Why AI should be a teammate – not a tool – to build a better future

As an optimist and people-first investor, I believe one of the most exciting developments in artificial intelligence (AI) over the past year is its potential to serve as a digital companion to humans rather than their replacement.

A new class of software personae, called AI teammates, are already working alongside humans to free up their time, accelerate their productivity, augment their capabilities and amplify their creativity. This will allow them to perform as “superhumans”.

To take full advantage of this promise, however, humans must embrace new ways of working and endorse AI as their teammate, not their rival. Doing this means taking a step back to understand how AI use in the workplace has evolved to date.

Startups and incumbents have delivered a slew of bite-sized software-as-a-service or as stand-alone AI products, which have taken the form of co-pilots, agents – and now, teammates.

Co-pilots represent assisted intelligence. They can provide suggestions to help users complete tasks, but humans ultimately control them and make final decisions. GitHub Copilot is a good example – it makes code suggestions for software developers to incorporate into the programs they’re writing.

On the other hand, agents represent autonomous intelligence for executing a limited set of tasks. They have decision-making capabilities but are still very task-oriented. A good example is ridesharing pioneer Lyft’s AI-powered agent, which can autonomously handle customer refunds without involving human representatives.

Now, AI teammates are taking us into a new era of “collaborative intelligence”. As they collaborate with humans, AI teammates adapt and learn to achieve shared objectives.

A marketing teammate, for example, could collaborate with human users by conducting research and offering suggestions on copy and creative ideas. While capable of autonomous actions, an AI teammate leaves critical tasks and decisions to the human, ensuring a true partnership in crafting the best possible marketing content.

An on-demand digital workforce could revolutionize how companies find and deploy talent, making work more flexible and fluid. There is also potential for AI to increase employee satisfaction and engagement as people can focus on more creative and fulfilling work, and free up time for personal priorities.

Indeed, our recent research suggests that AI teammates represent a $6 trillion global opportunity – twice the size of the estimated $3 trillion IT market (excluding devices and telecommunications), according to Gartner. This opportunity spans both businesses in industries such as healthcare or finance (vertical), as well as business functions such as marketing, sales or customer support (horizontal).

So, AI teammates could be valuable to both specialized industries and common business functions. Most of this opportunity is concentrated in three areas each for verticals and horizontals (see figure below), equating to roughly 80% of both categories.

To fully realize the potential of human-AI collaboration, we need to adapt our thinking, workflows and management styles. This requires people in four different types of role to consider specific questions:

Can you identify repetitive tasks to offload to AI while maintaining oversight of the results? For instance, you could ask AI for trending hashtags for a LinkedIn post to save time and get your post amplified.

Can you identify new skills that you want to develop using AI as a coach? If you are a first-time author, for example, you could ask AI to show you how to write in different voices to find one that reflects you – whether it's fiction in the style of JK Rowling or memoir by Phil Knight, there are many options.

Can you address talent shortages and potential skill gaps with AI? For instance, if you are struggling to find customer support representatives, AI teammates could be trained to answer the most commonly asked questions.

Are you prepared to embrace hybrid teams? This has to go beyond managing humans in remote locations, which many managers learned to do during COVID-19. But when your daily design team standup includes AI teammates, you will have to adapt your communication style to be inclusive of computer-generated voices. Practicing radical candor, for example, will look quite different if your feedback must improve a software that’s devoid of emotion.

Are you a techno-optimist who is ready to foster a culture of innovation? Can you evolve from a command and control culture to one that empowers teams to work bottom-up to find new solutions? This means having an open mind so answers can come from anywhere. For example, Apple’s Steve Jobs met with 100 people across the company every week, irrespective of their reporting structure, to get fresh thinking.

Do you have a strategy for how AI can improve your bottom line? During our conversations with our 4,000-person chief information officer and tech leaders network, they've told us that they have been evaluating the risks and benefits of implementing AI in their workflows. One key takeaway is that these firms are hiring Chief AI Officers (CAIOs) to integrate business requirements and technology best practices.

How would you use the time that AI frees up? By working with an AI teammate, you could get back some time to pursue your passion, concentrate on parenting with more patience or achieve a new fitness goal, among many other options.

AI is a force to elevate humans. Leaders and workers who don’t challenge themselves to use it to stretch their own capabilities will be left behind. AI-first companies will gain access to a digital labour force and the cost efficiencies of automating repetitive tasks.

Further, AI-forward workers will expand their skill sets to learn new things and grow into creative contributors. And AI-powered economies could lift countries' GDPs and improve lives. As we enter a new era of collaborative intelligence, AI teammates will become a “when” not an “if” question as we attempt to build a better future for all.