[ad_1]
The spreading use of artificial intelligence (AI) is not only a potentially game-changing workplace development, but one driven by employers urging staff to increase their productivity by adopting the tech to automate repetitive tasks. New data indicates just how often workers are using apps to compose email and other business communications — including managers’ employee reviews and layoff notices that usually require high doses of human consideration and empathy that bots can’t replicate.
Those insights come from email strategy and service provider ZeroBounce, which surveyed 1,000 U.S. employees and managers about their AI habits in composing texts for work. It found 56 percent of respondents reporting they use bots anywhere from a few times per week to “always,” with just 20 saying they never do. Not only did 52 percent of participants say using apps leaves them feeling more confident in their workplace writing, but 10 percent said they had delayed, or entirely dropped plans to send business email during the most recent AI outage their company suffered.
What ZeroBounce looked at from there was how discerning respondents were in turning to AI when writing sensitive messages or reports in addition to run of the mill email.
Over a third, or 35 percent of participants said they’d used bots to compose those more delicate texts, with 14 percent saying they’ve cut and pasted confidential content directly into bots without editing the results. Just under 10 percent of respondents admitted they no longer felt capable of writing those sensitive reports or notes — or even regular email — after having become over-reliant on apps for that.
The potential problems with that increasing use of bots in writing became clearer when respondents spoke of their experiences of being on the receiving end of those exchanges.
Over a fifth of respondents said they’d “caught a coworker using the exact same Al email I have seen before,” which could shape how recipients viewed the importance of the message, and industriousness of the colleague sending it. Even more significantly, however, more than a quarter of participants said they believed performance reviews they’d received had been written by bots, with 16 percent saying they’d gotten layoff notices they suspected were AI-generated.
There are several reasons for those suspicions. Those included sensitive texts composed respondents had gotten containing excessive, even robotic formality and unnatural word choice that bots are infamous for. Overly polished, ornate, or repetitive phrasing were other notorious causes for doubt.
Then there were the survey answers from managers themselves about their use of apps in writing sensitive messages that further fanned those misgivings.
For example, 41 of participating executives said they’d indeed relied on AI “to draft or revise a performance review.” Another 24 percent of respondents said they’d used apps to compose a performance warning, and 17 percent had done so to inform an employee they were being terminated.
The problem with that, ZeroBounce said of its findings, is if the positive use of AI in automating all kinds of repetitive, boring, or less critical workplace tasks becomes too reflexive. When it happens, it said some users immediately turn to the tech to compose critical communications requiring maximum human input, analysis, and even compassion that bots can’t produce.
“The (survey) results are part cautionary tale, part Black Mirror episode,” the introduction to the survey’s results said. “AI has crept into our inboxes, sometimes invisibly, and many of us aren’t sure who’s writing or feeling on the other end.”
Recognizing that, 40 percent of participating employees said they thought sensitive emails, evaluations, or notices about promotions and terminations should never be Al-assisted. Another 56 percent of respondents said those texts may be crafted with some support from apps to increase clarity, but that should never come at the expense of full human input and personalization.
A separate survey offered some possible reasons for why managers would rely on AI as much as the ZeroBounce study revealed. Language learning platform Preply questioned an unspecified number of U.S. employees and managers about termination messaging they’d been involved with, and found delivery and phrasing of that bad news often sorely lacking.
For starters, it found an average of 55 percent of participating managers “who have fired someone (had) not received training on how to navigate the process.” Perhaps not surprisingly, 65 percent of respondents who’d been laid off said “the manager handled the situation poorly.” While the survey didn’t ask how often AI was used to formulate those termination announcements, there’s some reason to think bots may have at times been involved.
With word and term repetition a frequent AI vice in these early days of the tech’s development and output, use of the phrase “letting you go” appearing in 45.6 percent of all layoff announcements examined may indicate bot involvement. Meanwhile, “effective immediately” and “terminating your employment” were also mentioned in over 28 percent of all dismissals, with “no longer require services” and “parting ways” used in over 20 percent of cases.
All of which indicates that at this point in its evolution, AI’s automating abilities are impressive, but not always adapted to workplace scenarios requiring human discretion and empathy.
The early-rate deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, November 14, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.
[ad_2]
Bruce Crumley
Source link