ADP Chief Talent Officer Jay Caldwell believes AI tools are changing how we should view productivity at work. In his conversation with Patricia Stark, the two compare AI to a teammate, who can be relied on for specific tasks. They also discuss how leaders have strong opportunities to train their people as AI becomes more common at work. For more on ADP’s AI and HR tools, visit ADP.com

Video Transcript:

Jay Caldwell
I think this phase that we're entering the how is going to matter even more. So how do you work with your colleagues? How effective of a collaborator are you?

Patricia Stark
What would you say are the biggest talent and leadership opportunities that employers really have to look for as they integrate AI?

Jay Caldwell
It's an interesting time to be an HR. I'd start by saying- I'd start by saying that because the opportunities are immense from a talent or leadership standpoint, because I view this as a moment where there's an opportunity for transformation of the work, experience and nature. That's what we care a lot about. We want to offer great experiences to our employees or associates so they can deliver great work.

So it's a great moment to really lean into thinking about how are you designing work for the future, and at the same time delivering a great experience to your employees. And what's fascinating to me, to think about it that way is then you start thinking about the application differently and breaking things down to more the task level or the process level, as opposed to, again, the initial moments of AI being released is there was a lot of dystopian views of how it's going to replace all of our jobs or replace all of us and our workforces, when the reality is it's going to act more like a teammate.

Patricia Stark
Yes.

Jay Caldwell
And, Patricia, how do you think about a teammate? Like how would you describe a great teammate?

Patricia Stark
I would think of a teammate as someone that I'm collaborating with, someone that I can rely on, someone that supports me, that we support each other.

Jay Caldwell
I totally agree. I totally agree. And you see cases in sports teams where bad teammates show up, great talent, but bad teammate and things don't go well. I think AI is pretty similar. If you think about it as a teammate, as someone that will will partner with you, help execute different tasks and and implement things in a different way, and ultimately enhance the team's product.

Patricia Stark
So how would you say is the definition of productivity evolving as AI tools are being used and it's changing how quickly things are done or the time needed to get things done? So so how are we defining productivity now?

Jay Caldwell
I don't know if there's a clear answer to that question. And it's, to me, almost a natural phase forward of, you know, the last few decades we've been thinking about how do we define performance for a knowledge worker compared to, you know, a manufacturing worker? It's more difficult at the end of the day. And I think AI in some ways actually makes it more difficult.

If I could share a research point about productivity. One of ADP Research’s studies looked at how people feel about their productivity as they adopt AI. And one of the fascinating things is employees feel less productive the more they adopt AI, which I think highlights the change that we're in the midst of, even at the individual level. And I think what's evolving there is the feeling that you're getting less done, you know, maybe answering less emails, writing less, like the volume of work you might be performing seems to be declining.

So I think that requires, as we think about productivity, how do we redefine value towards value, like what are the outcomes that are being driven. And also how is the work getting done, which again, we've talked about in the in the corporate world for quite a while in terms of the what and the how, you know, the what you achieve, but also the behaviors you use to achieve that.

And I think this phase that we're entering the how is going to matter even more. So how do you work with your colleagues? How effective of a collaborator are you? How influential are you in the organization and in order to achieve those outcomes? So I don't know how to measure all these crisply well quite yet, but I think that's the the opportunity HR leaders have to think through.