three-day weekend – every weekend. And at a time when remote work is flourishing, if only temporarily, digital employees could prove to be invaluable there as well, helping to assist human teams from any location.
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Four-day workweek experiments yield positive results
The digital employee concept is relatively new, but many companies have already experimented with four-day workweeks. The results have been extremely positive, with firms as varied as Shake Shack and Aloha Hospitality entering the fray. Employees of Perpetual Guardian enjoyed both a reduction in stress and an increase in job satisfaction when the New Zealand-based company introduced its four-day policy, all without a drop in productivity. Better still, Microsoft Japan experienced a 40% boost in productivity when it switched to a shortened workweek, indicating that you really can do more with less.
How could AI be helpful in improving a workweek policy that, at first glance, appears to function really well all on its own? The early results may be impressive, but four-day workweeks are still in their infancy. With AI, enterprises of all shapes and sizes could get there faster by being able to complete more assignments in less time. In fact, the technology has already proven that it can perform a number of everyday tasks. By 2025, the World Economic Forum estimates that machines and algorithms will perform more than 50% of all workplace tasks. This is important – not because it could take our jobs but for the ways in which it could save them.
AI will be capable of stepping up its game and assisting human employees when they need it most. If an enterprise is hit by hard times, for example, layoffs might follow. This is exactly what happened to Treehouse, a Portland-based online education company that once championed the arrival of the four-day workweek. Treehouse tried to stymie the pain of those layoffs by requiring employees to go back to a Monday-Friday schedule.
With AI, that might not have been necessary. AI could have provided Treehouse with the greater efficiency and productivity it needed to avoid layoffs in the first place. If AI had been applied after layoffs occurred, those same benefits could have allowed the firm to maintain its four-day workweek, preventing the company from losing one of its leading perks.
That’s not to say that AI should be thought of as a tool for layoff assistance – far from it. Most developers are building AI that will effectively improve productivity by preventing employees from wasting time completing menial, repetitive tasks. But when times are tough – when a company struggles to overcome talent shortages or when a business simply can’t afford to hire enough talent – AI can intervene.
Now imagine what would happen if an AI assistant had been brought into Treehouse or any other struggling firm just before COVID-19 sent markets into a tailspin and endangered the future of so many enterprises. Just as many individuals are now working from home, AI is the ultimate remote employee, capable of working from anywhere. And as a digital associate, it wouldn’t be susceptible to the risks COVID-19 presents, allowing it to keep working even as human staff practice social distancing.
When human and digital employees come together, everybody wins
Designed to drastically improve productivity and efficiency while allowing human employees to focus on more inspiring, thought-provoking assignments, AI is on course to completely transform the working world. Built from the ground up to eliminate the need for manual completion of the least appealing tasks, digital employees stand to revolutionize our future. This technology could deliver on the promise of a shortened workweek – and it absolutely will result in better, more resourceful enterprises.
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