One of the common concerns expressed about the increased use of AI in healthcare revolves around the fear that more AI will inexorably lead to less of the human touch, so to speak.
But some stakeholders argue that, in certain cases, that actually can be an advantage.
Writing recently at Fast Company, for example, Jay Srinivasan cofounder and CEO of Spoke, an AI platform and services provider, points to increasing evidence that when it comes to matters such as mental health issues, particularly those related to workplace stress, many prefer to turn to a bot when they need a concerned ear rather than to another human.
Given the services his company provides, and the data to which they have access, Srinivasan says that by looking at “anonymous, aggregated data across hundreds of companies, which helps train the AI to better understand human intent,” it’s clear that “employees are starting to seek out their companies’ respective mental health resources more often, and those conversations are increasingly starting via AI. Additionally, after an employee engages with AI on mental-health-related issues, he or she is significantly more likely to do it again, according to the data.”
In large part, he says, in a growing number of companies, AI is increasingly the starting point for mental-health conversations, as opposed to engaging directly with human resources departments, because “AI’s ever-improving understanding of language coupled with its discretion around personal matters (allows) individuals to start conversations that sometimes are hard with other humans.”
Moreover, an AI option is apt to generate a quicker response than a human. “People suffering from workplace-related stress often are experiencing issues in the moment and want to feel like they have a pathway forward quickly. As such, AI bots are sometimes pegged as a meta-layer of bureaucracy that deflects work from humans.”
He points to an an internal survey across dozens of employers which found that a majority of employees “expect responses to a workplace query from the appropriate support person or team within five hours.”
In the end, Srinivasan observes that while conventional wisdom has long contrasted “cold” AI with “humans and their infinite kindnesses,” many people are just as wary of their co-workers’ capacity to respect their desire for privacy. “Furthermore, most employees don’t even know their HR team members well enough to just blindly share their personal mental-health concerns.”
The bottom line, he says, is that it’s both good that more people are able to discuss mental-wellness issues at work, and good that HR departments with AI tools are better equipped to respond.