Edit Interview Creating an AI-Ready Workforce

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As AI continues to reshape the skills and demands of workers, their managers must also contend with the challenge of supervising an AI-augmented workf, Value Investing, Executive Development Program: Leading into the Future

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As AI continues to reshape the skills and demands of workers, their managers must also contend with the challenge of supervising an AI-augmented workforce. Sparking employee success as a manager in the age of AI starts with the fundamentals: enhancing motivators while also addressing very real fears around AI replacement.Effective implementation of AI also requires leaders to apply change management principles, including informing, incentivizing, and involving their employees. At the same time, they must contend with the need to create value for their respective organizations.These needs are challenging and highly varied, but they all require a human-centric approach that leverages AI technology to empower and enhance the work of employees, rather than replace them. It is this key element that makes up the focus of work by Todd Jick, the Reuben Mark Faculty Director of Organizational Character and Leadership at the Bernstein Center for Leadership and Ethics, and Stephan Meier, the James P. Gorman Professor of Business.Through their research, Jick and Meier have insight into the growing demands of an AI-enhanced workplace and how managers can best set up employees for success. They shared their tips for getting ahead in a conversation with Columbia Business.CBS: What are some ways that AI-human interaction is shaping management?Meier:&nbsp;AI and how we integrate it into an organization is a big challenge for leaders of any kind. There are three ways in particular that AI integration and human-machine interaction affects leaders, and it has mainly to do with implementation.The first is that humans are generally very anxious about change. Obviously with AI, where the whole discussion is about replacing humans, they’re even more anxious about AI coming for their job and what is actually left for them to do. Leaders need to address this concern in order to make sure that AI reaches its full potential in the organization.Second, leaders need to make sure that their workforce is ready and has the right skills for their new ways of working. This is challenging and requires them to think really carefully about upscaling on a constant basis.Third, leaders need to figure out how to use AI not just to reduce costs and make things more efficient but to actually unlock value in the organization, which is a very different way of thinking.CBS: What should leaders and their employees be most cautious about as AI is further integrated into the workplace?Jick:&nbsp;Obviously, there has to be a value in what the AI will produce—some deliverable that is valuable. Our concern, however, is that there’s been an over-indexing on the technology and the value question and an under-indexing on how this technology gets accepted or implemented.I used to say very simply that a good idea badly implemented doesn’t go anywhere. Obviously, a bad idea beautifully implemented is not a good thing either. But what we’re trying to do is emphasize the importance of implementation.Where’s the ability to actually implement AI? We want this to be an important part of the equation—not just the value of AI but also the ability to get it accepted and integrated into the organization.CBS: In AI’s current state, should its use be made mandatory or optional for employees?Jick:&nbsp;The easy answer to the question would be to say voluntary, because that would give people agency. The more agency people feel, the more they feel like they’re in control of some aspect of their destiny. One of the reasons why people resist change is they feel like something is happening to them and they have no control.The reality is that not all aspects of AI can be simplified or compared in that way. For instance, when implementing a new software system or similar technology you can’t customize it to each individual. You can’t say, ‘Well, one day we’ll use one system and another day we’ll use another system.’ So sometimes the actual nature of the intervention will require this to be mandated or essentially universalized across everyone. But our preference would be to give people agency and some degree of volunteerism involved with making the change, wherever possible.CBS: How can managers help employees who might be hesitant to embrace AI or those who are simply ill-equipped to use new AI technologies?Jick:&nbsp;We have a checkered history around organizations taking in changes. In fact, most studies show about a 75 percent failure rate of introducing organizational changes. AI is a broad scale organizational change, and this is going to take work to get into the 25 percent category.We have been unsuccessful in dealing with two main reasons why people resist change. One, they’re unwilling to change. Two, they’re unable to change. Those are two very different reasons. They’re unwilling to change because they fear for their jobs, because they fear their loss of status or identity, because they haven’t been included in the process, and because they haven’t been informed well enough and communicated to.Ironically, when you talk to leaders about the actual occasions in which they explain the benefits of change, only 61 percent are reputed to actually explain the benefits of change. Only about 45 percent speak to employees on a one-on-one basis. But, in fact, 75 percent think simple enthusiasm will win the day. Employees want more than that.CBS: So what would make employees more willing to embrace such a change?Jick:&nbsp;Employees’ unwillingness to take in something like AI comes from reasons that have to do with their motivation, incentives, the degree of inclusion, and their actual ability to be able to use the tool. We need to find ways in which there’s more transparency. We need to find ways in which there is more involvement of employees in a much more fundamental way earlier and often. We need to find ways to deal with one of the sensitive issues, which is people’s fears of losing their jobs.