Finding Balance Through Technology – How AI Can Help us Work More Effectively

There was a time when we used to spend hours and hours of work on the arrangement and paradigm of files and data, which is now performed in a few minutes using software like Excel and PowerPoint. Similarly, there are a lot of examples where the absence of technology has made us sit for hours and hours to wait for the process to work.

Especially in the workplace, inefficient processes, or technology backed processes are the primary reason for long work-hours and ultimately a waste of time.

If a process has to be repeated again and again, the best move is to apply automation in the process cycle to achieved productivity at work. And, it can be achieved only through the leverage of technology. And, automation is just one of several fields where Artificial Intelligence and machine learning can do the magic work to save a lot of time and make the workplace more productive. And one won’t have to wonder about the application of Application learning in our daily life; it is metaphorically ‘infinite.’

There can be two possible ways to improvise the effectiveness of the process and thus productivity.

• Increasing output
• Or, reducing overhead, i.e., the number of equipment used

Let’s take one example where we can apply both ways to maximize the workflow process and effectiveness.

• Making meetings more productive and result-oriented

According to data, an average U.S employee spends around 5-6 hrs in a meeting during a week, which roughly implies 102 meetings every day. And, research suggests that more than 50% of these meetings are nothing but a waste of time costing the companies in millions or sometimes even in billions.

So, one simple solution is to somehow avoid all the chatting about the things that are irrelevant during a meeting. That is optimizing the effectiveness of the meeting, which will depend on several factors like- perceiving ability of everyone attending the meeting, full-attendance (or if someone is absent, companies should make sure that the relevant information is completely di-briefed outside the meeting) and so forth.

This was the case of a conventional meeting, now consider a meeting hosted by an AI assistant. Not only the system will know the employee details who are going to attend the meeting, but the system will also recognize the perceiving ability of employees, their attendance, organized to-do lists for each employee, follow-up meeting details, and everything. In fact, the system can be customized based on the company’s requirements and meeting theme and importance.

And, this is just one instance where an AI-based system can optimize the effectiveness of the process. Similarly, there are several other processes like workflow automation which may include email automation, meeting details follow-up automation, and technically almost every repeating thing in any workplace could be automated leveraging the concepts and application of AI.