The next step in artificial intelligence in the workplace
The next step in artificial
intelligence in the workplace
North Bay Business Journal
Published October 22, 2024
Beyond Google, Siri, Alexa and other digital personal assistants like them, artificial intelligence technology is transforming corporate learning and knowledge-sharing.
Siri, Alexa and Google are considered traditional AI, tasked with performing a specific function.
As AI evolves, companies are exploring the use of Generative AI, artificial intelligence that can create something new - text, images, video - such as what ChatGPT does. With over 70,000 AI companies worldwide (including 17,500 U.S. firms), more businesses are exploring or have already embraced the benefits of internal AI solutions for employees.
That’s where Sausalito-based Sageful AI, Inc. and partner PairUp come in.
The two companies are reshaping how employee learning occurs during realistic, natural language Q&A text exchanges with a digital coach.
Sageful AI
“Not since the dawn of the internet has new AI technology held the promise of redefining learning transfer,” according to Michael Papay, cofounder and CEO of Sageful AI, Inc., who along with CTO and cofounder Drew Batshaw, is charting a course for corporate knowledge sharing.
The company’s AI’s solution became commercially available in late May of this year. The firm is partnering with five training companies looking to customize their products for specific applications using this platform.
“This is a game-changer for the training industry,” said Lance Tyson, CEO and founder of the Tyson Group, a top-20 training provider. ”We are not just transferring knowledge, but ensuring it is applied effectively in real world scenarios.”
The Sageful’s learning coach, called “Sagey,” uses a natural conversational style while offering real-time support through Slack, Teams or text messaging. Tyson said.
He added that what Sageful AI offers goes beyond online, Zoom and e-learning by helping employees foster behavioral change and obtain guidance aligned with their company’s objectives.
“Our AI-driven coach ensures that learning is not just an event but a continuous process that directly impacts performance outcomes by providing personalized, real-time support and guidance,” Papay added.
According to global talent market analyst Josh Bersin, corporate learning is a $340 billion industry averaging over $1,500 per employee per year.
Unlike traditional training, Sageful AI enhances learning by integrating it into learners’ workflow as employees go about daily tasks. The company developed a comprehensive system to measure the effectiveness of training and creates reports detailing results to demonstrate predictable performance gains.
“Ongoing context-specific sales training tops the list of requested AI coaching solutions. Other business categories include leadership development, corporate culture (including safety and thought leadership) along with organizational change guidance,” Papay said.
PairUp
Cofounded by CEO Emily Harburg, Ph.D., and CTO Andy Garvin in January 2022, PairUp uses AI to accelerate workplace knowledge sharing. The software company is leveraging generative AI to boost employee connectivity by linking them with people inside their own organizations who can supply answers.
PairUp provides a streamlined and scalable way for employees to access up-to-date information by increasing personal interactions with emphasis on privacy, security and the ability to track performance.
“We recognize that the most important company knowledge often lives within people, not documentation.”
“The first version of PairUp was a mentorship platform. We then we pivoted toward our new AI-powered plus human knowledge search platform last year based on customer feedback,” Harburg said. “To date we have served more than 25 large and small companies through a combination of our two versions.”
She outlined three key PairUp’s platform benefits: Helping to retain knowledge, providing support from subject-matter experts, and enhancing cross-team collaboration.
Garvin said, “ChatGPT’s meteoric rise highlighted early on that enterprises would adopt AI for documented knowledge searches. We are pushing AI boundaries to unlock the unlimited well of information embedded in peoples’ minds.”
He observed that in a short time period, Retrieval-Augmented Generation has changed the way people access information. However, PairUp is pioneering the next evolution of AI-powered workplace knowledge management software with Human-Augmented Generation.
By prioritizing human expertise, PairUp ensures that even after an employee leaves or changes roles, the day-to-day information is still accessible, saving time and money when onboarding new team members.
“When you democratize access to experts across a team, a company no longer has to rely on just a few subject matter experts who are often inundated with questions,” Harburg said.
“Research shows that sparking peer-to-peer workplace connection leads to breaking down silos, boosting collaboration and igniting innovation,” she added.
“We are leveraging PairUp’s software with our remote engineering teams that work in isolation so they can quickly access core documented processes as well as obtain expert guidance from other seasoned developers,” said Janette Lopez. Latin America Human Resources Manager for Turnkey Labs.
Emily Glasgow, Manager of Strategy & Operations with RapidSOS, said: "PairUp is great for triggering conversations between people who otherwise would not connect.”
While some say allowing self-initiated access to others within a business could jeopardize corporate secrets or personal information, Harburg says safeguards must be in place.
“PairUp’s approach ensures that a company’s valuable knowledge is efficiently captured, preserved and accessed,” she explained. “Security and privacy features are built into PairUp’s solution to properly protect customer data.”
The company follows industry-leading standards issued by General Data Protection Regulation, the International Organization for Standardization, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, to ensure a company’s data remains secure and under its ownership.
Saving Lost Time
McKinsey Research found the average desk worker spends an estimated 28% of the work week managing e-mail and nearly 20% of their time searching for internal information or tracking down colleagues who can help with specific tasks.
By fully implementing social technologies, McKinsey found that companies have an opportunity to raise the productivity of these workers 20% to 25%.
AI tools can also help offset the $4.5 million lost annually, by firms failing to preserve and share knowledge, especially after employees leave a firm, according to Yahoo Research results.
According to a NOBL study, employees take up to 70% of a company’s knowledge with them when they retire or take another job, altering the company’s culture and workflow – an outcome that can take two years for seasoned new hires to reach the same efficiency level.ownership.
