We’ve found that there are three common misconceptions people face when onboarding an artificial intelligence (AI) -powered tool. I’ve detailed those misconceptions below—along with how we help customers overcome them.
Regardless of what AI-based tool you’re onboarding, consider these tips for dispelling common misconceptions and successfully implementing software.
Misconception #1: AI Is Magic/AI Doesn’t Work
Everyone has some preconceived notion about what AI can do. Some think AI is overhyped and ineffective; others think it’s magical and perfect right out of the box. Regardless of where people fall on that spectrum—on either end or somewhere in the middle—their introduction to the technology is rarely their first experience.
So, what’s one of the common concerns we hear from new customers?
How do we overcome people’s positive or negative perceptions of AI?
Our answer: Don’t tell people it’s AI.
Think about it: your team’s typical interactions with the people you support consist of someone submitting a question or request, and you answering that question or fulfilling that request. From the perspective of the people you support, asking an AI tool for help isn’t any different than sending an e-mail or opening a ticket. It’s just a different system for communicating needs.
You don’t have to tell people: “We’re onboarding a new system that uses AI and machine learning to understand your requests and to answer them immediately.” You can just tell people: “We’re using a new system to accept tickets.” Then, you don’t have to worry about people’s preconceived notions about AI—or to explain to them how AI works.
This sounds simple, but it really works. Our customers who’ve done this run surveys and get such comments like: “HR is on fire!” “They’re answering my questions faster than ever before.” The people whom those teams support don’t realize it’s a bot replying to their questions. They just think the support team is on top of its game—which, technically, it is.
Misconception #2: AI Will Replace People’s Jobs
As far as the people you support go, AI is just a new way to submit questions and requests. But what about the people who provide support? You’re introducing a new system that promises to close a percentage of tickets for your team automatically. It’s a natural reaction for team members to wonder if their jobs are at risk. But the truth of the matter is that AI doesn’t replace jobs; it lets people focus more on the parts of their jobs that are truly important and impactful.
Most people don’t realize how much time they spend providing support. Because tickets roll in incrementally throughout the day, working on them doesn’t feel terribly burdensome. But the time it takes to deal with those tickets adds up. Instead of working on strategic initiatives or providing personal support when it’s truly needed, people are interrupted and distracted by a constant influx of frequently asked questions and repetitive requests.
Copying and pasting the answers to FAQs 50 times a week also feels good because you get the satisfaction of knowing you helped 50 different times. On the other hand, a major initiative—like working with leadership to come up with a plan to improve employee engagement or systems security—simply doesn’t offer so many feel-good opportunities.
But in the end, it’s those more strategic efforts that make a much larger, and more lasting, impact on both your company and the people you support. If you introduce AI with this narrative—if you get people to cooperate for long enough to experience how much greater of an impact they can make when they actually have time to focus—the idea that AI will replace their jobs fades away quickly.
Misconception #3: AI Works Out of the Box and Does Not Change
The most common misconception we run into with our decision-makers is the idea that you should somehow migrate allexisting company knowledge into your AI software so it can start answering questions immediately. Here’s the problem with this approach: it is incredibly time-consuming and doesn’t align with the way AI “learns.”
Think of AI as a new team member. If you were onboarding a new team member, would you give him or her access to a pile of documents and say, “to answer questions, sift through these as quickly as possible and send the right one,” or would you let him or her shadow you as you answer questions?
Most likely, you would do the latter. Continuing with your day as normal and as questions come in, you would tell the new hire which document goes with which questions, ensuring that they are prepared for success.
The same is true for AI. Instead of spending hours adding all the knowledge you’ve built over the years to the system up front, you should simply add knowledge as needed while answering incoming questions. This feels far more natural and lightweight.
Over time, AI gets smarter and answers more requests correctly because you’ve taught it which answers are correct, and you’ve made sure that those answers are up to date and accurate—both along the way and into the future.
The Human Side of AI
The best support when someone just needs to know where to go to update her direct deposit information is the support that arrives instantly—much faster than a team member could reply. However, when someone has a serious issue—a complex problem or private concern—the best support is working with another person who has judgment, listens, and cares in the way that only a human can do. AI lets support teams provide less personal support when it’s not needed, which frees them up to provide more personal support when it’s truly critical.
| Susan Tran is the Head of Customer Success at Spoke, built from the ground up to power the on-demand workplace and deliver immediate access to knowledge and support. |
Now that these misconceptions have been cleared up, learn more about using artificial intelligence in the recruiting process. RecruitCon 2019 will offer a few sessions on this topic, register today for this May event, being held in Austin, Texas.
