3034: How Avanade is Leveraging AI for Workplace Efficiency and Wellness

[00:00:03] How is AI transforming the landscape of Workplace Wellness and Leadership?

[00:00:11] It's the question I want to tackle with Eric Mikkelon, President of Avanade's North American Business,

[00:00:18] and with a wealth of experience driving partnerships and delivering innovative solutions alongside industry giants from Microsoft to Accenture,

[00:00:26] Eric brings a unique perspective on the role that AI plays in today's modern organisations.

[00:00:33] But I want to explore how AI is not only enhancing mental well-being and work-life balance,

[00:00:39] but also its impacts on leadership well-being, by streamlining tasks and powering leaders

[00:00:45] to focus on what truly matters and improving productivity to preventing burnout.

[00:00:50] So with all that in mind, Eric's going to offer a glimpse into a future of a more balanced AI-driven workplace.

[00:00:58] Before we welcome our guest onto the podcast today though, delivering daily content to 140,000 of you wonderful monthly listeners across the globe is no small feat.

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[00:02:04] today. But now it's time to dive into today's fascinating conversation with my guest.

[00:02:12] So are you ready to discover how technology can revolutionise the way we work and lead?

[00:02:17] When it's time to take you on a trip to Chicago, where Eric is waiting to share his insights today.

[00:02:23] So a massive warm welcome to the show, Eric.

[00:02:26] Can you tell the listeners a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:02:30] Sure, thanks for having me. So my name is Eric McIlon. I am president of Avadot's North American business.

[00:02:38] Avadot is a large global systems integrator focused on Microsoft and its ecosystem of partners.

[00:02:44] Well it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today. One of the things I try to do everyday is demystify some of those technologies that are out there at the moment.

[00:02:51] Obviously at the moment or anyone's talking about or seem to be talking about is AI.

[00:02:57] A lot of business leaders sat on the fence, they can this is cool but what does it mean to us?

[00:03:01] What are we going to do with it and it can be hard to make sense of what that next move's going to be.

[00:03:06] So on this podcast today I'd like to try to find out a little bit more about what you're doing at Avadot.

[00:03:12] So just to set the scene, how are you at Avadot leveraging AI to do things like monitoring and improvement to well being in the workplace?

[00:03:19] And also kind of impact have you seen on employee satisfaction and productivity as a result?

[00:03:25] I like to start with we embrace using AI in our own day-to-day lives as well as help our clients try to sort out their strategy and get the best and return on investment from AI.

[00:03:37] And for me personally, a big part is about I made, I'd say a lot of manual tasks and tried to improve the quality of time I spent working in actually free of more time to spend with my family

[00:03:51] And I can do things to my personal life so I've got a 15 year old daughter that have been a third-year-old son.

[00:03:56] So I used to spend a couple hours in the evening summarizing email and now something like M365 Copilot can summarise those four of me and give that time back to me.

[00:04:06] So I think a lot of people, when they hear AI, they worry about it replacing jobs and other things and obviously ethical AI will be very important.

[00:04:14] But I look at it as an opportunity to improve how smart we work not just the amount of time that we were not just to add additional quality or tasks or what have you.

[00:04:25] Some good examples of how we've used it internally.

[00:04:28] So our sales team has really been pioneering and leveraging Copilot Delphorce several months.

[00:04:36] And 70% greater likely good of fostered a creative approach to tasks, 40% increase in problem resolution.

[00:04:43] So 84% of the participants in our programs that they felt a sense of accomplishment from the work that they're doing at the end of the study.

[00:04:51] So I think the really are some good examples about just using it to drive better productivity on a daily basis.

[00:05:00] And if we look back, what five years ago we saw this movement to working from home for all almost overnight and more recently we've settled into this improving the future of work and moving to a more hybrid model of working.

[00:05:13] So in what ways do you see AI tools contributing to that better life balance, especially as remote and hybrid work models continue to lead the way because there's such a big topic.

[00:05:26] And the impacts everyone. I mean, but this what four or five thousand miles between us here we're probably having the same conversations.

[00:05:32] First of foremost, I think there's an opportunity to really again take a look at some of the how we enable people, particularly those who might be newer entrance to the workforce.

[00:05:43] So when you think about where experience helps oftentimes in our industry it's learning business process industry, how technology intersects with all that.

[00:05:55] If you think about enabling industry specific or job specific co pilots, you could take a relatively new university grad then equipped them with a lot of information allows them to be more productive faster.

[00:06:08] And I think as we look at, you know, always the constant balance of work happening between cost effective remote locations where there's be in country or in lower cost markets.

