(This article originally appeared in Ambition, the thought leadership publication by the Association of MBAs (AMBA) – in print and online – and has been republished on this website with the permission of AMBA.)
Meetings have long been a source of frustration and inefficiency in the workplace, consuming time, energy and resources. With the rise of generative artificial intelligence, we start wondering if humans actually have to attend them anymore. Will technology take our place at the table?
The annual cost of running business meetings has been estimated at well over $30 billion in the US alone and statistics show that, on average, employees spend nearly a third of their working week in some kind of meeting. It is surely high time that organisations devised an alternative strategy; recent technological advances might provide the answer, as they are making the notion of AI-driven meetings a realistic possibility. ChatGPT’s highly articulate and conversational nature hints at the future capabilities of AI language models. While the technology still has obvious limitations, its fluid user interactions demonstrate how it could plausibly simulate human discussion and debate on some level. If interfacing with humans is the primary purpose of meetings, perhaps sophisticated AI bots could take on more of the legwork while we chime in only when necessary. Such AI would require solid situational awareness and an understanding of group dynamics to participate effectively in the free-flowing chaos of a meeting. Interpreting subtle jokes, tensions, personalities and emotional tones in a room is tremendously complex, but this is an area that AI researchers are tackling – equipping AI agents with more robust social awareness and theory of mind. If successful, such bots could fit seamlessly into human workplace gatherings, interacting naturally without rigidness. They might even improve group cohesiveness with perfectly polite and inclusive behaviour.
Taking the tedium out of administrative tasks
It is essential to have AI exhibit some degree of creativity, strategic thinking, judgment and complex reasoning. Adding value in higher stakes meetings would also be essential rather than just serving as a note-taking assistant. Replicating human cognition and thinking patterns remains the most significant obstacle. Critical analysis and imagination don’t directly emerge from today’s neural networks, no matter their scale. For the foreseeable future, uniquely human strengths will likely give us an edge when higher-order cognitive skills are required in meetings – skills that are increasingly imperative in senior leadership roles. Before AI outright replaces meetings, the technology can enhance human collaboration. AI meeting assistants could help automate administrative tasks such as scheduling, note-taking, action item tracking and document sharing – tedious responsibilities that can be draining in lengthy sessions. Such tools already exist but current offerings lack deep language understanding. The power of AI to accurately capture, comprehend and contextualise meeting content is still emerging. AI powered by large language models could also facilitate remote and hybrid gatherings where reading social cues can be challenging. Features such as real-time personalised transcriptions, translations, closed captions and voice commands provide flexibility. Digital whiteboard solutions allow seamless information sharing and live editing regardless of location.
Tools to track and assess meeting efficiency
Perhaps most disruptive is the potential for AI analytics that can evaluate meeting patterns over time. Data collected across an organisation’s meetings could offer insights into optimal structures, best practices, productivity killers and wasted resources among other pointers. Historical meeting data remains an untapped resource. Combining speech recognition transcripts from past sessions with attendee feedback and outcomes, AI might guide us toward more effective meetings. Of course, tracking meetings at scale also introduces privacy concerns. Any tools would require thoughtful implementation regarding data access permissions and adequate participant consent. Microsoft’s infamous ‘productivity score’ fiasco demonstrated poor execution of employee monitoring tools. Transparency and giving users control are both imperative in the context of meeting analytics. AI promises to shake up today’s prevailing notions of teamwork. As this rapidly developing technology eliminates more routine tasks, the focus shifts to the value of human interaction and collaboration. This compels organisations to be more selective regarding the necessity of meetings since they no longer provide a convenient vehicle for task division. With less need for information distribution, thanks to knowledge management platforms, sharing ideas and making decisions, meetings will receive greater emphasis.
Shaking up the organisational status quo
Virtual and augmented reality technologies may also gain traction, simulating in-person interactions for remote employees or enabling elaborate presentation formats beyond PowerPoint. Gamification can incentivise or even make meetings more engaging. Automation of follow-ups via AI assistants ensures accountability and execution. Eventually, the very construct of organisational hierarchy may need rethinking as human-AI collaboration matures. If AI agents can competently handle managerial duties or contribute equally to strategy, what distinguishes the boss? Younger generations already expect egalitarian and non-hierarchical relationships with their leaders meaning that existing norms around meetings may shift dramatically. Lastly, face-to-face human connection carries intangible benefits that technology cannot replicate. As long as organisations value relationshipbuilding, bonding experiences, spontaneous conversations and meaningful presence, in-person meetings will retain purpose. However, their supplementation or outright replacement by AI now seems inevitable in some capacity. Workplace meetings are ripe for an AI makeover – we just need to ensure humans stay at the heart of any transformation.
