The Potential Impact of AI on Work Meetings
Work meetings are often seen as a necessary evil, but there is potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to transform them into more productive and efficient gatherings. Jaime Teevan, chief scientist at Microsoft, had a powerful experience during a meeting with her CEO Satya Nadella and Sam Altman, the founder of AI firm OpenAI. Witnessing the capabilities of OpenAI’s AI chatbot ChatGPT left Teevan enthusiastic about the possibilities of AI. She believes that AI has the potential to revolutionize meetings by generating and reflecting on ideas in a way that feels different and promising.
While Teevan’s experience was remarkable, many people find meetings to be tedious. Elon Musk once described excessive meetings as the “blight of big companies.” In fact, according to a global study, 72% of meetings are ineffective. Furthermore, a study conducted by researchers at Yale University and the UK’s University College London found that brain activity decreases during Zoom meetings. Nevertheless, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses and organizations were forced to transition to online meetings, and platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet have become ubiquitous.
Jaime Teevan believes that this transition to online meetings created an opportunity for AI to positively impact meetings. Recognizing this potential, the major video meeting providers, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, now offer AI-powered assistants to enhance users’ meeting experiences. These assistants can transcribe meetings, suggest questions, summarize discussions, remind users of attendees, and even attend meetings on behalf of users. According to Husayn Kassai, founder of Quench AI, an AI-powered training software start-up in London, in the future, every worker may have an AI coach accompanying them to meetings. This could enable meetings to become more productive as attendees would be better informed and make more valuable judgments. Kassai believes that workers would rely on AI to provide them with relevant information before meetings, allowing discussions to focus on more meaningful topics.
Kassai also envisions AI acting as a moderator, providing feedback on meeting participants’ performance. For instance, AI could highlight that a certain individual spoke little during the meeting and recommend that they contribute more next time. Ms. Teevan asserts that AI assistants like Copilot on Microsoft Teams are already making a significant impact, allowing users to summarize meetings four times faster. These AI assistants have the potential to streamline meeting processes and empower participants.
However, it is important to note that AI is not flawless. AI models can generate mistakes or “hallucinations.” To mitigate these risks, Microsoft is investing efforts into enhancing the AI prompting features on Copilot. AI prompting refers to the AI providing the most accurate and relevant answers to user queries. To achieve this, the AI needs to quickly learn the user’s role, job responsibilities, and preferences. For example, Teevan uses AI to suggest questions to ask in meetings but emphasizes that the AI needs to understand that she is a research scientist and executive at Microsoft to provide appropriate recommendations.
While AI has the potential to improve meetings, some experts remain skeptical. Business psychologist Jess Baker acknowledges that most meetings are time-consuming and ineffective, and she is not convinced that AI will eliminate the frustration entirely. She anticipates potential new complaints, such as annoyance with colleagues who rely on AI tools to attend meetings on their behalf or catch up on missed discussions. This could lead to increased resentment and mistrust among colleagues. However, Teevan believes that AI can assist people in feeling less overwhelmed, managing tasks more effectively, generating innovative ideas, and providing support.
In conclusion, the introduction of AI-powered assistants in video meetings has the potential to transform the way meetings are conducted. Through features such as transcription, question suggestions, and performance feedback, AI can enhance meeting efficiency and productivity. While challenges remain in ensuring AI accuracy and addressing potential concerns, the positive impact of AI on meetings could lead to more meaningful discussions and better outcomes. As AI technology continues to advance, it is likely that meetings will progressively evolve to leverage these AI-powered tools, making them a valuable asset in the workplace.
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