[00:06:20] There's always this question particularly from emerging workforce around how you know how well of it will they be, how do they compete lower cost locations.

[00:06:28] So I think AI is just one example of a way to enable that group of people to work productive to add value quicker to really kind of increase the value proposition of themselves and so that's one quick example.

[00:06:41] And I was chatting with someone recently from cyber secure, they're talking about the burnout problem there, especially because nobody can seemingly switch off at 5 p.m. anymore expected to answer those emails as they come in around the clock and leadership well being is a growing concern in every industry, especially in particularly demanding environment.

[00:07:02] So I'm curious how do you see AI playing a role in helping leaders manage their responsibilities without burning out.

[00:07:09] Yeah, it's a great question. I think particularly if you operate the global business where there's somebody on that some point that time in the day no matter where you where you are where you're located.

[00:07:20] You know, I really think that there's a you know, it was the old adage of work smarter not harder.

[00:07:25] I think that AI is a great example of working smarter.

[00:07:29] So again, you know, it's about prioritizing the time you are spending working on the activities and tasks that are truly the most urgent.

[00:07:36] And the ones with that will make the extent impact given kind of your spirit skill level.

[00:07:42] For one simple example is again, having AI summarized or automate, you know, email tasks creating presentations.

[00:07:52] You know, sort of the day to day things that that normally for many people can frustrate them or maybe they're not great at doing it.

[00:07:59] And then they can repry or atize their time towards where their skills really make a difference.

[00:08:05] And one of the many reasons I was excited to get you on the podcast today is the sheer number of high profile partnerships that you have at an odd.

[00:08:14] I'm not sure how much you can share here, but are you able to share any examples of how avenues partnership with the Microsoft and assentures of this world or driving innovation in AI solutions for all your North American clients say is anything you can share around that.

[00:08:30] I happen to you so I was actually partially owned by Microsoft, so we're joined venture between Microsoft Adix and share.

[00:08:37] Our relationship with Microsoft is allowed us to have early access to a number of product features product roadmap, so sorts of things.

[00:08:46] So we've actually been working with Microsoft 365 co pilot since it was really in its output beta forms.

[00:08:53] And so that's really helped us sort of once start by implementing it internally with our own functions to really see and measure the value we can create to ask tough questions around security data.

[00:09:07] And so we started the first time we started to see what it takes to be successful as part of the market.

[00:09:15] And we started 18 months before co pilot was launched at our journey to really modernize our internal infrastructure to take care of taking advantage of the tools.

[00:09:26] So there's an example with Microsoft, sort of how we're in the access is really helped us to think to be in a position that we the market in terms of advising our clients on the best way to take advantage of the opportunity.

[00:09:36] Of the technology.

[00:09:39] And as you've been on board from the very early stages and been able to take advantages of these tools before many business leaders at listening us, especially you are a little bit further along the road than many listening.

[00:09:52] So I'm curious from what you're seeing here as AI becomes more integrated into leadership strategies.

[00:09:58] Other than any challenges that you may have experienced or foresee coming in the future in maintaining a human centric leadership while embracing technological advancements because I think it's very easy to fall into the trouble of how this technology is great and and almost sacrifice to human element but of course it's it's the AI and human alongside where the magic happens, but what are you seeing here.

[00:10:19] Yeah, so first of all ensuring that there's a focus on ethical AI is super important to think for any organization or any technology provider that's that's really serious about emerging into the AI space.

[00:10:31] You know, there are certainly there is an opportunity for AI and the course by technologies to use you know I've heard a great phrase from where my clients recently it says evil moves much faster than the pace of good.

[00:10:46] And so I think it's really important to have AI governance in place and AI strategy in place to understand how you're going to regularly.

[00:10:55] The use of the technology, I think like any technology without some form of control governance in some cases regulation.

[00:11:03] It could certainly lead towards a lot of ethical uses or otherwise.

[00:11:08] But you know, difficult or behavior to then have to react to after the fact and I think for many business leaders listening is getting that balance right that's what probably makes them just sit back and adopt a more cautious approach and.

[00:11:23] How do you ensure that AI solutions are have an order designed to not only improve efficiency but also and have us overall well being of both employees and leaders and all the stuff we're talking about here's and he can share on how you managed to get that balance right.

[00:11:39] Yeah, so I think first of all there has to be a conscious effort to not only improve the efficiency of your workers but also doing hands.

[00:11:48] The well being and again, maximize the outputs of the time that's spent you what I embrace is a leader and I suggest that my clients do as well.

