AI at work: A practical guide to implementing and scaling new tools
AI can create job augmentation, not displacement, when implemented effectively. Image: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
- Generative AI is here and it’s not going away – so how can companies successfully implement and scale new tools among workforces?
- For a new report, the World Economic Forum and PwC asked more than 20 ‘early adopters’ about the lessons they have learned while promoting job augmentation and workforce productivity growth with GenAI.
- Here’s a practical guide drawn from their experiences.
From the boardroom to the breakroom, generative AI applications such as ChatGPT are the talk of companies everywhere. But how can organizations harness that energy and ensure that new tools lead to better outcomes for businesses and people?
A new report from the World Economic Forum in collaboration with PwC – Leveraging generative AI for job augmentation and workforce productivity: Scenarios, case studies, and a framework for action – examines the experience of more than 20 'early adopters' of generative AI, who have been implementing GenAI into their operations since the end of 2022.
The report shares lessons from those companies – and provides an actionable framework that organizations at all stages of implementing the technology to augment jobs and enhance productivity can adapt for their own use.
Implementing and scaling GenAI
The framework is based on two iterative stages: starting, where organizations minimize initial investment while testing and learning from GenAI applications; and scaling, where they build on those early results and implement informed decisions on broader measures.
During both of these stages, organizations should address various elements that fall under two core themes: enabling GenAI and engaging workforces. Enable elements focus on establishing foundations and guiding principles and are essential for the early adoption of GenAI and developing use cases. Engage elements focus on ensuring GenAI is effectively adopted and built into workflows to generate the desired benefits. As the report outlines, lessons from early adopters show that engaging the workforce is a particularly important differentiator in driving successful job augmentation and job productivity growth.
Of course, all businesses are different, so the framework outlined in the report is intended to be customized to specific organizational needs. But the broad framework it suggests is as follows.
Enabling GenAI among the workforce
1. Develop a GenAI vision and strategy that aligns with broader digital strategy and is agile enough to adapt to evolving business goals. To speed up adoption and create alignment across the business, this should consider multiple perspectives on the impact on jobs from stakeholders including leadership and employee representatives. And it should integrate with workforce planning strategies to facilitate the necessary upskilling and reskilling as roles change.
2. Build a robust and scalable data and technology infrastructure. This will help ensure accurate performance, reduce bias and see off potential legal issues that all lead to low trust, usage and adoption. These elements become increasingly more essential during the scale-up phase.
3. Ensure compliance with regulations and develop responsible AI programmes – vital to maintaining trust and mitigating legal or reputational risks and create a foundation of trust and sustainability for GenAI deployment, both internally and externally.
Engaging the workforce on GenAI
1. Foster a new approach to work through culture and change management.
The Forum report’s insights from early adopters suggest that successfully deploying and scaling GenAI in the workforce is not about the technology but ensuring people are open to change and experimentation. Therefore, it is important to create a people-centred approach that empowers employees to adapt and promotes the right mindsets and behaviours across the organization.
Starting actions:
- Allocate the right resources and set the right expectations so employees don’t disengage if desired outcomes aren’t achieved straight away.
- Communicate the ‘why’ by conveying a vision that demonstrates the benefits of GenAI for both employees and the business.
- Identify passionate pilot groups – who can act as ‘influencers’ for the rest of the business – to develop and test tools before they are rolled out.
- Promote employee awareness and engagement with internal campaigns that create curiosity and excitement.
- Monitor adoption through user interactions, surveys and employee feedback.
- Reward adoption by recognizing and incentivizing employees that actively adopt and use GenAI.
Scaling actions:
- Designate stakeholders at all levels of the organization to support GenAI implementation, provide strategic direction, align the necessary resources, and model the right behaviours to employees.
- Build trust between employees and the organization through transparent discussions about how GenAI will be used and its potential impact on jobs.
- Encourage knowledge sharing, for example through peer-to-peer learning or town halls at which best practices are shared and successes are celebrated.
2. Equip employees with the necessary skills and manage workforce redeployment.
Continuous development of new skills, knowledge and capabilities are essential for the practical application of GenAI, both in helping employees successfully execute new tasks and transitioning to different roles in the business. Organizations should foster these while at the same time managing workforce redeployment and redesigning job roles.
Starting actions:
- Identify the skills required and any gaps that exist – successful GenAI job augmentation hinges on the ability to perform tasks with the technology as well as performing new, more complex or value-adding tasks.
- Upskill to minimize gaps and increase adoption, educating teams by covering essential topics such as what GenAI is and how to create an effective prompt. Practical training on use cases is also needed.
Scaling actions:
- Identify roles affected and jobs displaced due to GenAI adoption and consider transferring employees into different jobs or reshaping roles, while offering reskilling to avoid further job displacement.
- Redesign jobs by embedding GenAI tools and use cases into existing processes to streamline workflows, improve efficiency and allow employees to focus on more strategic or creative tasks.
- Regularly assess workforce capacity and, through surveys and assessments, continually identify skills gaps created by GenAI. This will help ensure resources and capabilities align with organizational goals.
3. Select and implement appropriate use cases for GenAI.
This is crucial to demonstrating benefits, getting stakeholder buy-in and improving business outcomes.
Starting actions:
- Engage the whole organization to collectively identify and disseminate strategic use cases.
- Implement small-scale pilot projects to gain insights that will inform decisions and adjustments when scaling.
- Determine KPIs – supported by a combination of available hard data and self-reported data – that will be used to measure success, such as workforce adoption, employee wellbeing, and productivity gains.
- Create a comprehensive business case that highlights the expected benefits, such as productivity gains, time savings and employee satisfaction.
Scaling actions:
- Roll out GenAI projects gradually across the organization, and monitor their impact to address any challenges that arise during waves of implementation.
- Set clear standards and controls for GenAI’s use to promote consistency and quality and provide an effective way to handle increasing complexity.
- Review, measure continuously and adjust KPIs – helping to assess whether goals have been achieved and identify opportunities for optimization, expansion or modification.
- Create mechanisms to uncover innovative efforts and experimentation to avoid them being accessible to only a limited part of the workforce.
How is the World Economic Forum fostering a sustainable and inclusive digital economy?
As the report concludes, by aligning the organizational interests with those of the workforce, companies can create an environment in which GenAI enhances job quality, supports innovation and drives productivity. Ultimately, this can create job augmentation, not displacement at scale – a key focus for the World Economic Forum’s Jobs Initiative.
The initiative works to engage businesses, governments and civil society across industries and geographies to prepare leaders and workers for dynamic job transitions and support the creation of good jobs for all.
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David Elliott
November 25, 2024
