If you’re a tech professional who writes code for a living, you’re well aware of how generative AI can impact your workflows. But for tech managers, the impact of these technologies might seem a bit more nebulous. Can generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini improve how you manage your teams?
The short answer is “yes,” provided you use these tools correctly. Let’s dig into how tech managers everywhere can get an AI-powered assist when interacting with their people.
Boosting Productivity
If there’s a reason why many tech professionals fear moving into management, it’s because they see the job as repetitive, with less focus on working with cool technologies and more on answering emails and scheduling meetings. Fortunately, generative AI can take over a portion of these more mundane, managerial tasks. For example:
- Use AI to summarize reports and emails: Need that 5,000-word report boiled down to its essential points? How about that string of emails you haven’t tackled yet? AI can help with those sorts of things—just make sure to give the original materials a quick skim to ensure that whatever the AI has generated matches up with the content.
- Draft messages: Sometimes you need to produce a lot of text very quickly, especially for internal emails and other communications. By giving AI the gist and outline of what you need, then personalizing the output, you can communicate faster, especially with larger teams.
- Schedule meetings: A new generation of AI tools is getting better at helping with mundane tasks such as scheduling.
- Brainstorming… to a point: Many folks rely on generative AI for brainstorming sessions, to generate content samples, or even write compelling project proposals. While AI isn’t nearly as creative as a human being, perhaps it can help spark some solid ideas.
Working with Your Team
Here are some ways in which AI can help streamline your team’s management:
- Personalized learning and development: AI can analyze individual strengths and weaknesses, suggesting relevant training materials and resources for each team member. This personalized approach to upskilling keeps your team engaged and future-proofs their careers.
- Enhanced performance management: Generative AI can help craft clear, specific goals for team members and track progress over time. Use it to generate performance reviews with actionable feedback, promoting continuous improvement and a results-oriented mindset.
Managing with AI: Some Takeaway Tips
When you integrate AI into your management workflow, you need to employ a bit of planning:
Identify the right tool: Research different options before choosing one; for example, if you envision using AI purely for rapidly drafting emails, you might want so stick with an option like ChatGPT versus a specialized and complex app.
Security is key: You don’t want to feed proprietary company information into an open, free AI product, because you don’t want your data absorbed into the AI provider’s database (which can transform into a huge cybersecurity risk). However, many AI providers have paid-for enterprise options that will secure your data.
Focus on efficiency, not automation: Generative AI isn't about replacing human interaction; it's about enhancing it. Use AI to streamline processes, not to remove the human element from leadership.
Embrace transparency: Be up-front with your team about using AI tools. Explain how they're being used and how they benefit everyone. Prepare to answer questions.
By incorporating at least some of these AI techniques, you can free up your time and bandwidth for mission-critical tasks such as strategic planning, empowering your team members, and coming up with new ways to drive your company forward.
