Our topic for this month deals with an issue very much in the minds of all businesses currently: artificial intelligence. The topic is “The Danger of Making People Into Robots with AI.” With minutely detailed instruction evolved by AI and religiously followed by employees, they are no longer required to think for themselves.
A significant consequence of this is the loss of continuous improvement of employees. How does this happen?
How Employees Improve
Employee improvement comes about in two ways.
The first way is, of course, through training. An employee is given instructions, either in writing or through another employee apprenticing the person onto a job. The person then learns how to apply this information to their job as they become more familiar with their duties. They then become increasingly better at utilizing it.
The second and most important way that employee improvement comes about is by dealing with day-to-day challenges. When employees must sort through issues themselves, they learn “on the ground” how to achieve greater success in their roles.
How Improvement Disappears
Now, let’s bring in AI, through which an employee receives minutely detailed instruction evolved by AI. When this happens, the person is no longer required to think for themselves as regards their job—in fact, they are often discouraged from it.
This kind of operation has several dangerous ramifications, but probably the most significant is reducing responsibility. No longer having to make their own decisions, or doing so with lessoning frequency, responsibility for their own actions disappears. Responsibility is assigned to AI.
In such a case, a person quite literally becomes a robot.
What then happens to the person’s continual improvement on the job? Well, since they’re no longer responsible for their own decisions, they’ve ceased thinking for themselves. They are no longer required to improve. They’re simply relying on this exterior influence—artificial intelligence—to instruct them. Any need to improve disappears.
Example in Sales
Since we’re dealing with sales and salespeople, let’s see how this scenario affects the continuous improvement of salespeople.
Traditionally, salespeople, when they encounter specific issues with selling to different customers, learn to deal with these challenges. This knowledge then becomes part of their sales methodology. With greater and greater skill in practice over time they become more successful salespeople.
A company utilizing AI for sales training feeds AI-generated data to the salespeople, who are expected to strictly follow the scripts and procedures outlined. This data deals with handling specific sales objections, moving the customer to the next stage of a sales process, closing, and other vital sales activities.
If a salesperson is forced to utilize the artificial intelligence data instead of the good sense they have obtained—or could obtain—from their own overcoming of obstacles, they are no longer responsible. They will no longer address the prospect in front of them, but the “theoretical prospect” that AI provides them. You can bet that, in such an instance, their sales will suffer badly.
Once again, we can see that continuous improvement has vanished as the salesperson becomes reliant on AI data to deal with prospects and customers.
Artificial intelligence is no doubt with us and is here to stay. But robbing employees of their own continuous improvement will not only reduce their own success but that of the company as well. AI should not be utilized in this fashion.
Let’s stick with the fundamental tried-and-true methods of continuous employee improvement, and maintain and increase company success along with it.
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