The secret to successful AI implementations? Worker voice

As organizations begin to understand the capabilities and effects of generative artificial intelligence, a group of MIT experts hopes a new framework for technology design and implementation will inspire leaders to include worker voice in their decision-making.

In a new paper, “Bringing Worker Voice Into Generative AI,” the researchers explain that generative AI is “well-suited to bottom-up development and use.” They also contend that the more that stakeholders are involved in defining the problems and opportunities the technology can address, “the more likely it is that these tools will be used to augment how workers do their jobs rather than displace them.”

The paper was written by Thomas A. Kochan, Ben Armstrong, Julie Shah, Emilio J. Castilla, Ben Likis, and Martha E. Mangelsdorf, all of MIT. It draws on more than 50 interviews with academics, business managers, AI experts, and labor leaders and is also guided by the researchers’ earlier work.