The HR edition

Employees will ask how much AI really plays a role in a reorganisation, and at Barclays the union already calls AI an excuse. Prepare an answer that names AI separately from other reasons, such as technology and simpler ways of working. In the Netherlands, 60 percent of respondents say they know too little about their own rights when dismissed because of automation, so explain that too.

Seven in ten employees fear AI for their jobs

A survey by Rechtsbijstandverzekering.nl of 1,500 Dutch employees shows that seven in ten are worried about AI and their jobs. Of them, 69 percent think AI can partly or fully take over their work. Almost six in ten (62 percent) expect to lose their job to AI within five years. Younger employees are especially worried. In addition, 72 percent expect more conflicts between employers and employees, and 60 percent say they know too little about their own rights when dismissed because of automation. Legally, AI is not a ground for dismissal in itself. An employer cannot simply dismiss someone because AI can do tasks. If a job disappears because of AI, the employer must justify the business-economic need and check whether redeployment is possible, if necessary after training. Read more →

Meta Muse made shared conversations findable

Muse is a new AI assistant from Meta. Users can share a conversation through a web link. Researchers at security company Claroc say those links could be found. With a search query they found 6,800 links to shared conversations. They opened a few hundred. These contained information that was not meant to be public. For example, a candidate's notes for a confidential job interview, a revenue report, a loan application and a leave calendar with dozens of employees. Meta says sharing has been paused and that it is reviewing the report. The company is considering changes to how findable the links are. Claroc reported its findings on 8 October and, according to the researchers, got no response. Read more →

Customer service with AI: less routine, harder conversations

CNBC spoke to customer service staff in the United Kingdom. Kaylee Harris works at a credit card company and now has more time per customer, because AI takes over many tasks. Shannon works at a telecom company in Cardiff. At her company the AI notes are often full of mistakes, so she writes her own notes. At her previous employer, AI passed the difficult cases to people. The team had to 'constantly put out fires' and that caused a lot of burnout, she says. Virgin Media O2 started an AI voice agent for routine matters in September. ArvatoConnect wants technology to handle 70% of conversations and people 30%. According to a MaxContact report, more than half of decision-makers in contact centres said workload had gone up. In 2024 it was about 40%. The report names no cause. Researcher Amanda Jones of King's College London warns that performance targets may become stricter and that new staff practise less for difficult work. The director of ArvatoConnect says conversations may be allowed to take longer. She wants to assess on insight and the right solution, not on a time target. Read more →

AI helps young patent attorneys right away, but do they learn from it?

A US study looked at 133 patent attorneys. Among other things, they draft claims for patents. The study lasted three months and ran at eleven intellectual property advisory firms. Two thirds of the participants received an AI assistant from Google Labs, which has not yet been released. The rest worked without AI. When drafting patent claims, the group with AI clearly scored better. Juniors in particular, with less than seven years of experience, gained a lot. Afterwards, all participants had to assess an existing draft without AI. Now only the seniors kept their advantage. For the juniors there was no gain and results varied widely: there were more poor and more good scores. Those who gained the most with AI kept the least skill. The authors name limitations themselves: a small group, no measurement of prior level and a short duration. Google funded the study. See it as a signal for learning and development, not as proof for your sector. Read more →

Uber gives all 30,000 employees ChatGPT Work

Uber is letting all 30,000 of its employees worldwide work with ChatGPT Work. The company announced this on Thursday. Earlier this year, Uber ran a pilot with 1,000 employees from finance, operations and product, among others. About 80% of them were not engineers. They analysed operational data, translated training material for other markets and languages and built personal dashboards for their daily work. Uber has not yet set how employees must use the tool. Teams get room to experiment. Earlier this year, teams were helped by 30 AI engineers, who were given two weeks to automate important parts of the work. Uber tracks how employees use the tool and which ways of working they develop. What the company learns will determine how it uses AI further. Uber does not disclose the cost. Read more →

Volkswagen gives 330,000 employees access to Copilot

More than 330,000 employees of Volkswagen Group will get access to Microsoft Copilot. A Microsoft employee writes this on LinkedIn. It concerns teams in engineering, production, purchasing and sales, among others. The author hopes work will become more efficient and that employees will get more time for analytical, creative and more valuable tasks. According to him, employees remain central. It is a positive post from someone at Microsoft, so not an independent report. In the comments, readers say the real challenge comes afterwards: teaching people to work well with it. Those are readers' opinions. Read more →