At its core, AI has a huge amount of potential to improve the way people work: think automating cumbersome processes, or helping employees be more efficient by balancing workloads and suggesting best-fit schedules. In effect, if it is leveraged in the right way, it can be instrumental in improving both an organisation’s bottom line and engagement of its workers.

Though there is some scepticism around AI in the workplace, I think it’s all in how you view it – can humans and machines coexist? Let’s take a look.

AI on the rise

AI has come a long way since its early days, when it was relegated largely to academic circles or the realm of science fiction. It’s now very much at the forefront, being used to make shift and holiday scheduling much less of a headache for employees, as a tool to transform marketing and customer service by analysing initial requests to match with the best human employee to carry out the task, and even as a pioneering technology in the world of data analytics to dive deep into data lakes much too cumbersome for a human, and bringing patterns and insights to the forefront.

These roles that AI is assuming alongside employees is being met with mixed reviews. According to a survey carried out by the Workforce Institute at Kronos, 92 percent of U.K. employees recognise that AI can make their lives easier by helping them improve the way they work. Alongside this, 68 percent said that they would be in favour of embracing AI if it helped them to better balance their workloads or increase fairness in subjective decisions.

So far, so good. But employees have concerns too.

Progress to be made

Digging a little deeper, 62 percent of respondents say that their employer has not yet shared details of plans to introduce AI with them. This lack of transparency can understandably lead to some workers fearing that their jobs are set to be replaced by so-called ‘better alternatives’.

However, there’s no need for this to be the case. There is a clear opportunity for leaders to be more transparent and communicative with their employees about the applications of AI and, specifically, how it can be hugely influential in making their lives easier and freeing up their time to focus on creativity and innovation. This point is again highlighted by the research: 63 percent of respondents said that they would be more comfortable with the introduction of AI if their employer were more open about how it will affect their roles.

A HR challenge, not just a technology one

Employees generally recognise that there’s potential in AI, but tackling any remaining suspicions is about focusing on the HR aspect of AI implementation, as well as the technological permutations. An organisation is only as strong as its people, so their well-being should be a close consideration whenever any change to the business is introduced.

This means that managers and leadership teams need to be as transparent as possible about how the technology will work, how they will work with the technology, and place special emphasis on its virtues and underlining how each person’s role will or will not change.

People innovate, technology facilitates

In any industry, it will always be people who contribute the innovative thought that will drive an organisation forward – with technology then being a tool through which this innovation will be facilitated. AI is no different in this respect: it will play a pivotal role in the workplace of the future, but its potential can only be maximised when it is used in tandem with the creative flair that human staff provide.

If managers and business leaders can communicate this message to their employees effectively, AI will be welcomed with open arms and its promise will be fulfilled.

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The company is using the data for a new feature called ‘Profile Recommendations’ whereby the app will recommend switching to a correct profile for your journey.

Many people will have two Uber profile – one for personal use, and the other for business.

Ronnie Gurion, GM and Global Head of Uber for Business, says:

“Using machine learning, Uber can predict which profile and corresponding payment method an employee should be using, and make the appropriate recommendation.”

When quickly booking a ride, it can be easy to forget to switch. Accidentally booking a ride home from a night out using a business account set up with a workplace’s payment details is an unwanted conversation with an employer.

Uber believes its success rate for determining the correct profile is around 80 percent.

To help reduce the 20 percent it gets wrong, businesses can assign ‘trip reviewers’ who know whether an employee’s use is supposed to be personal.

Any questionable rides can be flagged by the reviewer and the employee can decide in the app if it was supposed to be a personal ride or not. The whole process is designed to be much quicker than starting email threads about the issue and similar bureaucratic processes.

What are your thoughts on Uber’s use of AI for its latest feature?

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