The lives of desk workers have changed dramatically over the last few years: our days are longer, our to-do lists are growing, and the way we consume information has changed. Generative AI has disrupted the whole situation.
Moreover, generative AI has the unique potential to reduce our everyday cognitive load and help us solve problems. Recent Research According to Slack's Workforce Lab, more than two-thirds of desk workers have never used AI at work.
It seems to me that many workers still need some guidance on how to start using (and trust) generative AI in the workplace.
After talking to deskworkers, working in the field, and really thinking about how AI can help them achieve their productivity goals, we've outlined some practical applications of generative AI that we believe even the most skeptical deskworker can get behind. Here are four ways generative AI can benefit your daily work.
1. You'll be able to react faster when every moment counts
Work moves fast, and you often need instant access to information to act quickly. Generative AI can help you extract knowledge and quickly highlight key themes, saving you minutes or even hours.
For example, let's say you're part of a small engineering team and you experience a major outage. Your on-call incident manager is paged in the middle of the night and needs to understand the situation quickly. Instead of spending valuable time sifting through countless messages to understand everything that happened, you can use generative AI to ask for an instant overview and immediately jump into the conversation to contribute to the solution.
2. Provide access to the right information
We're bombarded with information at all times while working. In fact, studies have shown that nearly half of desk workers struggle to find the information they need to complete their jobs, and 32% of employees have made poor decisions due to a lack of awareness. Gartner.
AI-powered search is a great solution to understand your data and help you find what you're looking for faster. For example, if someone leaves a company, the work they did, project details, and insights they shared are still accessible to their current team. With enhanced search capabilities that provide intelligent responses, you can resume and continue your initiatives without any delay.
New employees joining the company can use this information to learn about the foundation of the team and how they have operated so far, allowing them to form deeper insights and build connections with the team.
3. Stay up to date, even though not all tasks are created equal
Not all messages, all projects, and all tasks are created equal. Categorizing and prioritizing your tasks based on complexity and urgency can help you make your day go more smoothly.
For example, some items at work are high priority and always require your immediate attention. While you're dealing with those items, there may be other projects you need to stay up to date on, even if you weren't directly involved in them to begin with. You don't have to read or respond to every message, but staying up to date is still part of your job.
With a little guidance, generative AI can act as your companion, helping you prioritize your most important work and surface the right information at the right time, whether that's immediately, over your morning coffee, or at the end of a long, busy day.
4. It gives you a head start to focus on what really matters: the human side of your work
Desk workers report that, on average, they spend a third of their day on low-value tasks. Recent ResearchGenerative AI frees desk workers from mundane tasks, freeing them up to focus on higher-value activities that can best be accomplished through human creativity: brainstorming innovative solutions, expressing spontaneous or artistic creativity, or making critical ethical decisions.
slacks An AI-powered work operating system offers the most natural path to tackle generative AI because it's where work is already being done. Slack AIis AI that leverages enterprise conversational data to help users work faster and smarter. Businesses of all shapes and sizes can derive value from generative AI in a simple and intuitive way through capabilities like AI-powered search, conversation summarization, and summarization.
Introducing generative AI into your daily work should be a fun, accessible, reliable, and easy experience, allowing you to focus on what truly makes your work special: human-centered, creative work that bends the rules and pushes boundaries. These practical applications ensure that generative AI can enhance your work, save you time, and make your daily work much more rewarding and enjoyable.
Work smarter and save time with powerful yet simple AI right where you need it. Get Slack AI now.
This article is slack and G/O Media Studio.
