What my downloadable employee can’t do

Headlines, social media posts, and news scrolls all seem to paint an attention seeking picture that AI is taking over nearly every aspect of life and work. That AI is stealing jobs and can do everything better than humans. Yes, 78% of organisations use AI in one form or another. But, that does not paint a full and accurate picture of what artificial intelligence can, and more importantly, cannot do.

As companies automate mindless and redundant tasks and use GPTs to create internal documents and online content you can get lost in that fury of activity and forget all the things that people will still be needed for. There are several things that AI cannot, and will never be able to do. That is where human resources must put a concerted effort when recruiting, hiring, training and upskilling their teams. 

Have a vision

Starting from the top down, AI cannot create a vision for a company, department or team. AI can execute deliverables and agentic AI specifically can learn, act on its own and suggest paths but it cannot pull from the ether a direction for a company. The vision of the leader is the north star of a business. This then cascades to your department heads. They must be great leaders as well, gaining buy-in from teams to row the boat in the same direction. 

The interpretation and dissemination of a vision can be the difference between an engaged team, and a checked out one. Gallup has shown that 70% of employees' engagement depends on their direct manager. If your leadership team can lead and communicate effectively it will make a massive impact on the success of any project or initiative you launch. These skills must be made non-negotiable in recruitment and hiring. 

Empathise and relate

The employees of your company are people. They cannot thrive and meet potential if treated simply as a number. It has been reported that 27% of employees feel their company lacks empathy when dealing with employee concerns. This in turn makes them one and a half times more likely to leave that job, equating to upwards $180 billion in attrition costs.

When an employee comes into work your leadership team (and their teammates) can read that person’s body language, dress and appearance and instantaneously know if something is not quite right. You then know that a conversation needs to be had. It needs to be empathetic, purposeful, human-centric and results driven. This is not something an AI can or will ever be able to do. Lean into these skills and develop them via continuation training and upskilling programmes. 

Make judgment calls in the grey

Leaders in companies make multiple decisions every day that maintain or change the direction of projects or the entire business. These cannot all be left to an AI. Numbers alone can tell a story but when a decision is close to 50/50 intuition may say something different than what AI would read the numbers to be. 

A leader’s years of experience and ability to read a room or a market will need to come into play and be trusted. Effective leaders know the balance needed in business for short term gains, short term pain and long term gains. An AI may know mathematically that the team needs to run at 100% capacity to maximise revenue but you know this will lead to burnout and  employee churn. An AI will tell you it is not advisable to give the team the following Friday off after the launch of a new software or product. But, as a leader in HR, you know how far this will go to show appreciation and boost morale leading to long term employment and loyalty. 

Give back to the community

Your team of people live in the community the business is a part of. They shop at the stores, their children go to the schools, and their quality of life depends not just on their work but on the quality of the community around them. As an employer in the community you have a moral obligation to also commit the company to the betterment of those living in the community that may need help and are less fortunate. But this does not come without reward.

The statistics show that 79% of employees who volunteer through their work say they are satisfied with their job. Those who don’t volunteer through work? Only 55% are satisfied. Make these volunteer opportunities a part of your benefits package. Offer a certain number of hours a year in addition to PTO to be used to volunteer in and around your office’s physical location. This is something AI would never consider, implement, or see the long term benefits of. 

Be a true leader

AI cannot inspire, cannot drive a team to full potential, and cannot truly lead. You cannot program AI with the intangibles, personality, heart, and desire that appear in powerful leaders. Consider that 70% of employees have a large part of their meaning and purpose defined by their careers, and the effect of a good, or worse, bad leader can have become evident.  

We all know that things don’t always go to plan, systems fail, supply chains get disrupted, natural disasters disrupt entire geographical regions; how would AI quell unrest and worry in a staff? How would AI assuage fears of loss of jobs? It wouldn’t but a leader would. A leader will call an all staff meeting and answer questions and concerns with transparency. A leader would keep the ship afloat and navigate the rough water of uncertainty. 

Artificial Intelligence is the second greatest tool we have access to, perhaps ever. It can do a multitude of tasks better than any human could dream but it cannot do everything. It cannot assess every challenge through the lens of a person and their emotions, wants, needs and fears. AI can help a business along its journey towards pre-determined goals but it cannot create and define that journey from imagination and build it through determination. The human mind is still the most powerful tool known to humanity, and the creativity and soft skills that exist only there are what need to be the focus of recruitment, hiring, training and upskilling.