Introduction
Hannu Rauma, a senior manager at Vancouver, Canada-based Student Marketing Agency, was at his wit’s end from trying to приводит control 83 employees. “I was getting too bogged down in all these things that were going wrong amongst the teams, and feeling this disappointment, he shared.
Transition to AI Management
Everything changed in November, however, when his company adopted an autonomous AI manager developed by Inspira, a US-based company. The AI tool, which manages an agency’s full-time employees with flexible hours working remotely, helps employees set their schedule and plan their workload. It tracks check-in times, dispatches reminders for when work is due by, and records the time spent working with various clients so as to provide accurate billing.
It also offers suggestions on written text, answers questions regarding the business, and updates work to a central portal showing everyone’s progress.
Positive Results
The AI manager has significantly decreased Rauma’s stress levels and increased employee productivity. “I’m able to focus on the growth of the company and all the positive things. It’s added years to my life, I’m sure,” he said.
The AI manager also comparatively added warmth to his transactions with the employees, from “father–child” relations to interactions on equal footing. “Before, it was only about solving problems. But now we’re able to have more light-hearted discussions,” Rauma mentioned.
Research on AI Management
However, not all employees at Student Marketing Agency are using the AI manager yet. The study was conducted on Rauma and 26 of his staff from Inspira with participation by researchers from Columbia University, Arizona State University, and the University of Wisconsin.
Researchers studied whether the AI manager could outperform the human managers. How the study worked is that participants were divided into three groups: one managed by humans, another by AI, and the last one by both AI and human managers.
Results of the Study
The AI manager succeeded in getting 44% of the employees to pre-plan their workdays and got 42% to log on time. While these figures were close to that done by a human manager, achieving 45% in pre-planning workdays and 44% with respect to logging on time, there was the decisive discovery made that when the AI manager worked in combination with a human manager, they achieved 72% in pre-planning workdays and 46% in on-time success.
Implications for Business
This is an interesting and although small and very focused study, relating it to implications for companies looking at AI tools. Firms such as UPS, Klarna, and Dell have all announced major job cuts, with many intended to be replaced by AI. Yet, Prof. Paul Thurman of Columbia argues that management roles should not completely be taken over by AI. “The most important layer in any organization is the middle management layer,” he commented. “They provide continuity, mentoring, and coaching—all the human elements that AI cannot replicate.”
Combining AI and Human Management
Prof. Thurman believes AI has the potential to free managers from repetition—freeing them to deal more with innovation in the way work gets done. Now, as Prof. Thurman explained, managers can form project teams based on particular competencies, run meetings on the brief, and let AI take over on the deadline. AI can, therefore, detect employees lagging or overachieving, at which the human managers may assist or commend. He warns against treating the AI in a surveillance sense while promoting the right behaviors without somewhat unnecessary control.
Management Issues
Tina Rahman, who holds out hope for AI to help the legions of “accidental managers”—staff members who perform well in their specific roles but aren’t born managers—has also confronted a few tough realities. In surveys, close to 100% of respondents said they had quit jobs because of poor management—usually because they either didn’t know what was expected or didn’t know if they were doing a good job. “An AI manager could give clear instructions and transparency, leading to increased productivity,” Rahman explained.
Concerns around Over-reliance on AI
On the matter, Rahman warns that overreliance on AI could easily point to companies that care more about the output than on their employees. “It makes it hard to introduce AI management when you purport to care more about employees’ workplace experiences,” she said.
Cybersecurity Risk
James Bore, another managing director of the cybersecurity consultancy Bores, highlights that AI managers open companies to cybersecurity risks. “If you’re relying on AI in every part of the company in every process and all intellectual property, then it could potentially be vulnerable to cloning, ransom attacks,” said Bore, who emphasized that there needs to be resilience and companies not to get too dependent on the AI systems.
Conclusion
The AI managers do get convenience and productivity for the company, but the company must be very careful to balance its use and maintain the relations and security for the employees. Finding the right integration of AI management with human management will be an important matter for future success in business as AI technology grows faster.