<blockquote><h3>"We need to understand the oldest processor in the world, which is the human brain, and figure out what actually motivates people at work and how we can use technology to enhance those motivators." -&nbsp;<a href="https://business.columbia.edu/faculty/people/stephan-meier">Stephan Meier</a>, Gorman Professor of Business</h3></blockquote>CBS: How can managers assuage employees’ fears that AI is going to take their jobs?Meier:&nbsp;It’s very important for leaders to assure their employees that what they actually want to do is augment and not replace their employees. Now this is not so easy to do, but one way of doing that concretely is to move away from jobs and think about tasks. What AI really does is that it does certain tasks really well in order to free up capacity for the humans to concentrate on something else.I’ve spoken to managers at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.morganstanley.com/">Morgan Stanley</a>, for example, where they figured out there are certain tasks that the financial advisor does that the machine can actually do better. That allows the financial advisor to spend less time on those activities and more time on those that are actually value enhancing, which turns out to be talking to clients and having meetings. Figuring out what is really the human need of their clients is very value enhancing.But before AI came into the picture, they were not able to spend as much time on it. Morgan Stanley was very, very deliberate in making sure that everybody understands that we don’t want AI to take your job. We want to make you better by automating some of the tasks in order to make sure you spend more time on the tasks that are value enhancing, more meaningful, and more purposeful. We do a lot of tasks in our jobs that are mindless, and AI can actually automate those tasks in order for us to concentrate and focus more on the activities that are more human-centric.Jick:&nbsp;As much as we’d like circumstances in which there are upgrades and reskilling, the reality is sometimes jobs will be lost. I think there, change management again rears its very clear head about how to deal with this. Management does not have a very good track record of handling layoffs and job insecurity. It tends to be secretive, it tends to be preemptive, and it tends to be very noninclusive. At this point, when we think about the fears that people have, transparency is extremely important. So having people be aware of what the likelihood is of this happening and, second of all, providing some protections for people and some transitional support.Companies are not always very good at this, though I’ve seen exceptions to this rule where companies have invested in helping people with those transitions. On one hand, the idea of upgrading or reskilling is far more appealing. However, in situations where that isn’t possible, we need to focus on finding ways to support and guide people through the transition.We are doing that so that we help the “victims” of AI, to the extent we call them that, but also to help those that are survivors that are remaining in the organization, to see how people are treated when there are changes. The more they see fairness, the more they see a process in which they have some involvement, the more likely they are to support future changes. Everything about change management is about both making the current change occur but also ensuring a good attitude towards future changes. I would stress the importance of that process.CBS: How do managers ensure that humans are centered in the workplace as AI continues to evolve and take on a greater role?Meier:&nbsp;As Todd and I argue, I think we are over-indexed on technology and not as much on the human side. I’m arguing really strongly that we need to understand the oldest processor in the world, which is the human brain, and figure out what actually motivates people at work and how we can use technology to enhance those motivators.Think about one of the basic motivators, which is autonomy or trust. You can obviously use AI technology in particular to control your employees much better than&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2024/07/frederick-winslow-taylor-scientific-management/">Frederick Taylor</a>, the father of scientific management, ever envisioned back in the day. Surveillance technologies that control our workers at home or in the office just destroy autonomy and the feeling of trust. Instead, we should think about how we can use technology and AI in particular to empower our employees to actually make autonomy and empowerment more successful. That mainly works when people have feedback.In my book,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stephanmeier.com/book/the-employee-advantage">The Employee Advantage</a>, I talk about four basic motivators that are important for engagement for humans at work. The first one is purpose and meaning. The second one is autonomy, and the flip side is trust. The third one is competence or the right skills. And the fourth one is relatedness, or what I call “working together works.” You can think about those four motivators and how AI can enhance and not destroy them. And if you implement them with humans in mind, I think you are creating a very effective human-centric future of work.<blockquote><h3>"Employees' unwillingness to take in something like AI comes from reasons that have to do with their motivation, incentives, the degree of inclusion, and their actual ability to be able to use the tool." -&nbsp;<a href="https://business.columbia.edu/faculty/people/todd-jick">Todd Jick</a>, Mark Faculty Director</h3></blockquote>CBS: How is AI informing your research?Meier:&nbsp;When the AI hype came to the forefront, Todd and I met and both figured out that what really interests us is the human side of human-machine interaction. So we started to think more about how can we actually create a human-centric future of work? How can we really deeply think about change management tools and human motivation and about how to implement AI in a way that really lets it succeed in an organizational context?Jick:&nbsp;The research that has to come out of all this must inform how we can go about introducing change most effectively. AI being the current most topical area, the reality is we might be seen as Luddites in that we're expressing caution and saying go slower.But what we’re really saying is in order to get to the finish line, we must accelerate. We’re finding examples in which companies are able to accelerate to the finish line by investing in the process, by involving people in the change. And we’re trying to put together some sort of a playlist for managers to think about how to go about doing that.&nbsp;Watch Professors Jick and Meier explain why companies must prioritize people when implementing AI:&nbsp;<h3>Key Takeaways for Business Leaders</h3><ol><li>Address AI-related concerns by involving employees early in the implementation process.</li><li>Communicate transparently and emphasize the role of AI in augmenting rather than replacing jobs.</li><li>Foster continuous upskilling and promote more motivators like purpose, autonomy, and collaboration.</li></ol>&nbsp;&nbsp;<section><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="715" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7VwPZAnyFp4?si=tQdLGxIvdyPR9r1c" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></section>&nbsp;&nbsp;

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