New Gartner report outlines strategies to make the most of managers' unique position in AI adoption
HR leaders may be overlooking the crucial role of managers in AI adoption in the workplace, according to a senior Gartner expert, despite their unique position to support the integration of AI in the front lines.
"CHROs are under pressure to ensure effective workforce usage of AI tools, but they have over-relied on empowering employees to chart their own exploration of AI," said Carmen von Rohr, Senior Principal in the Gartner HR practice, in a statement.
"Thus far, HR has largely focused on empowering employees to explore, learn, and innovate with AI and have overlooked the role of the manager in driving effective use of AI tools."
Von Rohr made the remarks as recent Gartner data revealed that 46% of managers are experimenting with AI to improve their work, much higher than the 26% of employees.
Separate findings from Gartner also revealed that 14% of managers are not facing any challenges in driving effective use of AI across their team.
The findings indicate that managers are uniquely positioned to drive the organisation's AI adoption strategy down the organisational hierarchy.
In fact, Gartner research found that 45% of managers have pointed out that AI has improved the work of their teams as much as they expected.
Making the most out of managers
To leverage the unique position of managers, Gartner advised HR leaders to align managers to organisational expectations for AI use.
"CHROs and their teams need to transparently communicate to managers the organisation's expectations for effective AI use and any required behavioural changes," Gartner suggested.
"For instance, managers may be asked to identify and eliminate ineffective organisational practices, and employees should be focused on reducing unproductive individual behaviours."
It further advised HR leaders to support managers as they integrate AI into work by identifying motivations, frustrations, and challenges of different teams to tailor AI training and support.
It also advised HR leaders to prepare managers in helping employees tackle emotional resistance to AI change.
"Managers must find a balance – ensuring they don't lose trust and confidence with their teams while also translating the benefits of AI they observe into the value narratives senior leaders and the business desire," von Rohr added.
The use of AI tools has been reported to deliver time-saving benefits for employees, and managers should be able to guide their teams in redeploying the time saved from using AI tools, according to Gartner.
"CHROs must help managers tie activities to impact in order to direct employees on how to redeploy time freed by AI," it said.
Managers should be able to work with their teams to identify activities that can make good use of time saved by AI. They need to start asking:
- What are "value-added" activities for their role/function, as measured by human or business outcomes?
- What skills should be the focus of development?
- What growth-driving activities best suit their capabilities and aspirations?
"Most organisations are currently only seeing employees save small and fractured blocks of time through the use of AI," von Rohr said.
"This will change as the technology evolves. Once employees are saving significant blocks of time through AI use, that saved time will need to be effectively redeployed."
