How AI will drive the hybrid work environment

The future of remote work is a hotly debated topic, with employees pulling for more time away from the office and many employers preferring to keep workers where they can see them. In the end, we will most likely settle on a hybrid work environment that blends various degrees of work-from-home (WFH) and in-office activity.

Copyright: venturebeat.com – “How AI will drive the hybrid work environment”

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As vital as it proved to be during the pandemic, however, WFH was not without its drawbacks. Poor connectivity, potential security issues, and convoluted workflows plagued many businesses as they tried to keep afloat during the lock-downs. So if this model is to flourish in the post-pandemic world, new technologies will have to step up to satisfy the needs of workers and bosses alike.

AI drives smart support

Artificial intelligence has the capacity to vastly improve work-from-home environments, bringing much-needed support to communications, collaboration, workflow management, and even security. But getting there will not be as simple as loading new software and letting it go to work. Enterprises across the board will have to carefully consider the ways in which AI should support the workforce of the future and the level to which it can influence workflows and business models.

The best way to begin is to establish a strong AI foundation, says Alex Smith, global AI product lead for knowledge work platform iManage. Since AI thrives on data, a central repository for all enterprise data is essential, and this can only be done in the cloud. In a world where access to data must be maintained for workers at home, in the office and anywhere in between, only the cloud has the capacity to deliver such broad connectivity. At the same time, the cloud makes it easier to search and share documents, email and other files, plus it provides advanced security, zero-touch architectures, threat analysis and other means to ensure access to data is managed properly – all of which can be augmented by AI as the data ecosystem scales in both size and complexity.

Once this foundation is established, organizations can strategically implement AI across a range of processes to help ensure the work gets done, no matter where the employee is sitting. Knowledge management, for one, benefits tremendously from AI to help identify those with the needed experience and skillsets to accomplish a particular project.

Source: SwissCognitive