| | July - 20189CIOReviewAt the heart of workplace productivity and user experience are conversations and a dynamic conversational flow that drives and weaves together work processes and workflowslink was revealed between an organization's revenue growth and its AI maturity. Even with this link, the same study shows that 90 percent of respondents reported employee challenges and concerns related to the adoption of AI. This can be expected. With every new technology there are challenges. How do we help people who are concerned that their jobs are being replaced by AI agents and robots? Will users trust their AI agent with all their information? As with business disruption, organizations will need to invest in training, education and transparency as an essential part of implementation. The organizations that prepare for these challenges and lean into potential tension are the ones who are reaping rewards, according to the above study. Organizations that have planned for, or have implemented, AI technologies are expecting both 39 percent revenue increase and 37 percent cost reduction in the future. Even fears from employees on the effect of jobs in an AI world are already being silenced as 80 percent of companies whose employees are being displaced by AI are in turn investing in programs to retrain and deploy those affected within the organization.Fitting into unified communicationAI, coupled with unified communication (UC), enables organizations to be more efficient, productive and collaborative in today's business landscape. At the heart of workplace productivity and user experience are conversations and a dynamic conversational flow that drives and weaves together work processes and workflows. Enabling those conversations, while keeping context, is the key to workplace productivity. Today, AI tools have the ability to enhance everything from employee interaction to meeting efficiency. Difficult parts of flexible work environments, like conference calls, can be quickly upgraded with AI improving audio quality and eliminating background noise that commonly plague meetings. Cross-office video chats are improved by providing facial recognition and identification for all of the parties on the call. But in the future we can expect our collaboration and workplace productivity tools to essentially become smart about how and with whom we work. The idea is that they know what you're doing and what the desired outcome is. For example, a virtual assistant can help guide meetings, giving out 5 minute time reminders or pull up documents that are referenced during meetings. As AI continues to converge with our everyday lives, enterprise and personal uses will transcend their original significance. One such use of AI that we will see transitioning into the enterprise this year is virtual assistants. Soon these personal assistants will be smart enough to operate under business contexts, providing access to things like the company directory or company calendar information. The outlook for how AI will affect the enterprise is certainly promising. As with any new technology, flexibility to change and access to training is of the utmost importance. The extent of how AI will transform the workplace requires an understanding of business processes and all the things that makes us inefficient today and then opening one's mind to how the use of machines can help us do things better. Scott Hoffpauir
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