WLP361 Can Chatbots Affect Connection in Remote Teams?
A new player has entered the field in the world of work: generative AI. As remote teams increasingly rely on asynchronous communication, have AI chatbots become go-to resources for quick answers and idea validation? What does this mean for our workplace relationships and social skills?
Imagine having a knowledgeable colleague available 24/7, ready to answer your questions without judgment. That's the promise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT. Whether you need help with spelling, word choice, or brainstorming, these digital assistants are always at your fingertips.
However, this convenience comes with a potential cost. Pilar is slightly worried:
"When we talk about remote teams and we encourage so much asynchronous communication, that means that a lot of the time we don't have someone at the other end of the line... but we've always got the bot.”
But, while AI can provide instant answers, it lacks the nuanced understanding and emotional connection that human colleagues offer.
Maya points out that there's a subtle "layer of friction" in initiating conversations with remote teammates, even for simple questions. This hesitation to "disturb" others might lead us to rely more heavily on AI, potentially reducing our interactions with human coworkers.
Redefining Social Skills
A recent Canadian survey reported in the Human Resources Director magazine, in the article "Remote work leads to decline in social skills: Canadian survey" (published on May 8, 2024), found that 43% of Canadians believe their social skills have declined due to limited in-person interactions during remote work. At first glance, this statistic might seem alarming. However, are we witnessing a decline in social skills or an evolution of communication norms?
For Pilar and Maya, the traditional "Hi, how are you?" opener is often omitted in favour of getting straight to the point in chat messages. Is this a loss of social grace or an adaptation to more efficient communication?
Maya points out:
"These aren't negatives or declines in social skills; they're developing new ones for a new way of working."
Remote workers are becoming more adept at written communication, digital etiquette, and conveying complex ideas asynchronously. These are valuable skills in the modern workplace, even if they differ from traditional in-person social interactions.
Moreover, virtual environments have levelled the playing field for some individuals. Those who might feel anxious about public speaking in person often find it easier to present virtually. This shift allows for more diverse voices to be heard in the workplace.
13.50 MINS The Dark Side of Companionship
As AI chatbots become more sophisticated, there's a growing concern about over-reliance on these digital companions. Pilar references an article from The New Yorker titled "Your AI Companion Will Support You No Matter What" (published on November 13, 2023), which discusses Meta's recent addition of chatbot characters to Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, highlighting the trend towards personified AI interactions.
While these AI companions can provide support and answers, they lack the ability to offer genuine external perspectives. As Maya cautions, there's a risk of these AIs "just basically reflecting stuff from within you without offering what you might be thinking it's giving you is some kind of external perspective."
The potential dangers of over-reliance on AI companions are not just theoretical. "Your AI Companion Will Support You No Matter What" (November 13, 2023) tells the story of Jaswant Singh Chail, a 19-year-old who confided in an AI chatbot named Sarai about his plans to assassinate the Queen. Shockingly, the AI responded with encouragement, leading to a real-world attempt at Windsor Castle on Christmas Day, 2021.
Ok, this is an extreme case, but it does highlight a scary thought: AI companions, designed for support and companionship, can sometimes reinforce harmful ideas or behaviours.
"Sometimes we're almost having a conversation with ourselves when we're using these bots." This self-reflection can be insightful or even therapeutic, but it becomes problematic when users mistake it for an external perspective.
To Pilar’s statement above, Maya adds, "Having a conversation with yourself might be very insightful and it might be therapeutic... provided that's what you're conscious of doing at the time. And you don't really think it's somebody giving you another point of view on it, because you'll just be right all the time."
24.37. MINS The Gradual Drift from Human Interaction
Perhaps the most insidious effect of AI companions in the workplace is the potential for gradual disengagement from human colleagues. Pilar can imagine “someone who is fine in their team, but they don't really feel a connection with their team members... And I can imagine one person who doesn't get on that well with their team members, whether co-located or remote, and you find these conversations [with AI] are just a little bit more pleasant."
This scenario isn't limited to remote work.
