How cognitive collaboration is transforming the employee experience
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The rise in mobile and remote work means that companies must offer their employees optimum collaborative connections – this is what cognitive collaboration is all about.
Having instant access to dynamic, relevant information in the right place at the right time is no longer the holy grail of the workplace. Cognitive collaboration combines artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and data to bring together the best of two worlds: new technologies and human creativity.
“As people become more mobile and work remotely more often, new tools have emerged to enable them to stay connected and communicate through various channels,” said Danny Cullens, Enterprise Architect and Business Consultant at Axians, the VINCI Energies brand specialised in digital solutions.
“But one issue still needed to be resolved: how could we enable remote teamwork that is truly collaborative? That is where cognitive collaboration comes in, as it helps people find the right information and, even more importantly, the right people,” he said.
Ironing out sticking points
Cognitive collaboration harnesses new technologies to improve the employee experience by smoothing out sticking points and making it easier to gather information. For instance, this type of relational intelligence can be used to add labels underneath the names of people attending meetings remotely, containing their bio, career history and job title to inform other participants.
“Other simple advantages include the possibility of facial recognition when you walk into a meeting room you have booked, and voice activation to launch the meeting. Additionally, when you need specific information on your company but you do not know who to speak to or where to turn if the person is not available, collaborative tools give you direct access to what you need to know, or allow you to ask the person’s colleagues to help you out,” said Danny Cullens.
The Axians specialist predicts that AI will eventually be able to solve problems you did not even know you had. Some collaborative tools are already able to let a person working on a project know if other parts have already been carried out by other employees within the company.
Boosting productivity
“Cognitive collaboration enables companies to optimise their employees’ work and save them time so they can focus on tasks with greater added value. This allows various departments to work more consistently and efficiently,” said Danny Cullens.
“The key to successful collaboration does not lie in the solutions offered but rather in employees adopting them”
“The key to successful collaboration does not lie in the solutions offered but rather in employees adopting them,” said the Axians specialist. “It is vital that users understand how the tools can benefit them; for instance, being able to work remotely and stay close to their families for a better work-life balance,” he said.
15/10/2020
