When AI Needs a Chaperone: The Everyday Reality of Bot Sitting

AI is everywhere. It has crept into all aspects of our lives and there are naturally consequences. While many of those consequences are good, helping us to be more productive and tackle tasks that would have previously required an external expert, others are concerning for the mental health of business owners and their employees.

With the number of stories about the misuse or misinformation being created and shared by AI, most of us are now extremely aware of the need to confirm what AI has created on our behalf. This requires a human to “Bot Sit”. Research shows that most employees who are using AI to streamline their work are spending an average of 6.4 hours a week Bot Sitting.

Bot Sitting is the act of confirming that the information and answers from AI is correct, the references really exist and the numbers add up in the way they should. Bot Sitting is inherently stressful because the information the person is required to check is normally complex and has a deep level of assumed knowledge on a specific topic.

Recently one client shared a beautifully presented AI report that was designed to give insights into a critical task in their business. As soon as I looked at the report, I was able to identify that at least one of the results was incorrect. To me, the number stood out as impossible because I knew the team, the history, the time taken to perform certain tasks. It wasn’t that the client wasn’t closely connected with the business, it was just that my HR understanding was highly attuned to that ratio.

Acknowledging that AI is here and that double checking the work product of AI is essential, we need the right solutions for our team’s wellbeing.

Impact HR’s top tips are:

1. Provide AI training appropriate for the roles and responsibilities of the delegated AI task. Only 38 to 43% of companies provide AI training.
2. Ensure your team know your AI policies and understand which platforms they can use, including how to de-identify information correctly.
3. Make it OK to explore the AI outputs with the right subject matter expert to ensure the results are accurate and don’t lead to poor decision making

Making your organisation AI confident is an important part of providing psychological safety in today’s busy workplace.

If you’d like support to set up policies and procedures to help protect psychological safety in your business, book in for a free consultation and let us help you.