
- 17% of 18-34-year-olds?dislike speaking to customers;
- Less than half would?prioritise?communicating with colleagues;
- 10% would completely delegate verbal responsibilities to customers ? to robots.
Younger workers like the shortcuts of automation
“What?s important to understand is which tasks require human-to-human interaction and which don?t ? and educating staff on how best to make the most of their time alongside automation.?The research also supports, what some may call, ageist stereotypes about older workers, such as their suspicion of those darned job-stealing robots. For example, the findings show that 60% of employees over 55 would tackle tasks that electronic services could deal with right away. On the other hand, some 21% of millennials would allow automation to take care of these more perfunctory job tasks. There is a risk, however, that a refusal to engage with automation could lead to poor time management and lack of productivity among older workers. But, on the other side of the coin, only 1/3 of millennials believe they can do a better job at a task than a robot, whereas over 50% of over 55s remain confident in their working abilities, and believe they are better at their jobs than a robot can ever be. Both facts should be equally un-nerving for managers, as it means that younger workers may eschew creativity in favour of an ‘easy life’ when it comes to workplaces tasks and objectives. Whilst out of pride, older workers may try and disprove the utility of robotic services by tackling too many administrative jobs themselves, leaving little time for other tasks.
? Neil Murphy,?global business development, ABBYY
“Once staff understand how to work in partnership with robots, they will be able to spend more time adding value to the business where it matters most.”?? Neil Murphy,?global business development, ABBYY
Human communications and automation: A balancing act
If used correctly, automation services can increase the human output of workplace productivity. If they are used as short-cuts when it comes to time-consuming, yet essential, administrative tasks, employees will have more time to focus on the organic aspects of workplace tasks. Whatever industry you’re in, workplace objectives are only getting more demanding, so it’s important that employees make use of AI to deal with mundane tasks and free up their energy for client and customer based work. When it comes to customer service, people continue to prefer human connections. A balance must be reached between making the most of automation, but not letting it do all the work for you, or else ? the robots will have won.Share this story