How Chatbots Make Life Easier at Work

If you are a fan of Marvel’s Iron Man, you would probably heard of J.A.R.V.I.S, which is his personal artificial intelligence system. This sophisticated AI voice bot not only helps Iron Man in his life-saving tasks, it is also able to interact with other human beings just as a living person. With artificial intelligence developing at a breakneck speed, chatbots are fast infiltrating every aspect of our lives. At work, chatbots can improve business operations, increase sales and build better relationships and improve communication amongst internal employees.

Here are some ways chatbots make life easier at work:

Streamline administrative tasks

Chatbots today are like personal assistants for managers. They can order lunch, make a flight booking or schedule a meeting. These are just some of the administrative tasks chatbots can help out in the office. For instance, visitors can be greeted by chatbots at the reception where they can be directed to wait for the relevant personnel to meet them. They can assist to order lunch or office supplies when the need arises. They can also coordinate everyone’s calendar and schedule meetings. Automating routine administrative work will free up employees’ time to focus on tasks that require a human touch.

Screenings and interviews

Typically, the human resources department receives hundreds of applications when they advertise a single position online. The time it takes for a human resource executive to screen or cull a potential list to interview can be time-consuming. From sifting through resumes to verifying credentials or selecting suitable candidates for interviews, chatbots can help save time and money by engaging in the initial phase of recruitment. This will then free up HR experts to focus on the interview process, including assessing the candidate’s attitude, professionalism and cultural fit with the organisation. Mechanical and routine tasks such as scheduling interviews and verifying previous work experiences are necessary tasks which can be done by chatbots. Rather than make HR professionals redundant, they augment their job functions and maximise their time. 

On-boarding

Typically, new hires have to sit through hours of presentations by staff from different departments to get acquainted with policies and procedures in their new workplace. They end up feeling jaded from these sessions with not much information retained at the end of it. Chatbots can assist new employees every step of the way, such as automating lengthy paperwork, answering repetitive queries instantly and other enrolment formalities. These chatbots serve as a constant and reassuring source of information especially when new employees are not confident of approaching fellow colleagues for help at the initial stage. A positive on-boarding experience empowers new hires with confidence to navigate their way around the company and engages them right from the start. The efficiency of chatbots in the on-boarding process help to reduce the time it takes for new hires to settle down into their role and reach maximum productivity.  

Training

Time is money and in today’s fast-paced economy, not many of us can afford the time to travel for training. Having a chatbot to train employees on the job enhances their skills and readiness to perform as opposed to classroom lectures. Chatbots can identify knowledge gaps and use real-life examples, problems and challenges to cement learning for employees. Chatbots are available anytime, anywhere and allows employees to get the information they need at the “point of need”. They can also quiz employees on their knowledge from time to time or alert them to trends or knowledge related to their jobs, which can improve their daily work performance.

Employee engagement

Conducting polls and surveys to measure employee satisfaction at work allows you to obtain crucial feedback to the benefit of your company. Chatbots can be deployed for this purpose. For instance, chatbots can speak to employees to find out whether they are doing well in their jobs or if they have issues in their teams. Some people might feel more at ease talking to a chatbot than a real human, so it might be a good way to identify team-building issues early. Managers could then call in experts or coaches to tackle communication and relationship building among their employees. In this case, chatbots save money by helping to highlight problems without sending people off for mis-matched courses and engaging expensive professionals who charge by the hour. While there will always be a place for human conversations in employee engagement, chatbots offer an alternative way of maintaining constant communication with employees, so that they are not alienated or suffer in silence. 

 In conclusion, the use of artificial intelligence and chatbots are becoming increasingly commonplace and is going to change the way we work in the future. When employees are freed from repetitive and mindless tasks, they will have more time to use their creativity to solve problems and collaborate with others. Chatbots are not only to become more accepted at work, but they are likely to become more expected.

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