26.07.2024
Artificial intelligence, which has started to take more place in our lives, appears as the preview of revolutionary changes in the business world. Artificial intelligence technology, which remains integral to analysis, scientific research, and various projects, may also play a role in company management as anticipated. A study conducted in the United States reveals that artificial intelligence managers show the same performance as human managers in certain areas.
AI answers the business-related questions of executives, offers them advice for improving their written communication skills, and automatically updates employee progress in a centralized portal. The performance of an AI manager at a company providing marketing support to small businesses in Canada has been experimented in a study that began in November. Since November 2023, the company has been using an autonomous artificial intelligence manager developed by a US company to set the schedules of employees working remotely and flexibly and to plan their workload in advance. Hannu Rauma, a senior executive at the company, discussed the challenges of managing 83 employees and noted that using artificial intelligence has brought about a significant change. Rauma said that transitioning to an AI manager not only reduced stress levels but also enabled the staff to work more quickly and productively. The manager emphasized that the company is focusing more on growth-related areas and that its relationship with employees has also improved.
As part of a study by academics from Columbia University, Arizona State University, and the University of Wisconsin comparing AI managers with human managers, Manager Rauma and employees were included in the research, divided into three groups. The first group was assigned a human manager, the second an AI manager, and the third group was assigned both an AI and a human manager.
The AI manager achieved a 44 percent success rate in having employees plan their days in advance and motivated employees to start their work on time 42 percent of the time. For human managers, these rates were very close at 45 percent and 44 percent. However, when the AI manager worked in partnership with a human manager, they achieved a 72 percent success rate in getting employees to plan their workdays in advance. The rate of starting work on time also increased to 46 percent. Although the scope of the study is limited, it shows some interesting results for companies that started to use AI tools.
Some businesses, including UPS and Dell, have already announced significant layoffs this year as they replace human jobs with artificial intelligence. However, some scientists argue that replacing management roles entirely with AI would be a major mistake. For this reason, especially in maintaining work continuity by certain ways such as mentoring and coaching in mid-level management, it is believed that human skills are superior to artificial intelligence.
