Social collaboration study: Swiss employees are not afraid of AI and bots

Contrary to many media reports, employees of companies in Switzerland do not see the future of their own jobs or their employer's business model in danger from AI and bots. Two-thirds of those surveyed consider it unlikely that AI will replace them in their jobs. Not even one in five sees their business model in danger. In addition, as many as 41.6 % feel that talking to a machine is qualitatively just as good as talking to a human being or would even prefer dialog with a computer. These results were determined by the Swiss Social Collaboration Study 2019 by Campana & Schott and the Technical University of Darmstadt.

Social collaboration tools are used

Overall, it is clear that more and more employees are using social collaboration tools. On a scale of 1 to 7, the maturity level of the companies rose from 3.96 to 4.05 compared with the previous year. However, this was the first time that the so-called firstline workers were specifically considered. These are employees in direct contact with customers or in production who contribute directly to the company's value creation. They include, for example, employees on production lines in industry, nursing staff in hospitals, drivers, security and cleaning staff, cashiers and sales staff. They make up the largest part of the workforce worldwide with over 60 %. When it comes to using digital technologies for daily work tasks, they are well behind information workers, i.e. office staff (4.26), with a maturity level of 3.54. There is therefore a great need to catch up here. As a result, they have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to equipping and using social collaboration tools. Previous studies have already shown that the use of social collaboration tools greatly increases work efficiency. This effect increased again significantly compared to the previous year - from 30 to now up to 50 %.

AI as a guarantee of success

The use of artificial intelligence to support digital communication brings additional benefits. Many employees have recognized this. They expect it to make work even more efficient and of higher quality (over 40 % each). Among managers, as many as around 60 % expect AI to increase efficiency in the company and the quality of work processes. In this context, employees also accept chatbots, for example. A significant proportion of them consider dialog with a computer to be of equal value compared with humans (34.5 %).

Two-thirds of those surveyed consider it unlikely that artificial intelligence could replace them in their activities. Only one in five recognizes potential problems for the business model of their own company or other companies. This means that the expected potential of artificial intelligence clearly exceeds the challenges it could pose.

Firstline Worker suspended

The fact that firstline workers, e.g., sales representatives or service employees, have a lower degree of maturity is particularly problematic when working on forms and team coordination. These scenarios have a high relevance for firstline workers (4.80 and 4.58), but a low maturity level (3.79 and 3.23). This pent-up demand affects their work efficiency, which is lower overall (4.69) than for information workers (4.86). "Better connecting firstline workers to digital communication processes in companies offers great potential," says Boris Ovcak, Director Social Collaboration at Campana & Schott. "For example, digitizing analog processes can optimize workflows, reduce costs and increase productivity. The tools also increase IT security and reduce staff turnover, as employees are more satisfied with the solutions and their work overall."

There are many possible application scenarios. For example, sales staff in the store can use tablets to call up additional information about the product. Shift workers can see their tasks for the next day at home the night before and swap shifts with each other in an emergency. And the operations manager of an event service no longer has to call employees and ask who is available next weekend. Instead, colleagues check in via a central planning tool. The bottom line is that a company can only achieve digital transformation if it also digitally involves and supports its first-line workers.

Main objective: Better corporate culture

Decision-makers are adopting social collaboration tools primarily for three reasons: to improve corporate culture (18.4 %), followed by cost savings (15.4 %) and fostering innovation (14.9 %), which was the most frequently cited reason last year. In this context, almost half of the respondents confirmed that they perceive an increase in collaboration across different teams and departments as a result of social collaboration. Employees use digital tools especially for researching information and news as well as filling out applications and searching for documents. They are used less frequently for searching for experts and exchanges in interest groups. Structured and recurring tasks in particular can therefore be ideally handled with digital technologies.

Introduction of the tools often not optimal

How intensively new technologies are used depends not only on their existence, but above all on their acceptance. Almost two-thirds of respondents are not satisfied with the way social collaboration tools have been introduced in their company so far. This is mainly due to a lack of consideration for the specific needs of individual employees and too little time to get to grips with the tools. The introduction is only successful with holistic change management. This is because the combination of all measures contributes to employees communicating and collaborating more frequently with colleagues, completing tasks more efficiently and being less afraid of making mistakes.

Source and further information: Campana & Schott