Integrating artificial intelligence into the workplace offers many benefits, but moving too fast could have a negative impact on workforce experience if human needs are left unaddressed. Here, we explore four emerging tensions between the workplace opportunity inherent in AI investments and the human values potentially at risk.
10
%
of leaders indicated that they currently use AI often to make decisions
74
%
of leaders anticipate using AI often for decision-making within the next five years
Recently, 142 senior workforce experience leaders joined our roundtable discussion held in collaboration with Natter, a company that combines proprietary video tech with intelligent matching and data analytics to gather opinions, feedback, and ideas at scale. We asked leaders to share their thoughts on how AI will impact the human experience at work—and the costs that could emerge. Workforce leaders anticipate that AI will increase productivity and creativity. At the same time, they acknowledge a rising fear that AI will not just reshape and reduce our work, but without safeguards and initiatives in place, it could pose a risk to the human experience at work.
Earning workforce trust and buy-in for AI is critical to realizing positive business outcomes. In a TrustID™ survey, we found that employees view their employers as nearly 2X less empathetic and human when AI tools are offered.¹ Why does trust matter to business outcomes? We also found that employees who highly trust their employers are 50% less likely to look for a new job and are nearly 2X more likely to feel motivated.²
To benefit from AI, organizations must acknowledge that bottom-line benefits rarely motivate individual employees. Instead, leaders should protect and elevate the human experience, establishing trust between their workforce and the AI applications whose success depends on adoption.
In our research, four tensions emerged, highlighting the opportunity of AI versus the risk.
Four tensions created by AI in the workplace
TENSION 1
Efficiency vs. inclusivity
Leaders are eager to leverage AI to expedite routine tasks and remove the administrative burden for their employees. While leaders are optimistic about efficiency gains, nearly a third of conversations cited concern for the bias and inclusion challenges of AI, suggesting that the risk of further embedding systemic bias tempers their excitement.
Leaders can move forward by providing training for employees to identify and challenge biases when using AI and encourage this learning across functions and levels.
TENSION 2
Creative inspiration vs. dilligence
While the quality of work can be evaluated through many lenses, leaders in our study focused on the importance of creative inspiration and diligence in creating high-quality work. Nearly 70% of leaders we spoke to believe that AI will enhance employee creativity to some degree, with AI sparking new ideas and inspiration that can improve quality of work. However, 42% express concern that over-reliance on AI will sacrifice needed human diligence, removing the accuracy, thoroughness, and diversity of thought needed for high-quality work.
Leaders can move forward by developing AI input and output quality review processes to ensure the ethical use of AI and mitigate any risk to work quality. This guidance should be consistent and embedded across the organization, including the C-suite, HR, technology, and product teams.
TENSION 3
Personalization vs. data privacy
Many leaders (58%) see promise in using AI-driven feedback loops to learn more about their workforce and to make more informed decisions. However, scaled data-driven personalization requires more access to employee data. This requirement ties directly to the top concern for leaders, mentioned in 56% of conversations, which is the ethical use of AI for data security and privacy.
Leaders can move forward by gathering feedback about their workers using active listening tools designed with features to help mitigate risk to employee data security and privacy.
TENSION 4
Time for connections vs. quality of connections
Perhaps the most fundamental tension addresses AI’s impact on human connection. Over a third of conversations expressed optimism that AI will help unlock time for meaningful human interactions. However, this optimism is tempered by the risks, with 41% of leaders believing AI will cause a decrease in the quality of human connections. These leaders worry about an over-reliance on “the machine” for key moments that, up until now, have been made memorable through “the human touch,” human-driven empathy, and the lack of a technological presence.
Leaders can move forward by using ethnography and human-centered design research methods to identify innovative ways to spark connection at key moments that matter. Companies should be prepared for the machine-generated nature of interactions to continue to raise the bar for what meaningful human connections look like.
Protecting the future workforce experience
While many companies are adopting AI quickly to meet business needs or gain a competitive advantage, few truly know what to expect, or whether these tools will be adopted and trusted by their employees. Although leaders are excited about the opportunity, the potential costs to experience and trust are impossible to ignore.
An experience-led approach that starts with the human experience should guide the process of AI integration. Leaders find that utilizing a “humans with machines” approach drives trust with AI: a path shaped by human-centered design, guided by measuring trust, defined by safeguards to help ensure more trustworthy machines, and ultimately designed to empower employees for change.
How is your organization preparing to use AI in the workforce? Have you encountered the same tensions? If so, how are you planning to move forward? If you’d like to share your experiences, join a future roundtable discussion, or want to learn more, reach out and say hello.
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AI can cut costs, but at what cost to the workforce experience?
Robert Collignon
Robert is Director in the Customer Strategy practice with a focus on the insurance and wealth management industry. He has over 20 year experience both as a consultant as well as in working for FSI industry organisations. His passion is to design and deliver winning strategies, brands and customer propositions which benefit organizations and contribute to a better society. Typically this involves business model innovation, digital transformation, new venture design, partnership strategies, digital technology (data management, marketing automation), operating model design and proposition design. Prior to joining Deloitte Robert was the global Head of Brand & Customer Strategy at an insurance organization, he is one of the proud founders of GoBear (www.gobear.com) - a successful FinTech in the financial services industry in Asia and author of ‘Pensioen voor Dummies’.
1. Deloitte TrustID™ Survey (2023).
2. Deloitte TrustID™ Workforce Survey (2021 and 2022).