Feature
Unified communications (UC) brings together various communication channels such as voice, video, messaging, email and collaboration tools into a single platform. It has been a significant contributor to improved efficiency, collaboration and overall business success across the digital workplace in recent years, streamlining asynchronous communications and enabling employees to access different modes of communication seamlessly and remotely.
But as enterprises roll-out the use of generative AI in the organization, it is inevitable that UC will also be impacted.
Powering Up Enterprises
There's no doubt that incorporating generative AI into UC has the potential to empower organizations to offer advanced functionalities for task automation, heightened communication efficiency and an enriched collaborative experience for teams.
But some of the key benefits of integrating generative AI into your UC also include:
- Smart virtual assistants: Integrating generative AI into UC platforms can enable the creation of intelligent virtual assistants that can understand natural language queries.
- Natural language understanding: Generative AI can improve natural language understanding in UC applications. This means better handling of voice commands, more accurate speech recognition and improved interaction with chatbots or virtual assistants.
- Sentiment analysis: Generative AI can analyze the sentiment of written or spoken communication.
- Chatbots for routine queries: Integrating generative AI-driven chatbots into UC platforms can handle routine queries and tasks. This reduces the burden on human participants, allowing them to focus on more complex and strategic aspects of their work.
- Collaborative content creation: Generative AI can facilitate collaborative content creation by assisting teams in generating and refining documents. This could include drafting emails, creating reports or generating ideas during brainstorming sessions.
HR Communications Pave the Way
From a UC perspective, one of the main use cases of generative AI will likely be as an HR communication enabler, Brittany Barhite, head of employee experience at San Francisco-based Firstup, said, likening it to the transformative impact of email and the internet when they were first introduced.
“There’s a fair share of concern about AI potentially displacing HR and communication jobs,” she said. But, she reminds us, "AI is an efficiency tool, just like email or Google when it was created,” she said.
For that reason, she says HR professionals should prepare for the seamless integration of AI into technologies and various aspects of their work, from recruitment to onboarding and everyday tasks, including communications, surveys and more. For instance, generative AI offers invaluable support in tasks such as generating initial drafts of job descriptions, interview questions or policies. It can also aid in crafting engaging open enrollment communications or quickly analyzing and identifying qualitative themes in engagement surveys.
While AI does not replace the qualities of critical thinking, emotional intelligence, strategic planning and the human relationships that are the lifeblood of HR roles, Barhite said, it complements these skills very well, freeing up more time for HR professionals to focus on their strategic and value-driven responsibilities.
Related Article: A Practical Guide to Today's Top AI for HR Tools
Recasting Mundane Communications Task
Most experts agree that generative AI is not coming for jobs but rather being used to help workers achieve their goals and enhance their performance — as long as it's used carefully, said Neeha Curtis, chief communications officer at Jugo.
“AI is a helper, not a replacer, ” she said. "AI can help you handle routine questions, freeing up our team for more complex tasks. Plus, it’s great for drafting communications like emails and reports, ensuring our company’s tone stays on point. For businesses operating globally, AI is invaluable for breaking down language barriers with its real-time translation capabilities.”AI can also take notes, highlights the key points and even offers suggestions for next steps — a personal executive assistant (for anyone!). When it comes to training new team members or updating everyone, AI streamlines the creation of training materials.
Still, Curtis offers a word of caution: organizations need to be cautious about data privacy and comply with laws to keep information secure.
“Transparency is key. We need to inform our team and customers about how AI is being used. For example, AI's role in internal communication needs careful handling, especially when dealing with sensitive data from the company, customers, financials and employees, to ensure confidentiality and trust. Importantly, we have to watch out for potential biases in AI."
Related Article: How Internal Communications Can Revive the Enterprise Social Network
Enabling Remote Work
Given the popularity of hybrid workplaces and the opening of the labor pool to a more globally dispersed workforce, AI has proven instrumental in breaking down geographical barriers.
According to Lauren Blood, an application consultant in the application engineering services at IBM, the integration of language translation tools into communication channels has fostered a truly global collaboration environment, ensuring that language differences don't hinder the exchange of ideas and information.
She points to three specific areas where generative AI can help remote workers and hybrid workplaces:
1. Employee Experience
Generative AI stands out as a transformative force, offering a spectrum of applications that can enhance the overall experience for employees, particularly in automated content generation, she said.
AI-generated templates can streamline the creation of regular reports and updates, ensuring consistency across communications within remote teams. Meanwhile, virtual assistants powered by AI emerge as indispensable tools, capable of managing routine tasks, scheduling meetings and offering instant responses to common queries, ultimately improving efficiency for remote workers.
2. Learning and development
Learning and development take on a personalized dimension with AI algorithms by allowing the technology to tailor training materials to individual preferences. This not only optimizes the learning experience for remote workers but also contributes to more effective and engaging remote training initiatives, Blood said.
3. Emotional Intelligence
AI applications offer insights into the emotional wellbeing of workers by analyzing written communication for emotional cues. This allows for proactive support and engagement strategies to ensure the holistic wellbeing of the remote workforce.
Virtual team-building activities also benefit from AI suggestions, bringing remote colleagues together for shared experiences based on individual preferences, fostering a sense of camaraderie in the virtual workspace.
“Generative AI presents multifaceted opportunities to elevate the remote work experience, providing automation, personalization and connectivity for a more productive and engaged remote workforce,” she said.
Related Article: Why We Need to Improve the Employee Experience of Our AI Programs
Overcoming Obstacles
Despite the growing list of benefits, there remain obstacles to integrating generative AI into UC and the overall workplace as we know it. OJ Laos, senior manager of innovation at accounting firm Armanino, shared four to keep in mind:1. Access
Access to the tool can be a challenge, and companies must see how they can make it available within their internal comms system to allow more people to use it.
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2. Limitations
Generative AI still has limitations due to its black-box nature. Given that hallucinations and incorrect information are always a possibility — although heavily mitigated through retrieval augmented generation and prompt engineering — it’s still important to communicate exactly what these tools are good at and where they lag.
3. Continuous learning
The rate at which new technology advances can be dizzying at best and terrifying at worst. A lot of talks about automation tend to create negative connotations, and it’s important to give the baseline information needed to the entire firm. Continued education and clear communications are key to enabling workers and teams to tap into the technology with confidence and excitement.
4. A learning curve
Part of the problem of generative AI is that it's still so broad and general in its capabilities that it can be difficult to comprehend. It usually takes some firsthand experience for people to truly understand why it is different and what it is capable of. For that reason, Laos says to consider broad use cases.
"While the technology will undoubtedly affect nearly every aspect of business, it’s best to start with things that everyone can use and continue building on that by searching for more use cases,” he said. “There won’t be a single 'a-ha' moment for an entire business, but winning people over and getting exposure is critical to successful innovation projects.”