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Offering a tantalising glimpse of a future without meetings with your boss, Google has implemented an AI system to manage communication between executives and employees.
The move highlights how AI is not only replacing traditional worker roles but is now taking on tasks typically reserved for human leaders.
Google, well-known for its innovative approach to workplace culture, has introduced an AI tool called "Ask" to facilitate its monthly all-hands meetings, known internally as "TGIF" (Thank God It's Friday). The new system represents a significant departure from the company's previous approach to internal communication.
Googlers grumble about company's AI moderator
Formerly, Google employees could directly submit and upvote questions through a tool called Dory, ensuring that the most pressing concerns reached top executives, including CEO Sundar Pichai. However, the new AI-driven system now acts as an intermediary, summarizing and rephrasing employee inquiries before presenting them to leadership, which has been criticized by some staff.
While Google claims this change improves efficiency and broadens participation, some employees view it differently. Anonymous sources within the company suggest that the AI system is softening the tone of questions, making them less pointed and easier for executives to address. This has led to concerns about reduced transparency and meaningful dialogue between staff and leadership.
"They're just trying to dodge damaging context and questions from being seen by a larger audience," one Google employee reportedly said, highlighting the growing unease about the new system.
Google has defended the implementation of Ask, stating that it has doubled employee engagement in these meetings. A company spokesperson emphasized that the new tool was created in part because employees wanted to address more questions across a broader set of topics more efficiently. It was noted that in 2023, before Ask was introduced, fewer than one per cent of Google employees asked a question during TGIF meetings. Since Ask's introduction earlier this year, twice as many employees are posing questions and voting on them.
However, several employees mentioned that they rarely attend or ask questions anymore, feeling that the meetings have become increasingly pointless.
Is AI a get-out for employer-employee communication?
The implementation of Ask raises important questions about the role of AI in corporate governance and communication. While AI has already made significant inroads in replacing routine tasks, its application in moderating dialogue between leadership and employees opens a new frontier that blurs the lines between technological efficiency and human interaction in corporate settings.
Google's experiment with AI-moderated all-hands meetings may well be a glimpse into the future of corporate communication – a future where AI not only supports but actively shapes the dialogue between leaders and their teams.
As one employee reportedly put it: "Execs have been dodging questions or giving very vague answers at TGIF for years now."
While AI can reshape how information is presented, it cannot yet replicate authentic leadership and meaningful engagement in the workplace.
