In the age of remote work, traditional water cooler conversations have moved online. However, recent studies have raised fears that artificial intelligence (AI) could be analyzing these digital exchanges. According to Fox, companies such as Walmart, Delta, T-Mobile, Chevron, and Starbucks have reportedly installed monitoring software from the firm “Aware” to control employee talks on messaging apps. Nestle and AstraZeneca, two European businesses, are also cited in this tendency.
The ‘Aware’ program searches platforms such as Slack and Microsoft Teams for terms that indicate employee dissatisfaction and potential safety issues. According to CNBC, the company has analyzed a massive amount of data, including up to 20 billion individual communications from over 3 million employees.
Jeff Schumann, CEO of Aware, highlighted that their AI enables businesses to analyze employee sentiment in real-time, eliminating the need for annual surveys.
The anonymized data in Aware’s analytics solution enables businesses to see how different staff groups respond to changes or campaigns. The AI can also detect numerous behaviors, like bullying and harassment. Importantly, the analytics tool does not identify specific employees’ names, although a different tool can do so in high-threat scenarios. Walmart, T-Mobile, Chevron, and Starbucks utilize Aware’s technology for governance, risk, and compliance, which accounts for 80% of the company’s business, according to Mr Schumann.
Employees are uneasy as AI invades workplace chats, and fear privacy breaches. Fox Business Report
Employees expressed concerns about AI’s incursion into business interactions during interviews conducted by FOX Business‘ Lydia Hu. Some expressed concern, viewing it as a stealthy invasion of privacy, while others criticized the reliability of AI systems. “I would feel like, I don’t know, like they’re just trying to get something out of me and get me in trouble or something. I don’t know, it would be very sneaky,” one respondent remarked.
Another employee was skeptical, sharing, “I’ve seen A.I. being used firsthand, and it’s so flawed and so messed up that I just think it wouldn’t be a useful investment of anyone’s time or money anyways. And that just doesn’t foster a trustworthy kind of business vibe.”
On the flip side, some respondents showed less concern, accepting the monitoring practice. “I think I’m fine with it because I’m very watchful of what I do on company time, company property, anything like that,” one respondent stated as per Fox Business.
A spokesman for AstraZeneca stated that the company uses Aware’s eDiscovery software but does not use analytics to track sentiment or toxicity. Delta, on the other hand, told CNBC that it uses both Aware’s analytics and eDiscovery capabilities to monitor trends and sentiment, as well as gather input from employees and stakeholders. Delta also employs these techniques to keep legal records on its social media platform.
As more firms adopt the work-from-anywhere approach, concerns about AI monitoring grow. Popular communication systems such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, which are used by over 100,000 businesses and have millions of monthly users, have become focus points for AI examination.