AI in the Workplace: Revolutionising Company Culture and Business Success

By Charlie Coode, Founder of Culture15

With 46% of job seekers now basing their decisions on company culture – according to a study conducted by project management platform, TeamStage – businesses looking to hire new talent must take factors like company behaviours, processes and ethos into account. In fact, capable of increasing profit by up to 33% according to Gallup, culture influences everything from employee satisfaction to overall productivity, making business culture the backbone of organisational success.

Though tried and true, traditional methods of building and maintaining company culture, such as offering free gym access and other perks, often fall short, failing to capture both subtle nuances and larger dynamic shifts. Enter artificial intelligence (AI) – an unlikely ally poised to revolutionise how we understand people, to enhance company culture by breathing new life into established behavioural practices.

A fresh perspective on culture

For decades, businesses have relied on employee surveys, focus groups and feedback sessions to gauge the health of their culture. These methods, whilst useful, can be akin to taking the temperature of an ever-changing climate with a static thermometer, forgetting that things are constantly changing over time. AI, with its ability to analyse vast amounts of data in real time, offers a more nuanced perspective, providing employers with a continuous pulse on the heartbeat of the company.

Take Google’s Project Oxygen, for example. Launched to identify the key behaviours of effective managers, it was a pioneering step towards data-driven cultural analysis. Google collected over 10,000 observations about managers through performance reviews, feedback surveys and interviews, before this wealth of data was then analysed to distil the behaviours that set high-performing managers apart. The findings were transformative, leading to the development of training programmes that significantly improved managerial performance and employee satisfaction.

However, Project Oxygen, for all its success, was still grounded in traditional data collection. If AI had been employed to continuously monitor and analyse specific behavioural parameters, assigning numerical values to key cultural indicators as time went on, the results would not only have been more precise but also actionable in real time, allowing for immediate adjustments and ongoing cultural alignment. If AI had tracked how often managers offered support or recognised achievements, for instance, the instant feedback would have allowed for prompt corrective action where required. This dynamic, data-driven approach could have pinpointed exactly where managerial practices were falling short, enabling targeted training and immediate improvements.

Cutting through the noise

Employee surveys and other oft-relied-upon feedback methods provide just a snapshot in time, missing the ongoing fluctuations that can affect long-term engagement. Worse still, relying on engagement as the primary measure means leaders can easily fall victim to bias, unconsciously interpreting feedback under the guise of human emotion. This can lead to strategic missteps, with budget spent on areas that appear to be challenging, but actually, fail to address the root cause of the problem.

By way of example, leaders might notice a sudden dip in employee satisfaction scores in relation to the work environment. Based on this feedback, they may decide to invest heavily in renovating the office space, adding new amenities and upgrading equipment, hoping this will boost morale and engagement. Nevertheless, the real issue, overlooked in the survey’s snapshot, is an underlying problem with team communication and project management processes, resulting in persistent dissatisfaction despite the expensive office makeover. Worse still, productivity remains low because the root cause – inefficient workflows and unclear channels of communication – was never addressed.

AI cuts through this noise, analysing the important things from communication patterns to work habits. It can even assess the tone of emails to identify early signs of dissatisfaction and burnout before they take root. This isn’t about watching over employees but using technology to offer support where it’s needed most. If AI detects a pattern of people consistently working late into the night, for example, it can prompt managers to check in, encouraging them to take better care of their teams by offering more support and redistributing tasks to contribute to a more positive culture overall.

The human touch, enhanced

Critics often argue that AI lacks the human touch, essential in building a compassionate workplace. Yet, when used ethically and responsibly, AI can actually enhance empathy at work. By providing data-driven insights, AI-powered analysis allows leaders to understand and address the real needs of their teams, cutting through subjective interpretations and biases that often cloud judgement. It’s all about processing vast amounts of data quickly to make fast, efficient decisions where it matters most.

Returning to Project Oxygen as an example, if AI had been used, it could have continuously monitored managers’ behaviours and interactions, and they would have gained valuable insights into where to improve, particularly when it comes to supporting their teams. By tracking their strengths and weaknesses over time, AI could highlight trends and provide actionable data to help managers refine their approaches in robust, objective ways, leading to sustained improvements across the board.

A breath of fresh air

As illustrated by suggested improvements to Project Oxygen, technologies like AI have the potential to revolutionise company culture for the better, providing continuous, data-driven insights that allow for real-time adjustments and sustained improvements. By embracing these tools, companies can move beyond traditional methods to create a more dynamic, empathetic workplace that truly understands and supports its people – a move that will prove increasingly essential as we move towards a more culturally driven workforce.