Collaborative Intelligence: People and AI Working Smarter Together

AI and humans, working side by side in symbiotic harmony — a modern fairy tale, or the future of work? Here’s our take: It’s already happening, and it’s called collaborative AI.

In a collaborative AI model, artificial collaborators empower humans to make the most of their time and reach new levels of productivity. AI tools pick up the more mundane, repetitive tasks, freeing up team members to focus on higher-value jobs such as relationship-building and creative problem-solving. AI collaboration can even reduce the chance of human error or bias in tasks like data analysis and meeting transcriptions.

Artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be a threat to employees; it can be an opportunity. Read on to learn how collaborative intelligence can transform your business.

What is collaborative AI?

Human and artificial teammates collaborating to achieve a common goal — that’s collaborative AI. Whether AI or human, each participant assumes a dedicated role in completing a project, complementing each other’s strengths to get the task done as efficiently and effectively as possible.

How can you collaborate with AI?

Here’s how to implement collaborative AI in your team’s workflow:

1. Define your goals. How are you hoping AI will help your team members and improve your workflow? Implement collaborative AI with these goals in mind.
2. Identify potential tasks for your AI partners. Which monotonous, time-consuming tasks are eating up your team’s time? These are low-hanging fruit for AI tools.
3. Choose your AI collaborators. Pick the most relevant AI solutions to remove those mundane tasks from your teammates’ workloads.
4. Reassign low-value tasks. Communicate clear, defined roles for all humans and artificial systems moving forward. Everyone should understand who or what owns each task.
5. Keep an eye on things. Human oversight is still important, especially in the beginning. Closely monitor your new AI collaboration system to ensure it’s working as intended.
6. Listen, learn, and adjust as needed. Stay open to feedback from your team. Train your AI tools to adapt to changing needs and contexts.
7. Cultivate an AI-curious work culture. Your team might have questions or uncertainties about AI. Be there to address any concerns. Continuously educate team members about the tools they’re using, and encourage curiosity about the opportunities AI creates.

Examples of collaborative AI

AI collaboration can benefit all types of businesses and organizations. Below we highlight a few strong examples of areas where collaborative AI can make a difference.

• Data analysis. Artificial collaborators can process and analyze large data sets faster and with more precision than humans. They can also draw out patterns, identify security threats, and forecast trends.Humans can then step in to interpret the AI system’s analysis, put it into context, and apply it to their decision-making processes. They may also consider any ethical or social implications of the AI’s forecasted outcomes. In scientific settings, humans can use AI’s data analysis to inform hypotheses and experiment designs.
• Task automation. Slack’s Workflow Builder is a great example of how AI collaboration can reduce time spent on repetitive tasks like automatically manage PTO requests; submit Salesforce reports; send documentation to new hires. You name it. AI tools like Workflow Builder can handle those mundane tasks that seem to get in the way.Humans oversee these automations to ensure that they’re working as intended. When blockers or special situations happen, they can intervene and handle those issues as needed.
• Customer service. AI can analyze consumer patterns to tailor each customer’s experience to their preferences. AI tools can also answer common questions and troubleshoot simple problems to improve a company’s customer service offerings. Humans can step in to handle more complex or high-stakes interactions with customers, including problems that require critical thinking and empathy. They can address more complicated or uncommon questions as well.
• Language translation. Automated language translations are ideal for quick, simple definitions and rough outlines. Humans can then refine the AI’s translations with consideration for slang, cultural context, and other nuances.
• Creative projects. AI collaborators can produce ideas or images to serve as good starting points or help remove creative blockages for their human counterparts. Humans can then mold AI suggestions into their own unique creations.
• Healthcare. AI can analyze health records and medical images to produce summaries and identify patterns and irregularities. AI tools can help fill gaps in the healthcare field, where clinical staff shortages are common.Human health professionals can apply critical thinking to AI analyses to make educated judgments such as diagnoses and treatment plans.

AI and human collaboration: collaborative intelligence

Collaborative intelligence applies AI solutions to augment human productivity, helping teams and businesses realize their full potential.

What is collaborative (hybrid) intelligence?

Collaborative intelligence and collaborative AI both refer to the same concept: combining the respective strengths of human and artificial intelligence to boost efficiency and creativity.

Through collaborative intelligence, sometimes called hybrid intelligence, AI can complement humans, not replace them. Collaborative intelligence empowers teams to achieve goals that might have been out of reach without the help of AI.

Real-world examples of collaborative intelligence

Beyond Better Foods has implemented collaborative intelligence by using Slack AI to make internal communications more efficient. The healthful food company already used Slack as its communication hub, but our added AI features took productivity to the next level by offering enhanced search capabilities and automated thread summaries.

“With Slack AI, I can find answers and recap long conversations that help me quickly access key information to make the most informed decisions,” said Jen Haberman, the chief operating officer of Beyond Better Foods. Slack leaves the critical conversations to its human users; AI makes those communications more useful.

