Synergy between Physical and Digital Employees: Building a More Efficient Workplace Together

In the past 3 parts Part 1: “How not only the role of the CIO, but also your job is changing because of Generative AI: Prepare for the future of work” Part 2: “The impact of Generative AI on your job: Discover what new skills you need” and Part 3: “Discover How AI Is Becoming Your New Colleague and Transforming 80% of Jobs” we explored in detail how the rise of (generative) AI is transforming the role of the CIO to Chief Digital People Officer and how this is impacting the work of both executives/managers and further physical and digital employees. We discussed what skills are needed, how AI systems are evolving into full-fledged colleagues, and what demands we should place on our new digital colleagues.

In this fourth part, we would like to further discuss the collaboration between physical and digital employees. This collaboration in which humans and machines not only coexist but also work together optimally is at the heart of the future workplace.

Creating synergy between human and machine

One of the bigger challenges but also opportunities for the CIO of the future, henceforth called Chief Digital People Officer (CDPO), is to foster effective collaboration between generative AI as a digital employee and physical employees. This collaboration requires a fundamental cultural change within the organization. A change that integrates digital employees in strategically chosen places in daily workflows. These digital employees must function as trusted colleagues who work closely with, seek permission from, and are accountable to physical employees. It is up to physical employees to act as managers for their digital colleagues, directing and training AI systems to deliver optimal results. Among other things, this demands adequate knowledge of their digital colleagues.

Work structure changes

The integration of digital workers requires an overhaul of traditional work structures. Organizational structures may become flatter, and managing hybrid teams composed of both physical and digital employees requires new management styles. Historically, a manager’s seniority was often measured by the size of their team and the budget they managed. With the advent of AI, however, this focus may shift from scale to skills. Executives will increasingly be judged on their ability to optimize processes and make data-driven decisions. As a result, it will become essential for managers to make the best use of both human and digital talents. Thus, it is increasingly about improving and automating specific tasks and maximizing the impact of both human and digital employees on the organization.

Focus on digital work experiences

For collaboration between physical and digital employees to succeed, it is important to create positive digital work experiences. Consider development of user-friendly interfaces and ensuring that human-machine interaction is seamless and as natural as possible. An effective Life Cycle Management system is also critical in this regard because it ensures a good, developmentally appropriate connection between people, process, and technology. The system should allow for continuous monitoring and adaptation so that the work experience of employees remains consistently positive even after updates or technological changes.

New role of leadership and management styles

Alle rollen zullen er naar verwachting anders uit gaan zien. De veranderende rol van fysieke medewerkers in het managen van digitale medewerkers heeft ook aanzienlijke gevolgen voor leidinggevenden op alle niveaus, van teamleiders tot afdelingsmanagers. Het managen van hybride teams vereist dat leidinggevende nieuwe vaardigheden ontwikkelen, zoals effectief sturen op data en datakwaliteit. Ze moeten in staat zijn om processen nauwkeurig in kaart te brengen, te optimaliseren en voortdurend te verbeteren.

Met AI als digitale medewerker verschuift de focus van management van teamgrootte ne budget naar de impact en efficiëntie van processen. Metrics als ‘direct reports’ worden minder belangrijk, en aandacht verschuift meer naar de effectiviteit waarmee technologie wordt ingezet om strategische doelen te bereiken. De CIO speelt daarbij een cruciale rol in het ondersteunen van leidinggevenden bij het optimaal inzetten van hun (digitale) medewerkers, hen te helpen met de selectie, onboarding, training en doorontwikkeling van hun teams, en ervoor te zorgen dat ze in staat zijn om een inclusieve en collaboratieve werkcultuur te bevorderen.

Ethics and responsibility

The turn to AI as a digital collaborator also raises ethical issues, such as bias in AI systems and the impact on privacy. The CIO will play a key role in developing ethical guidelines that ensure fair and transparent decision-making within the organization. It is essential that physical employees are able to assess, explain, and, where necessary, adjust AI decisions. This requires appropriate training and skills for physical employees. The development of AI literacy (AI Literacy) – training and skills – as mentioned in Article 4 of the EU AI Act includes things such as

• Critical thinking and problemsolving,
  • Evaluating AI-produced content
  • Refining the output
  • Recognizing & Understanding BIAS
• Creative thinking and design competence
• Technical competences
  • Being able to fully and succesfully use the AI tool(s)
  • Among others Understanding and Recognizing the limitations of AI, how to deal with them and/or circumvent them
• Ethics and Risk management
  • Taking responsibility for the (quality of) AI output / final deliverd work
  • IAMA
  • and others
• Communication skills a.o.
  • Communication with the AI (Prompt engineering with all its nuances) like o.a.
    • Refining output such as adjusting for BIAS
    • Focusing on intended audience
    • Various forms of prompting
• Data, data quality and proces insights

DigiBeter offers these competences among others in our AI-literacy course. For more information contact us via our contact form.

