Social connections at work can help employees to feel more fulfilled - which makes them likelier to collaborate and innovate with their colleagues. Photo Credit: Adobe Stock/Lucija (generated with AI)
Artificial intelligence (AI), as a tool, promises to optimise
productivity, lightning-fast data analysis, and freedom from mundane
tasks. However, a report published by the Harvard Business Review has
found that over-reliance on technology like this can lead to results
that include a dip in job satisfaction, motivation, and mental
well-being.
In the report, authors David De Cremer and Joel Koopman cite research
that states how workers are likelier to collaborate, innovate and go
beyond in their roles when they feel socially connected and emotionally
fulfilled at work – and AI can be counterproductive to these sentiments,
making people feel more isolated instead.
De Cremer and Koopman interviewed 166 engineers in a Taiwanese
biomedical company for their study to test how working with AI could
affect communication levels that workers felt with their colleagues, and
the possible consequences of jeopardising these communication levels.
“Our results showed that the engineers who worked more with AI
displayed a stronger desire to connect with others, which did lead to
some positive behaviours as employees helped their coworkers in an
effort to reconnect. But they also reported greater feelings of
loneliness, which led to greater alcohol consumption and insomnia.” The
report stated.
Use of AI: Productivity up, loneliness up
Another study conducted by the authors found that employees who
worked with AI had greater desire for connection and were lonelier as
compared to their colleagues who worked without AI.
“Overall, these results show that the more employees collaborated
with AI — as it helped to complete more tasks than ever — the more they
felt socially deprived as work took over their entire day,” the report
said.
“Their interactions with AI made them more efficient and capable of
doing much more work, but at the same time left them feeling lonely,
which resulted in employees being more likely to resort to alcohol and
suffer from insomnia — telltale and worrying signs of social malaise and
ill-being, which research shows have negative impacts on quality of
life, mood, cognitive function, behaviour, and health overall.”
Employee wellbeing and engagement
The studies’ findings paint a dire picture, but not all is lost. De
Cremer and Koopman have suggested that companies should monitor employee
wellbeing and conduct regular surveys and check-ins with workers to
assess their engagement and interest at work, as well as consider
redesigning workflows to better suit the unique strengths of both humans
and machines, allowing workers to collaborate with AI in ways that
enhance their autonomy.
However, most important would be for a fundamental shift in mindset
for companies to look at AI as a tool to enhance not only productivity
but also the human experience at work.
“The efficiency these systems create is an opportunity to support
employees’ social and emotional needs… The goal should be to foster a
culture where social interaction is valued and encouraged, not seen as a
distraction from real work’.”