Let’s say Beyond Better Foods’s team needs to recall details of a specific order discussed in a Slack thread six months ago. Rather than scrolling endlessly or guessing which terms to plug into a command-F search, team members can use Slack AI’s search function to ask for the information they need: “What was the configuration of the order placed on January 15, 2024?” Slack AI can then find and analyze relevant conversations to provide a fast, accurate answer.

Beyond Better Foods VP of Operations Andy Kung said Slack AI search has come in clutch for finding crucial information at the drop of a hat.

“The enhanced search capabilities of Slack AI have been really helpful to fast-track answers, especially when it comes to logistics,” Kung said.

Benefits of collaborative AI in business

Collaborative AI can help you build a better business. Here’s how hybrid intelligence makes teams more effective and productive.

How collaborative AI affects teamwork and productivity

Research by Accenture shows that companies see the most significant performance improvements when they employ collaborative intelligence rather than using AI tools to displace human employees. While humans have a natural handle on empathy, emotional intelligence, creativity, and teamwork, machines can more quickly, easily, and accurately analyze large amounts of data.

A Slack analysis found that Slack AI saves users 97 minutes per week on average; that’s time employees can now dedicate to the interesting, high-value tasks that play to their strengths.

Integrating collaborative AI into existing workflows

Above, we walked through the step-by-step process of integrating collaborative intelligence into your team’s day-to-day. You’ll want to start by identifying pain points in your workflow; these may be opportunities for AI collaborators to relieve your team members of time-consuming or repetitive tasks. From there, you can choose relevant AI platforms to test.

Your team’s work already happens in Slack, which makes it easy to find and implement effective AI solutions. Slack integrates with an array of third-party AI tools that help with everything from meeting notes and transcriptions to bug tracking and support tickets. Browse the Slack App Directory for AI-powered productivity tools to empower your team with collaborative AI.

Challenges and solutions in developing a collaborative AI strategy

• Employee apprehension. Employees may be wary — or even afraid — of introducing AI to their workflows. Build trust with your team by demonstrating how artificial collaborators will help them do their jobs better, not do their jobs for them. By taking low-value tasks out of the equation, your team members may have more time to upskill or reskill to become even more relevant and advanced in their current roles.
• Regulations and compliance. Any AI collaborators you add to your team will have to fall in line with company and industry regulations. For example, healthcare organizations using AI to manage large sets of patient data must comply with HIPAA in doing so. To remain HIPAA-compliant, these organizations must remove any personally identifiable information from their data sets.
• Ethical considerations. How can you implement a collaborative intelligence model while maintaining fairness, transparency, and accountability? The exact answer to this question varies for each unique business.In general, organizations must identify and correct potential biases in their AI tools to ensure fairness. They must establish clear responsibilities for all human and artificial team members to promote accountability. And for the sake of transparency, businesses must standardize communications that provide clear insight into how and when they are using AI.
• Data privacy and security. If your business uses AI solutions to process large amounts of data or handle other sensitive information, it’s critical to keep that data and information safe and secure. Businesses implementing collaborative AI strategies should also implement strong security measures to protect their data from misuse.

 

Collaborative AI tools and technologies

When you’re ready to onboard the power of collaborative intelligence onto your team, you’ll need the right tools at your fingertips. Here’s what we recommend.

Slack for all-around communication

Slack is the AI-powered operating system where work happens. Automate repetitive tasks with Workflow Builder, or use Slack AI to summarize conversations and find critical information with swiftness and ease. Plus, Slack integrates with dozens of other AI platforms, including the tools we discuss below.

Asana for project management

Asana uses AI as a teammate, not just a tool, creating a collaborative AI experience. Teams leverage Asana to plan, track, and manage tasks across the entire project lifecycle. Asana’s AI features provide intelligent data insights, help coordinate complicated workflows, and offer customizations that adapt to your team’s existing workflow.

Tableau for managing data

Data analytics is simple with Tableau, which provides data visualizations that help teams make the best business decisions. Salesforce’s AI assistant Einstein Copilot integrates with Tableau to identify trends and patterns across data sets, providing better, faster insights.

Brex for tracking expenses

The AI-powered Brex is a global spend management platform that brings together accounting, expense tracking, payments, company credit cards, and business accounts in one convenient space. Brex’s AI assistant provides instant answers to questions about policies, expenses, and spend limits. It also allows users to update their expense information directly from Slack.

Zendesk for customer service

Zendesk offers a smooth, personalized customer service platform for a higher-quality customer experience. Zendesk AI provides extra-customized service interactions by automatically detecting customers’ individual goals and preferred languages. It also analyzes support tickets to automate responses.

Make collaborative intelligence part of your workday with Slack

AI doesn’t have to take away from employees. In fact, it has a lot to give. Collaborative AI is the future of work, combining strengths from both human and artificial teammates and taking businesses to new heights.

Every company needs an AI-powered system for work that brings together people, apps, data, projects, and processes in one collective space. AI should be accessible and seamless, reducing silos and maximizing users’ time.

With Slack, you can quickly and easily integrate some of the most powerful AI technologies into your workday — right in the user-friendly work operating system your team already knows and loves. Contact our sales team to learn how Slack can help you build out a collaborative intelligence strategy.