The risks of digital workers

When integrating digital workers into our processes, there are several risks to consider:

• Dependence on foreign AI systems: Allowing non-Dutch or European digital collaborators (AI systems) into our work processes is similar to moving key work activities abroad. It can lead to decreased sovereignty and heavy dependence on these systems. The dependence and decrease in sovereignty makes us vulnerable to outside political and economic influen
• Cost dependence: The use of non-European AI solutions increases dependence on foreign technology and expertise, which can lead to a loss of strategic autonomy. This makes the organization vulnerable to decisions beyond their control, such as changes in policy or pricing by suppliers.
• Complexity of replacement: If digital assistants (AIs) are deeply integrated into our processes, it can be costly and time-consuming, especially if equivalent (Dutch or European) alternatives are no longer available.
• Geopolitical risks: In times of international tension or conflict, digital assets (AIs) that rely on cloud infrastructure from specific countries may suddenly become inaccessible or subject to sanctions. This can severely disrupt business process continuity.
• Erosion of local IT knowledge and industry: As also mentioned in Bert Hubert’s articles 1, 2 about government and the cloud, moving critical IT services to foreign servers can lead to a decline in IT knowledge within the organization and region. This also applies to digital assistants (AIs), potentially neglecting our local IT industry and becoming dependent on foreign technology.
• Confidentiality and privacy: The use of AI systems from foreign companies may pose confidentiality and privacy risks. Data processed by these systems may be subject to foreign laws such as the U.S. CLOUD Act. This means that foreign governments may be able to gain more and more access to our data. Also, the use of Cloud-based AIs (despite safeguards) is not, in our opinion, a guarantee that AI models will not be trained on confidential data anyway. Large organizations like Google, Meta and Microsoft have quite a habit of changing terms of use because they want more (data) from us.
• Transparency and ethics: Digital workers need to operate ethically and transparently. When we rely on AI systems from foreign vendors, we may have less control over the ethical standards and transparency of these systems. As a result, they may be less or not aligned with our own standards and values which can lead to unpredictable decisions that do not meet our standards and values or potentially harmful decisions, especially if there is hidden bias or unethical algorithms.
• Risk of technical failures and updates: Digital workers depend on regular updates and maintenance by vendors. Technical failures or unforeseen problems with these updates can disrupt operations. Because we depend on foreign suppliers for these updates, we are less able to respond quickly and effectively to such problems.
• Security Risks: Dependence on foreign cloud providers increases the risks of data breaches and cyber attacks, as for example in the case of Microsoft where Chinese hackers were difficult to remove.
• High power consumption of LLMs (Foundation Models): Large-scale language models (LLMs) such as Gemini, GPT-4, GPT4o etc. require a significant amount of power. On the one hand to be trained and on the other hand to operate. This causes increased operational energy consumption which can lead to higher operational costs and a negative impact on sustainability. Moreover, it can be a hindrance to organizations striving for a smaller carbon footprint. Smaller Expert Models (SLMs) can often run locally, sometimes even stand-alone, and thus cost significantly less energy both in use and training per model.
• Generality of LLMs vs. Expertness of SLMs: LLMs are powerful because of their broad applicability but they often lack the deep, specialized knowledge that industry-specific or job-specific SLMs (Smaller Language Models) offer. This lack of specialization can lead to less accurate or less relevant output, which is particularly risky, for example, in scenarios where detailed expertise and precise compliance with sectoral regulations is required.

Given the above risks, choosing Dutch and/or European digital assistants (AI systems) in our processes is very important. Note, we clearly do not mean to say here that you should not use them, in fact they are sometimes the best choice at the moment. However, it is useful when making the choice for such “digital employees” to reduce dependency and make replaceability as easy as possible. Choosing Dutch and/or European digital employees reduces dependence on foreign technologies which is crucial for maintaining strategic autonomy and reducing vulnerability to external political and economic influences. Moreover, it reduces risks in areas such as data privacy, ethical standards, and security, as local systems can be better aligned with Dutch and European regulations and values.

In addition, investing in local AI stimulates the growth of domestic IT sector and keeps essential technological knowledge within our borders which contributes to economic stability and innovation

Conclusion

The shift from the traditional role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) to a Chief People & Operations for digital employees is not only inevitable, but important to the future success of organizations. It is no longer about simply managing technology, but about strategically orchestrating harmonious collaboration between humans and machines. This transformation opens the door to unprecedented opportunities for innovation and increasing competitive advantage.

The CIO of tomorrow will need to focus on creating a dynamic, adaptive and ethical work environment. This involves him or her acting as a coordinating conductor, supporting the conductors in the optimal deployment of both digital and human employees to collectively achieve the organization’s strategic goals. It requires a visionary outlook, thinking ahead to find the right balance between human intuition and digital efficiency.

The new CIO fosters a culture of continuous development, teaching employees how to collaborate with AI and how to manage and train these new “digital colleagues. By focusing on developing an ethical framework within which AI operates, the CIO ensures that technology reinforces rather than undermines human values.

Thus, the future CIO is not only a technology leader but also a pioneer in organizational culture, mobilizing both human and digital talents for an innovative and competitive future. This new leadership will fundamentally change the way organizations operate, putting the CIO at the heart of this revolutionary development.

This article is automatically transcribed by AI