Major US Companies Monitor Employee Messages with AI Tool
Major US companies like Starbucks, Walmart, and Delta Airlines are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) firm Aware to monitor employee messages. The AI tool, which scans platforms such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, aims to identify keywords indicating dissatisfaction, safety risks, or unionization efforts.
The increasing use of AI to monitor employee messages has raised concerns about privacy, freedom of speech, and potential misuse. According to a comprehensive report, Aware’s software analyzes internal communication platforms, searching for keywords and phrases that could indicate employee dissatisfaction, safety hazards, or even unionization attempts.
Jeff Schumann, the co-founder and CEO of a Columbus, Ohio-based startup, highlights the significance of AI in providing companies with real-time insight into employee sentiment, replacing sporadic surveys. Schumann emphasizes AI’s role in helping organizations understand the inherent risks in their communication dynamics.
Aware’s analytics tool, designed to monitor employee sentiment and toxicity, ensures privacy by avoiding the flagging of individual employee names. However, in instances of severe threats or identified risk behaviors, the company’s separate eDiscovery tool is capable of identifying specific employee names.
Aware’s data repository currently holds an extensive corpus of 6.5 billion messages, reflecting over 20 billion interactions from more than 3 million unique employees. When onboarding a new client, Aware’s AI models undergo a two-week training period to analyze employee messages and detect patterns of emotion and sentiment within the company. This training enables the AI to differentiate between normal and abnormal communication patterns.
To protect employee privacy, Schumann claims that individual names are not revealed to the company. However, in certain cases where predetermined risk behaviors are present, specific employee names can be identified using Aware’s eDiscovery tool.
As the use of AI technology expands in the workplace, it is crucial to address concerns surrounding privacy and potential implications on employees’ freedom of speech. The careful balance between employee monitoring for safety and protecting privacy remains a challenge for organizations utilizing AI tools like Aware.
Analyst comment
Neutral news. The market for AI tools like Aware may see an increase in demand from companies seeking to monitor employee messages for indicators of dissatisfaction, safety risks, or unionization efforts. However, concerns about privacy and freedom of speech may affect adoption and implementation.
