Can AI bring us together?
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It’s well-documented that the “Moneyball” approach to winning sports teams, or making decisions based on data, yields great results. Unfortunately, since then, every team has relied on data for player recruitment and strategy to level the playing field. Is there another “X-factor” that will bring the team back to the top?
Back in the early 1980s, Dr. Peter Senge, an MIT professor and author of The Fifth Discipline, talked about what the X-factor was for the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most successful basketball teams of the past decade. We conducted a detailed study. What set that team apart from more average teams?
According to Senge, the most successful teams are those whose members enjoyed a common unified vision of what to do, where they worked closely together, were of one mind, and understood each other’s intentions. was in tune with
Four decades later, some experts and observers are revisiting the concept of the power of shared vision with a new twist. Artificial intelligence can help provide a common vision.
The potential of AI as a cohesive force for teams is an area that has received little attention, as it is a benefit that is hard to quantify in soft form. Can Corps Esprit be automated? If so, how much is enough?
Teams, or business teams, can leverage AI to improve coordination among members and help them understand each other’s emotions and motivations. Best of all, team members don’t have to be physically close together like they do on a basketball court. They can cover the world from New York to Mumbai.
Dr. Thomas Chamorro Premuzic, chief innovation officer at ManpowerGroup and author of I, Human: AI, Automation, and the Quest to Reclaim What Makes Us Unique, calls this “more than an AI. “Think of it as emotional intelligence.” . “We’re talking about computers trying to understand how we feel and how we think, which is one of the fundamental aspects of human emotional intelligence.”
AI “can help us understand our teammates and even ourselves better, especially when working in a remote or virtual setting,” Chamorro-Premuzic says. “For example, natural language processing can translate the language used by teammates into estimates.” Their morale, engagement, and enthusiasm can also help managers understand their team members. ”
As another example, AI “can collect body language during video conferences to tell each team member how the other is feeling,” he says. “Think of it as Shazam for the soul,” he said, referring to apps that can identify music.
Still, we need to take the next step before AI can bring teams together. “Currently, artificial intelligence is not optimized for bringing teams closer together. Rather, many AI applications are aimed at increasing the productivity of individuals within a team,” says Project Management. said Yingqi Wang, CEO and founder of software provider ONES. This does not diminish AI’s collaborative potential, he continues, as it “tracks the evolution of other technologies in its early stages.” “Cloud services, communication tools such as Slack, and even smartphones have gained attention as experimental tools for increasing individual productivity, and have now become sophisticated structural elements of collaboration in teams at work.” I am.”
Consider that much of today’s use of AI is essentially “shadow IT,” with collaborative capabilities such as “GitHub Copilot to help with individual coding or Notion.ai to help with documentation.” says Wang.
Realistically speaking, AI is now playing the role of administrative assistant for teams in the field. “AI can take on time-consuming tasks that are isolated to individual team members, such as note-taking and transcription, or fill highly skilled positions with real-time translation.” says Mr. Wang. “In both cases, as AI becomes more widely adopted and trusted, it can reshape the way we approach tasks and break down the barriers that prevent us from better collaborating and communicating.”
In these roles, “AI is useful because it suggests relevant documents and other relevant information without the user having to search,” says John Cunningham, chief technology officer at Valtech. says. “This also improved collaboration and reduced emotional stress.”
However, Cunningham argues that humans cannot rely too heavily on AI, as it can break down team cohesion. “When everything is automated and team members communicate little because bots handle most tasks, there is less human touch and spontaneous collaboration. and this includes communicating with each other and with our new synthetic AI colleagues.”
Cunningham said an over-reliance on data-driven creativity will become increasingly problematic, saying it “leads to canned content and recommended next steps for teams to follow, preventing real innovation.” “There is a possibility that it may be suppressed.” As AI gradually moves away from managerial roles, team dynamics is an area that needs further consideration.
In the past year alone, “we’ve learned to use AI to write articles and create images, and we’ve gotten used to working alongside AI,” Wang says. “But have we considered whether our teams are ready to leverage AI?” and feedback to improve an individual’s work performance,” continues Wang. “If AI is introduced into a system where many people work, how should we evaluate the quality of work? Will human relationships change? What is the relationship between humans and AI? ? Or between AIs driven by different people? Unless these questions are clearly defined and addressed, we will be unable to define our work, our colleagues, and even ourselves at work.”
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