Strategies for Employee Engagement During AI Adoption

To boost engagement during AI adoption, managers should introduce tools like ChatGPT, provide training, and encourage collaboration. Thoughtful integration helps teams stay productive, adaptable, and competitive.
Post Date: 
Tuesday, May 13, 2025

By Dr. Sean Smith (Associate Professor, City University of New York (Lehman College) and Dr. Nicol Nicola, New Jersey Department of Labor, Adjunct Professor and Leadership Facilitator

As a manager, it is increasingly challenging to ignore the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI). Discussions about AI permeate almost every aspect of our lives, from social media and work-related platforms to news outlets and professional journals. Everyone is striving to understand the implications of AI for various stakeholders, including managers, employees, students, and instructors.

In this era of “AI-human collaboration,” leveraging AI to enhance employee engagement is a critical strategy for forward-thinking managers. One effective and economical way to accomplish this is by adopting generative AI tools like ChatGPT to support your team. Here, we outline practical steps and considerations for introducing and integrating AI into your workplace.

Introduce Generative AI to Employees:

Begin by familiarizing your team with generative AI as early as possible. Offer training sessions or classes to help employees understand how to use these tools effectively for their daily tasks. For example, Dr. Nicola recommends that employees consult Generative AI solutions like ChatGPT whenever they encounter challenges. This approach fosters a culture of problem-solving and innovation.

It is also essential to educate your team about potential pitfalls, such as biases in AI-generated outputs. Historical data often reflects biased decisions, which generative AI tools can inadvertently perpetuate. Additionally, discuss the phenomenon of AI “hallucinations”—instances where AI provides incorrect or fabricated information. As Ronnie Sheer aptly puts it, AI is “97% accurate but 100% confident.” By addressing these issues, you empower your staff to use AI responsibly and effectively.

Dr. Stein Smith recommends also integrating what the true effect of GenAI will be on the employees whose jobs and roles will change as a result. For example, while automation (via GenAI and other means) will change certain tasks and processes, if certain activities are automated this means that employees can redirect time and energy to higher level tasks. These often include automating internal tasks, processes that are not client facing, and allowing employees to focus on client relationship management and attempting to create new revenue streams versus focusing on compliance-based work.

Foster Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

Encourage employees to share their success stories of using AI tools to solve workplace challenges. Collaborative discussions about how AI has improved workflows or resolved specific issues can inspire others to explore and adopt these tools more confidently.

This is also an opportunity to troubleshoot areas in which the AI implementation might be operating as effectively as hoped and uncovering workflows that are not functioning as automation accelerates. These knowledge sharing sessions also provide an opportunity for managers and AI champions to address any employee concerns regarding data, including issues around data privacy and the training around AI implementation.

15 Ways to Use Generative AI in Daily Tasks

We have identified ten practical ways employees can integrate generative AI tools like ChatGPT into their work:

  1. Responding to Customer Questions: AI can provide quick and accurate responses to customer inquiries, improving response times and enhancing customer satisfaction.
  2. Explaining Complex Equations: AI can simplify and clarify complex equations, making them more understandable for employees.
  3. Assisting with Excel Code: AI can guide employees through running Excel codes, such as matching datasets, thereby streamlining processes and improving accuracy.
  4. Converting Code: AI can transform code from one programming language (e.g., SAS) to another (e.g., R), facilitating smoother transitions.
  5. Generating Code for Data Tasks: AI can produce code snippets for data manipulation or chart creation, saving time and reducing errors.
  6. Proofreading and Editing Emails: AI can make emails more concise and polite, enhancing communication efficiency and professionalism.
  7. Suggesting Survey Indicators: AI can recommend relevant indicators for surveys or labor market questions, aiding in more effective decision-making and analysis.
  8. Summarizing Reports: AI can condense lengthy reports into concise summaries, making it easier for employees to grasp key points quickly.
  9. Creating Bullet Points for Presentations: AI can generate organized bullet points on specific topics, helping employees deliver more effective presentations.
  10. Generating Images: AI can produce custom images based on specifications, enhancing visual presentations and materials.
  11. Automated Data Cleaning and Preparation: AI can automatically detect and correct errors, inconsistencies, or outliers in data (e.g., financial), ensuring the accuracy and reliability of inputs for analysis.
  12. Advanced Predictive Analytics: AI algorithms like machine learning can identify patterns and trends in historical data to predict future financial performance, market conditions, or customer behavior.
  13. Real-Time Monitoring and Alerts: AI-powered tools can continuously monitor financial metrics and detect anomalies or deviations from expected patterns.
  14. Enhanced Scenario Analysis and Stress Testing: AI can simulate various economic and financial scenarios to assess the impact of different variables on a firm's performance.
  15. Natural Language Processing for Unstructured Data: AI-driven NLP can analyze unstructured data sources, such as news articles, earnings call transcripts, or social media, to extract insights and sentiment that influence financial models.

Bottom line

Adopting AI tools like ChatGPT is not just about staying current with technology—it’s about fostering an engaged, innovative, and informed workforce. By introducing AI thoughtfully, educating employees about its benefits and limitations, and encouraging collaboration, managers can turn AI adoption into a powerful tool for enhancing employee engagement and productivity. Despite the justifiable fears and concerns about data hallucination, privacy concerns, and the training required to effectively implement AI, the following statement is true across various industries. Jobs and companies are not going to be rendered obsolete by AI, but individuals and firms that do not intelligently and proactively implement AI will see themselves surpassed by those that do. Data is the lifeblood of any organization, and AI is a powerful tool to maximize the effectiveness of that data.