When AI Joins the Team: Human Connection in the Intelligent Workplace

Key takeaways

John Burrows shared these insights:

• AI can substitute for what people know, but your social capital – the collective value of social networks – is what sets your organization apart.
• Hybrid work reduces the opportunities for spontaneous hallway moments that once built connection, so leaders need to create them on purpose.
• Before handing an interaction to AI, consider what human connection it builds and whether you can afford to lose it.
• The relationships you build before a negotiation give you access to the information that makes a good deal possible.
• Introducing people across your network creates value, even when you’re not in the room.

Summary

What did we learn? Here are the top takeaways from When AI Joins the Team: Human Connection in the Intelligent Workplace:

In the age of AI, building trust among team members is more important than ever.

Economists have identified two kinds of capital: economic capital (what you own) and human capital (what you know), Burrows stated. Sociologists proved there was a third kind – social capital, the trust and relationships through which work moves. Now there is a fourth form of capital: AI capital. “AI can substitute for what people know,” he said. “It cannot substitute for whether people trust one another.” He added that as AI joins teams, it’s important for every leader to understand their organization’s unique strengths. Your AI strategy will converge with your competitors’, but your social capital won’t, he said. “Social capital is what makes a firm special.” Watch at 8:05

In a world of virtual workspaces, social capital must be built intentionally.

“This asset used to build itself for free in the hallway, the coffee line, the five minutes after the meeting,” Burrows said. “Then work went digital and dispersed, and the accidents stopped.” His book offers eight plays for building social capital amid those challenges, he said. One play: Be in the right places. In a hybrid workplace, it’s less about the number of days you spend in the office than what happens during those days, he added: "Card swipes don’t create connection; interaction does.” Leaders can be architects of connection, deciding who sits near whom and which conversations happen face-to-face, he pointed out. “AI makes it even easier to work in a building full of people and never need any of them,” he said. “Presence is not connection.” So he recommended swapping a reply-all thread for a 10-minute huddle or switching from a direct message to a two-minute phone call, defaulting to “the richest medium the moment needs.” Watch at 12:32

Use AI to save time while protecting the interactions that hold your team together.

Cognitive surrender, a term coined by Wharton researchers Steven Shaw and Gideon Nave, happens when we hand our thinking over to a machine, Burrows said. He and his co-author, Seth Rachlin, call the social version relational surrender. “One weakens judgment, the other weakens connection, and each one feels like efficiency at the time,” he said. The social web that holds an organization together can be dismantled by small, seemingly sensible choices, he pointed out. For example, you might turn to technology rather than interrupting a busy co-worker, asking for feedback from a senior-level colleague or hashing out a path forward through messy disagreement. Before automating a recurring interaction, ask one question, he said: “If this interaction disappeared today and the machine did the visible task, what would break? And how long until we’d notice?” Watch at 15:05

Trust is key to negotiation in the workplace.

In a previous Travelers Institute webinar on negotiation, Burrows pointed out that the information you need for a good deal sits on the other side of the negotiating table, and people share that information with people they trust. With each interaction, you build credibility by showing that you’re honest, trustworthy and fair, and that you honor commitments, he said. What does that mean for agents and brokers? “The renewal is round two, and the claim is round three,” he said. “And in the world of AI, when both sides can run the numbers instantly, the analysis stops being the edge. What’s left is whether they believe you.” Watch at 20:16

Leaders can multiply their impact by connecting others.

“Your job as a leader is to make sure everyone is connected to someone,” Burrows said. One example: A former student of his worked at a large insurance company and inherited a poorly performing market area. So the former student called his team and asked each person whom they talked to most. He learned that seasoned agents talked only to other seasoned agents, new hires to new hires and top performers to top performers. He then worked to connect disparate subnetworks, made his unit No. 1 and got promoted. One takeaway: Think of who in your network could benefit from knowing someone else in your network, then introduce them and step back. “Tremendous value can be unlocked by connecting other people without you having to be at the table,” Burrows said. Watch at 43:28