Hollywood has painted a pretty bleak picture of our future with AI and robots. Despite these dramatic dystopian nightmares, many people fear that the reality will be far more bleak and non-eventful – we will simply be replaced by machines, our jobs taken over, our lives obsolete.
Thankfully, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. AI is here to augment, support, and improve our working lives, freeing us from repetitive, error-prone tasks and allowing us to explore more meaningful ways to spend our workdays. While it certainly won’t be smooth sailing all the way, here are five major benefits employees can look forward to from automation:
1. More variety in the workday
Whether you have accounts payable automation software taking care of your invoicing or a bot handling the mind-numbing repetitiveness of data entry, AI is capable of flawlessly hammering out detail-oriented, error-prone work. This means the humans who work in these departments are free to engage in analysis, problem-solving, and other value-added tasks. So, instead of feeling like you’re living the same workday on repeat, you can engage in more enriching and interesting tasks.
2. More time, less stress
With bots taking care of the tedious, time-consuming tasks, there are more hours in the day for human workers to get through the rest of their workload. In turn, this reduces the feeling of being stuck in a hamster wheel where you’re always working hard but never really making a dent in your workload.
Employees who feel like they’re achieving something meaningful every day tend to feel happier and more fulfilled at work. As this sentiment spreads through an organization, the whole workplace can begin to feel lighter, more open, and more inclusive. And nothing boosts morale and productivity like a happy and inclusive workplace.
3. Reduced work hours
Of course, this is not a certainty, but with bots taking over the repetitive, mundane tasks, it’s feasible that humans may be able to work fewer hours each week. This would open up a wealth of opportunities for education, personal development, and the simple joys of non-productive relaxation.
4. A human-centered ethos
If you’ve ever felt that a customer service representative was rude or dismissive, it’s highly likely that this person was distracted and stressed out by a mountain of administrative work. With such tasks delegated to bots, everyone from customer service reps and travel agents to online doctors and nurses will have more time to focus on providing genuine care. This is good news for customers and patients, but it’s also wonderful news for the employees themselves. Work is far more rewarding when you know that you’re making a real difference in the lives of those you serve.
5. Better leadership
When managers and business leaders are supported by automation, many of the stressful decisions they have to make each day are simplified. By taking a data-driven approach, business leaders can make important choices quickly and accurately, leading to positive results while avoiding the quagmire of decision fatigue. For employees, this means more engaged leadership and, as with the point above, more time for a human-centered approach from management.
There will, of course, be a lot of bugs to iron out as we develop our symbiotic relationship with AI. However, it’s important for us to collectively focus on the rise of humans alongside the rise of machines. Employees have a lot to gain from sharing the workplace with bots, so don’t let those dystopian novels or dramatic sci-fi films get you down!
