Using AI Makes Workers Feel Lonely—And Could Hurt Productivity
The post Using AI Makes Workers Feel Lonely—And Could Hurt Productivity appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
While there’s no doubt that AI has changed how we interact with machines and has improved efficiency at work, it could also be negatively impacting employees’ health and social well-being. “AI-induced isolation may spur employees to invest more in their human relationships, to seek out the social nourishment they’re missing,” according to research published Monday by the Harvard Business Review. Should those efforts fail, however, afflicted workers “resort to alcohol and suffer from insomnia.” The findings were based on four studies, working with 580 employees from various backgrounds and nationalities who had worked with an organization for over three years and used AI systems for a year and a half or longer. “In fervor to keep pace with competitors and reap the efficiency gains associated with deploying AI, many organizations have lost sight of their most important asset: the humans whose jobs are being fragmented into tasks that are increasingly becoming automated,” the report noted. Dependence on AI makes employees feel isolated and sad, the report concluded, adding that the fear of losing jobs eventually starts seeping in. This sense of social malaise and ill-being “have negative impacts on quality of life, mood, cognitive function, behavior, and health overall,” the report added. Even as AI takes care of more mundane tasks, there is a downside. Employees are then forced to be more productive, the report said, and the scope of informal discussions is reduced, adding to a sense of insecurity. “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,” HBR said. As a result, pushing heavily into AI can backfire. “Our findings clearly illustrate the irony that in seeking to enhance productivity, over-reliance on AI may actually erode it over time,” HBR wrote. “Lonely, disengaged…
Filed under: News - @ June 29, 2024 5:16 pm