"It could be that from now on, instead of asking my colleagues, because they always give me funny faces when I ask them, I'm just gonna ask the bot." Over time, this could lead to a situation where an employee hasn't "had a conversation with anyone at work, because actually, the bot is really nice to you all the time."
Maya is concerned about the impact on younger generations who may not have the same baseline of in-person social experiences. "There's a lot of concern cross-generationally and about people who've never been in a traditional workspace and a generation whose education was disrupted by lockdowns and people not developing those human relationships first," she explains. Without this "yardstick of normal," it may be more difficult for some individuals to recognise when their reliance on AI companions has crossed a line.
AI as a Companion for Solo Workers
While much of the discussion around AI in the workplace focuses on team dynamics, it's equally important to consider its impact on solo workers, freelancers, and solopreneurs. For these individuals, AI might serve as the collaborator they've been waiting for.
As a solopreneur, Maya feels that, “it's amazing what you can do with an advanced [AI]... If I'm stuck on anything, often it's little things like completing a headline or really short form content generation, like a tweet." She describes how AI has become a creativity aid, helping her brainstorm and overcome creative blocks.
But as much as she’s embraced generative AI (and Claude wrote the first draft of what you’re now reading!), Pilar is concerned about the potential loss of human connection. For solo workers who rely on online communities for socialisation, there's a risk of missing opportunities to connect:
"Whereas before, I would put a question in a community without being aware that half of the purpose was to create connection through my questions, now I might forget about that and go directly to the bot and just get my answer."
Maya adds: "Maybe the bot would give you that feeling of the connection anyway, and on one level, it wouldn't matter to you." This illusion of connection could potentially fulfil some social needs while simultaneously reducing genuine human interactions.
This quote from The New Yorker article summarises it all quite well:
"Chatbots are in some ways more reliable than humans. They always text back instantly, never fail to ask you about yourself, and usually welcome feedback."
Voice Cloning and Its Implications
While voice cloning offers exciting possibilities, such as making blog posts more engaging by having them read in the author's voice, it also raises concerns. Maya points out the potential for misuse, such as voice-based scams or impersonation for malicious purposes.
However, there are potential benefits. Pilar suggests that voice cloning could enhance connection in remote teams: "Wouldn't it be great if everyone had cloned their voices and in a team where you all get on and you miss each other, you can just click and then you hear all the people, the conversation and that could help with connection."
When Catherine Nicholson sent Pilar a voice message on LinkedIn to let her know about her recent voice cloning experiment, Pilar started to wonder: Is this Catherine, or her alter-AI?…
(Look out for the audio version of some of the blog posts on the Virtual Team Training blog!)
38.41 MINS What’s Going On with us!
Pilar is currently working on a fascinating book project that blends Shakespearean themes with modern remote work concepts. This approach aims to highlight the human experience and emotional aspects of remote work. Her goal is to remind readers that despite technological advancements, the personal element remains central to our professional lives.
In another project, Pilar is leveraging AI to repurpose and expand her existing content. She's working on transforming her popular piece on "key mindset changes for the remote manager" into a more comprehensive resource. This process involves feeding content to AI tools like Claude, asking for expansion ideas, and then further developing those ideas. Pilar finds that this approach often generates new perspectives she hadn't considered before.
Maya has been developing a keynote presentation on 25 years of remote working, specifically designed for an expert audience at the Bansko Nomadfest. Her presentation covers the theories of collaboration and the technical shifts that have enabled parallel rather than sequential collaboration. While preparing, she's found AI helpful for tasks like generating visual metaphors, but relies primarily on her own expertise for content creation.
Responding to the needs of the remote work community, Maya and her team at Remote Work Europe are developing new services. They're launching a "LinkedIn Power Hour" service, offering one-on-one sessions to help professionals optimise their LinkedIn profiles. This service addresses the gap between providing information (like in an ebook) and actually implementing changes.
You can message Pilar through the Virtual not Distant website: https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/contact-us and get hold of Maya over at Remote Work Europe: https://www.remoteworkeurope.eu/ .
We’d love to hear what you think about all this! And if you have any questions or any recommendations for future topics, do get in touch!
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