The role of Nudgetech to bridge widening communication gap

“Nudgetech” is a niche domain that has lately gained lot of attention due to an acceleration in the adoption of Artificial Intelligence across enterprise ecosystems, worldwide. Nudge theory is not new, AI based Nudging is. Nudge theory (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008) considered part of ‘Behavioural Economics’ domain, advocates guiding employees (in a subtle manner) to do something or act in a particular way, that’s productive for an organisation. Nudges are gentle interventions with an aim to make employees act and make specific choices that are congruent with the organisational goals. At the same time, the employee retains the democratic right to choose a particular course of action or keep a ‘status quo’.

Application of AI in ‘nudging space’ has completely changed the rules of the game as far as communication and collaboration between leadership and employees is concerned. To get more clarity, let us compare ‘Nudgetech’ with a ‘Data driven decision making’ in an organisation. The new age AI technologies slice and dice the available data in an organisation, to provide predictive and prescriptive insights to decision makers (e.g. CHRO-Chief Human Resources Officer). For e.g. in an organisation, HR Analytics platform (driven by AI) predicts that attrition in the next 12 months could be in a range of 12 to 15%. At the same time, it provides deep insights to CHRO as to what can be done (prescriptions) to keep attrition say below 10%. The final decision making regarding key management actions remains in the human domain as CHRO does intensive consultation with the other key stakeholders in an organisation. AI driven Nudgetech operates exactly in a similar manner - nudging an employee to ‘make a choice’ – the final decision to choose or not to choose rests solely in an employee domain. Consistent nudging as an institutionalised mechanism that alters overall “choice architecture” in an organisation helps steer employees’ actions in a particular way that’s in alignment with organisational priorities and goals. This helps an organisation to become more agile, which in turn helps it to navigate complexity, fluidity, and turbulence (constant change) in an external environment more effectively. Several experts feel that nudging is of immense help, as it restricts individual bias in decision making and controls idiosyncratic behaviour of employees.  

AI driven Nudgetech platforms are becoming increasingly popular as these could help in the fields of “Adaptive Learning” (personalised learning choices), personalised recommendations in decision making, allocating resources (including time) judiciously and mentoring employees to stay focused on high priority tasks. At the same time nudges can also provide timely feedback, help avoid employee burn outs, as platform guides an employee to take well-earned breaks from work, engage in some sort of self-meditation and being conscious of the need for mental and physical well-being – that’s key to employee productivity and engagement.

While AI based nudge-tech platforms help promote judicious employee-machine collaboration, there could be a dark side that’s hidden beneath the surface. AI Ethics that’s fast becoming an important vertical in the domain of human-machine collaboration, requires organisations to have an AI ethics code of conduct, that strongly advocates respecting employee privacy and reducing algorithmic distribution in a personalised space of employees. It’s a well-known fact that AI algorithms could suffer from an acute algorithmic bias (that algorithms develop over a period due to self-learning). There is a thin line that divides the judicious prompts by a platform and manipulative interventions including playing with personal data of employees as well as treating all employees in equitable and fair manner. Due to self-learning capability of AI, there is always a grave risk of ‘planned nudges’ acquiring the form and shape of a negative intervention that adversely impacts employees’ behaviour and choices.

Overall, AI driven Nudgetech is a very promising domain that can immensely help HR leaders in nurturing the human capital and bridging the communication gap between leadership and employees at all levels within an organisation, at a highly optimised cost. However, Nudgetech could prove to be a “double edged knife”, if an organisation does not have systematic mechanisms of reviewing and auditing ‘nudge algorithms’ periodically. The HR leaders must strive to preserve employee privacy, secure personal data, promote equity & fairness, and keep a watch for any harmful biases that algorithms may start to develop.

HR leaders must keep in mind that AI based Nudgetech is a personalised assistant, and it should not start acting like a boss!  

Authored by Dr. Antarpreet Singh, Director (Academics), WILL Education