Companies Use AI to Help Managers Become More Human

Researchers in academia and the private sector are devising computer systems that can analyze communication between bosses and workers and spot problems that cause tension, unhappiness, and inefficiency, the Wall Street Journal reports. IBM Corp.'s Watson artificial intelligence (AI) platform, for example, can compare an executive's email against models and figure out its emotional range and the sentiments that are being exhibited. The AI can then point out patterns in the messages that the executive may not be aware of, like repeatedly couching feedback in negative language. "At a big company, there's a lot of top-down communication going on, and we're using it to understand how we set the right climate and culture," comments Tina Marron-Partridge, global leader of talent and engagement at IBM. True Talk, another system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, lets clients practice difficult conversations by speaking with an AI.