Businesses need to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) more readily in the workplace in order to improve their productivity.
That was one of the key findings from a panel on productivity and AI at Logitech’s Logi Works event at Deliveroo’s headquarters in Cannon Street, London on 5th September.
The panel, which was hosted by Viviane Paxinos, CEO of Allbright, featured Grace Beverley, CEO and founder of Tala, Shreddy, The Productivity Method and Retrograde, Amelia Kallman, futurist, speaker, author and host, and Anatoliy Polyanker, VP and general manager, MX, Logitech.
“There’s so much fearmongering around AI taking our jobs right now,” said Beverley. “But the fact is that we aren’t competing against AI, we’re competing against people using AI better than we are in their jobs.
“If we can break through a lot of the menial work we have to do by using AI, it unlocks so much productivity, time and thinking space to focus on what makes us great at our jobs. The more we can use the technology in that way, the more we can make your life easier.
“Therefore, we’ve got to start integrating it into our daily routines and make use of it for things that we wouldn’t otherwise necessarily do. As we think less about this cannibalisation of jobs and more about how AI can make ourselves better at our jobs, that’s when we’re going to start to see a more effective use of the technology.”
Beverley said that users of AI needed to start implementing it to disrupt your routine. She added that the best way to use it is to track the time taken to do different tasks and then time-block more effectively.
“Spend a bit of time tracking how long tasks take you,” said Beverley. “Use ChatGPT, for example, to learn the tasks you do and the time it took you, and then time-block accordingly based on an understanding of this.”
Kallman said that the biggest gamechanger in AI was the advent of generative AI. Having undergone an initial age of digital transformation, she said that the technology was now moving into an AI-enabled era, where more productivity can be achieved with less resources.
“Everything that’s digital today is going to become AI-enabled,” said Kallman. “The technology has been adopted at a faster rate than I thought it was going to be and that’s testament to the benefits it’s able to deliver to the end user, both in personalising their ways of working and accelerating their workflows.”
Polyanker said that while many people and companies have already successfully integrated AI into their working practices, reaping the benefits of both time saved and improved quality of output, there were others who have been overwhelmed by the technology. Therefore, he said that it was key to provide them with simple and intuitive AI solutions they can use.
“That was one of the reasons why at Logitech we created the AI Prompt Builder – it’s a tool that helps you quickly activate the overlay in your email or presentation, and it gives you a set of options that are easy to use,” said Polyanker. “Users appreciate the simplicity it brings and the fact that it can be used to help guide them through their journey.”
The event kicked off with a keynote address by Art O Gnimh, VP and general manager, core personal workspaces, Logitech, who talked about how the modern workplace has evolved dramatically since the pandemic, with businesses and individuals adopting smarter working practices. He also spoke about what Logitech is doing to promote flexible and more productive work as an organisation.
The evening concluded with a panel on sustainability and wellbeing, which was again hosted by Paxinos and included Caroline Kennedy, sustainability director, Logitech Global, Adam Elman, head of sustainability EMEA, Google, Anisha Joshi, award-winning osteopath, Ben Alldis, health and wellness expert and Peloton instructor.