Is Workplace AI's Next Frontier in Organizational Culture?

Our workplace culture began to show cracks when my company, Centric Consulting, went through a period of rapid growth. More and more circumstances weren't resolved the way we had hoped. Leadership was no longer able to devote enough time to mentoring each employee in our core values. We put in place a comprehensive culture training program for all staff members and training for leaders on how to lead with our values system to make sure the intended culture persisted as the business grew.

Culture and AI might not seem like a natural fit. AI is the most advanced technology available, but culture is fundamentally human and includes how people interact with one another, their clients, and coworkers. However, some experts think AI is the best way to address the issue my company had years ago: how can you connect with every employee and help them understand your culture? How do you help them develop improved teamwork and communication skills? Effective talent management requires a proactive approach, and strategic workforce planning (SWP) plays a crucial role in aligning an organization’s talent strategy with its long-term goals. The first step is to assess the current workforce, identifying skill gaps, retirement risks, and areas where new talent is needed. Using HR analytics helps in making data-driven decisions. Next, businesses must forecast future workforce needs by analyzing industry trends, technological advancements, and market demands to prepare for upcoming challenges.

AI-Powered Employee Coaching to Enhance Workplace Culture

Andrew Rashbass, a member of the University of Cambridge's esteemed van der Schaar Lab, a center for AI and machine learning, is one such specialist promoting the use of AI to enhance culture. Rashbass is also the creator of ScultureAI, a tool that guides staff members toward the core values that an organization wants to inculcate in its workforce through coaching in their daily digital interactions.

Coaching has long been acknowledged as a potent tool for organizational transformation, assisting businesses in enhancing employee self-efficacy, team performance, and leadership—all of which are factors that influence culture. Coaching is "work that all managers should engage in with all their people all the time, in ways that help define the organization's culture and advance its mission," according to a recent Harvard Business Review article.

Additionally, one-on-one coaching takes a lot of time, and a leader can only coach a certain number of people. According to Rashbass, there is an 80/20 to take into account here, even though AI-powered coaching cannot be as successful as one-on-one counseling. He asserts that AI should be viewed as an adjunct to, rather than a substitute for, individualized coaching, asking, "Is there a way you can get 80 percent of that value and scale to thousands of times?"

For example, ScultureAI was created by Rashbass and his team to accomplish this. CEO Elie Rashbass refers to this process as "culture encoding," in which the tool is trained on an organization's core values. Based on this information, it makes recommendations for improvements to emails and team chats on Teams or Slack. According to Rashbass, when implemented across a whole organization, ScultureAI can complete countless little coaching moments every day, adding up to a significant impact.

"A lot of cultural issues arise because most organizations haven't really considered the enormous volume of in-the-moment everyday transactions," he says. "The true foundation of organizational transformation is micro-interactions, particularly digital ones." This is particularly true for remote or hybrid workplaces, like the one I work for, where most of the interactions between employees take place online.

It’s Time to Consider How AI Can Boost Workplace Culture

Though perhaps this will soon change, culture has not yet played a significant role in the discussion of how AI can enhance the workplace. After all, an organization's performance is greatly influenced by its culture. Another common area of struggle is culture: according to a recent Gallup poll, only 21% of American workers feel a strong sense of connection to their company's culture.

"The enormous opportunities are with those who are thinking more about true transformation — those who are trying to change the nature of work, changing what is possible, and wondering what it is that we can do now that was never even imaginable before."

Using AI to enhance any aspect of an organization, including culture, presents a clear challenge. Adam Holtby, an analyst at Omdia, a technology and advisory group, and an expert in employee experience, workplace transformation, and the future of work, claims that trust is the AI elephant in the room. "Transparency and fairness must be incorporated into decisions made with AI-generated insights or data."