Tuesday, December 17, 2024
I’ve been thinking about this term since I first heard it used in a new context last week. Technology providers have long employed euphemisms to describe the reduction in workforce that many software products enable. Downsizing, restructuring, recalibrating, right-sizing…these terms have all been used in the past to delicately point out (while not speaking directly of) the cost savings a business could realize by automating its workflow. Now, with AI, the promise is – rebalancing.
Granted, this is still a way off in the future; despite many AI companies selling the vision already today. I was harshly reminded last Friday how far even simple chat bots for customer service have yet to go before they’re meaningfully viable. The short version of the story is, I was trying to interact with a Delta agent to ask where on their website or app a passenger could simply shoutout to the company about an employee who went the extra mile. The frustrating experience with the chat bot morphed me from a complimentary and delighted passenger, to a disgruntled one. It was only after a human finally intervened and answered this simple question, that I could muster some less enthusiastic words than I originally planned in the employee shoutout. So, obviously, we have a way to go before we realize the utopian world of AI promise.
And yet, these tools are increasing in popularity, and their speed of evolution is truly amazing. So, we need to engage on the topic. Currently, I am cautiously optimistic and only mildly concerned about our AI enabled future. Which is all a tad beside the point, yet I share it to tell you I’m generally positive about AI enabled offices.
Last week I was treated to a conversation between two people who know quite a bit about this sector. I was surprised that their thoughts about this new, exciting and game-changing technology contained an older and more familiar refrain.
Just like Universal Basic Income promoters paint the picture of a world of workers unshackled from mundane, dreary yet necessary jobs, freed to become poets or astronomers or wherever their as-yet-undiscovered passions lead them, today AI proponents are painting similar visions of sugar plums dancing. This time, they ask you to imagine a world where you can rebalance your customer support team into sales superstars. The word unleash might even have been used. As in “you can liberate your customer support team and unleash them to become sales team rockstars”. I’m skeptical.
Rather than talk to business owners and decision makers about measuring the veracity of a claim like this today, instead I’m thinking about the younger career workers. My thoughts? Learn how to be an AI pilot, learn how to effectively utilize AI as an agent assistant for you in your role. And, perhaps equally as important, demand to be physically present in your office as many days as your employer will allow. Before you howl in protest, hear me out.
AI is amazing, and it’s only going to become more sophisticated and incredible. And yet, even the greatest AI proponents have no idea when or if it will jump across the line from stochastic parrot to actual thinking and reasoning. In short, that means for the foreseeable future, AI will have a gap in its abilities to meet human demands. Standing in that breach, will be a human.
So as ROIs seek justification, it will be up to someone to partner with the technology as it is employed in our world and help max it out. A customer success team that today might consist of 15 people will soon employ 3 or 4. They’ll handle the overflow, the questions that AI can’t answer. They will also be in charge of the care and feeding of the AI tool. They will only be subject to rebalancing if they choose to be rebalanced.
These few people will be the rock stars of their company. They’ll know how to solve problems others cannot. They’ll know how to get the best results out of the tool. They’ll be confident in their ability to serve the customers’ needs and solve problems. In order to do that, it helps to be actually visible. Don’t be as mysterious as the tool. Be available. Be visible. Be vital. Be irreplaceable.
So that’s my advice. Master the tool, become an operator of it. Be the go-to person who operates the shiny new profit enhancing tool. Along the way you’ll also become a hero of your workplace. You’ll be the person who says yes when others say no. You’ll be the go-to person when a department needs an outcome but has no idea how to achieve it. You’ll be the person who is seen as the resourceful genius who the company can’t live without.
Create a scenario in which, unless you choose otherwise, you’ll be the last and most indispensable human around. When you finally do go, you won’t have to worry about turning off the lights, the AI will take care of that for you.
Until Next Time,
Mary Schuster
Chief Knowledge Officer
October Research, LLC