The onrushing of this thing we call AI seems to be on everyone’s minds. In this context I recently worked with a group from a local council who, among other issues, were exploring the implications of AI for the organisation, employees and the broader community. We looked into the crystal ball asking “what is the future of work?”

Of course the future of work looks very different depending our perspective. Everyone has a different take on the problems it presents. So to get the conversation started I reached for our Power of Co collaborative pathway and we began to co-define the ‘future of work’ dilemma.

I encouraged the group to first share their interests and values around this set of issues. What is important to us? As always, the responses were informative, revealing some concerns, fears and aspirations, including:

  • Job security
  • Fair pay for all
  • People and the impact on them
  • Ensuring we can be trusted by the community
  • Keenness to explore how to use AI for better outcomes
  • Readiness for change.

Having shared something of our interests and values, participants then were asked to describe what they thought the future of work dilemma is. Responses included:

  • How do we become better educated in AI so we can understand its likely impact?
  • How can we support staff in a complex and rapidly changing world?
  • How do we embrace the future of work while balancing job security for workers?
  • How will we deliver services and interact with customers?
  • How do we ensure we have the workforce we will need?
  • How do we keep the community at the centre of our decision-making?

And so-on. Everyone in the room had a slightly different take on the problem, which is very typical of any complex issue. And as diverse and multi-faceted as the future of work dilemma is, the potential solutions are perhaps even more so.

Sounds like a perfect context for more collaboration to clarify the dilemma further, to co-design the solution-finding process, to co-create and test some ideas and to scale them up together.

While meeting the challenge of AI in the workplace is daunting, authentic collaboration can bring some real biological intelligence to the task. With collaboration, my money is on the latter.