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Organizations need to integrate worker voices to maximize generative AI’s benefits
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A new MIT Sloan report offers organizations a roadmap that focuses on a “bottom-up” approach to implementing AI in workplaces
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., August 20, 2024 – From ChatGPT to advanced industrial design AI tools, companies in every industry are turning to generative AI to cut costs and increase productivity. But in the rush to become early adopters, they often leave workers out of the conversation — a dangerous oversight for both workers and the organization’s bottom line.
Drawing on interviews with AI developers, business leaders, labor leaders, and policymakers, a new report spearheaded by the MIT Sloan School of Management offers organizations a roadmap to integrate worker voice to maximize generative AI’s benefits.
"Technologies do not develop deterministically; they are the product of the organizations and people that use them,” said , the George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management, Emeritus at MIT Sloan. “Research demonstrates that when employees are involved in the development and implementation of new technological tools, it can lead to more effective tools, improved job quality, and increased productivity.”
Kochan’s co-authors are Ben Armstrong who co-leads MIT’s Work of the Future initiative; Julie Shah, the H.N. Slater Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT who leads the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL); Emilio J. Castilla, the NTU Professor of Management and professor of Work and Organization Studies at MIT Sloan; Ben Likis, MIT Sloan MBA ‘24; and Martha Mangelsdorf, director of strategic communications at MIT’s Institute for Work and Employment Research.
Old work problems meet new technology
The report reveals a troubling trend: many AI initiatives prioritize replacing — not augmenting — workers. The researchers further found intense competition between departments often discourages developers from incorporating worker feedback, and many organizational leaders use a top-down approach to choose where and how to use AI. The result? Workers are left feeling alienated and unheard.
“This is where old workplace problems meet new technology, a finding that fits within a broader historical pattern in which investors typically reap the financial rewards when new technologies enter the workplace, often at the expense of workers,” said Kochan.
The researchers point out that organizations benefit from technological tools and uniquely human skills and knowledge. To maximize both, they noted the benefits of incorporating a “bottom-up” approach to AI design and implementation that integrates worker voice from the start. For example, workers can help firms identify tasks where generative AI can be used effectively.
“However, there’s a delicate balance,” Armstrong said. “A bottom-up, worker-driven approach to deploying the technology might emphasize narrow use cases, whereas managers are looking for bigger applications than workers on the front line can readily identify.”
In their report, Kochan, Armstrong, and their coauthors make the case that companies don’t have to choose between an exclusively top-down or bottom-up approach to generative AI development and deployment. “The bottom-up and top-down approaches are not mutually exclusive but can be two complementary aspects of identifying the most promising ways of using generative AI,” they write.
Consider these five steps:
Co-create AI tools with business leadership and employees.
The report recommends tapping into the expertise of those who will be using the technology. By involving employees in the design and testing phases, the result is more effective tools and insights into daily business operation.
Example: A large retailer enlisted store workers to help design a generative AI chatbot that assists retail associates. In the rollout process, the questions associates asked the bot offered valuable insights for both the tech team and store managers.
Target AI solutions to employee pain points.
Identify the tasks that frustrate employees and leverage AI to alleviate those burdens. Kochan and Armstrong noted that this can result in increased efficiency, boosted morale, and freeing up employees to focus their efforts where they made the biggest impact.
Example: Summarizing patient visit notes is a headache for busy physicians — so one large healthcare organization is pairing doctors with technology vendors to develop AI-based systems and aids to simplify the process.
Use AI to unlock career advancement opportunities.
Companies can transform roles by looking for opportunities to replace mundane tasks with higher-value activities that can help employees move up the ladder.
Example: A technology company deployed an AI chatbot to handle routine HR questions and tasks, freeing up HR associates to move into more technical and better-paying roles.
Reward employee contributions to AI innovation.
Workers may worry that by helping train AI tools, they’ll eliminate their own jobs — business leadership must make it clear this isn’t the case with communication and incentives for contributing to solution design and development.
Example: One training company runs crowdsources AI innovation that includes challenges with cash bonuses for employees who offer the best ideas.
Address workers’ concerns head-on.
Concerns about job loss are real and valid, and corporate transparency is key to building trust. Regularly scheduled open dialogues with employees about the potential impact of AI on jobs encourages feedback and questions. In unionized workplaces, union leadership can play a role to help structure fair negotiations, and, when necessary, to create transition plans for affected employees.
Example: When the writers’ and actors’ strikes brought Hollywood to a standstill in 2023, concerns about AI were a major sticking point. Ultimately, the writers’ and actors’ guilds negotiated a deal with major entertainment companies that placed guardrails around the use of AI, protecting livelihoods as well as studios’ intellectual property.
“The rise of generative AI is a real opportunity, but making the most of it will demand a new approach to decision-making, as well as a new focus on worker training, fair transitions, and effective policy,” said Kochan. “We need to involve as many stakeholders as possible to ensure no one is left behind.”
About the MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management is where smart, independent leaders come together to solve problems, create new organizations, and improve the world. Learn more at mitsloan.mit.edu.