[00:11:57] Is that your employees are likely to be experimenting and using AI no matter whether you have a governance strategy in place and an intention to manage it or not.

[00:12:06] And so ignoring it or try to restrain it is really not going to be a viable long-term approach you really have to embrace it and set the tone in the organization in terms of how to best take advantage of that.

[00:12:23] The has the potential to.

[00:12:27] To accomplish one day tasks which can free up a lot of time for well being at the same time it could have the opportunity to.

[00:12:34] Displace workers if your strategy isn't is it robust and so I think it's really about understanding the change management that goes into it the training.

[00:12:44] The education around it as well as obviously just you know the core technology and implementation to make it effective.

[00:12:51] And with the pace of technological change ramping up and we cautiously look ahead, how do you envision AI evolving in the context of leadership and workplace wellness over the months and maybe even years ahead and and other any trends or developments that we should be particularly playing attention to.

[00:13:11] Certainly for starters, AI will continue to become more inept at personalization and providing with personalized solutions and so.

[00:13:23] You know really focusing in on what this can mean to customize wellness programs as an example.

[00:13:29] Now it's a healthy resources.

[00:13:32] You know how can you really put the right information in the hands of your employees at the right time and be more intelligent and more personalized about it.

[00:13:39] I think this is something that you know from a knowledge worker perspective.

[00:13:43] The company has been been attempting to solve you know at least for the last 25 years or so and the technology is finally getting to a place where.

[00:13:52] Were these were these scenarios and these these businesses processes are actually.

[00:13:57] Of cost effective to solve for and in the outcomes can be really positive I think also you know the trying to paying attention to where.

[00:14:05] Cool pile of go around getting more industry specific powered by more industry relevant data models so I think there's quite a bit of innovation coming there.

[00:14:18] I think when you focus on what that means to customer experience and other way to look at it.

[00:14:23] So really you know I think we've all probably interface with.

[00:14:27] Call sort of low intelligence chat bots and whatnot the fidelity of those chat bots and experience are really improving and I think for companies when you think about not only your internal employee experience be a extra customer experience that will become sort of the fact of expectation of people.

[00:14:44] And so moving in that direction quicker than or more quickly I should say is really going to be important to stay ahead of competition.

[00:14:53] And I think something else that you know it's both you and I and indeed every single person listening all around the world is this sense of real pressure on there's all to be in a state of continuous learning now it's almost right or the eye of the storm here I've got to ask where or how do you self educate so you can keep up to speed with everything any tips or advice you can share around that.

[00:15:16] Yeah so I'm lucky to work with some really really talented and intelligent people.

[00:15:22] I love to self educate through conversations with our people in front of our clients and then that usually will spark a series of questions or follow-up items that you know using any kind of medium you can imagine podcasts certainly.

[00:15:37] Using chat to PT and other.

[00:15:40] Functions to be able to interrogate and you can answer the questions and so it's had experiential learning for me that really seems to have worked best for me over my life, you know I think others.

[00:15:51] Have their own different approaches but that's what really is stuck with me.

[00:15:55] Well I suspect that for many people listening they'll be following that advice but also they may want to carry on the conversation we start today we've only really just scratched the surface.

[00:16:05] So what is the best place for listeners to find you or your team online and ultimately find out more about anything we talked about today and of course the services you offer at Avon.

[00:16:16] Yeah absolutely so you can find us obviously at Avonard.com and I would encourage anyone who would like to be connected with me on LinkedIn Eric McAwan and we'd love to carry on the conversation.

[00:16:27] Well I'll have links to everything so people can find that nice and easily and one of the things I'm talking about today was not just how AI is making a difference for Avonard and indeed all your customers but talking about something we don't talk about enough.

[00:16:40] AI on mental well-being, how AI technologies can monitor and improve mental well-being in the workplace and also help with that AI and work life balance and combat leadership.

[00:16:54] Some of the problems around well-being in the workplace that we're seeing as well so many big talking points and in by everyone listening to carry on this conversation email into the show and let me know your thoughts on how you're tackling these issues but more on earth in Eric thanks for starting this conversation today.

[00:17:09] Yeah that's great thank you for having me. So what will your leadership look like in an AI and hands world?

[00:17:17] As we've heard from Eric today, AI's impact on the workplace wellness and leadership is both profound and far reaching for me as automating routine tasks to enhancing mental well-being.

[00:17:29] AI can offer tools that can help us work smarter, not harder but beyond the technology I think Eric reminded us today if the importance of balance, governance and most importantly of all a human centric approach to this transformation.

[00:17:46] And with all that in mind, how are you going to leverage AI to improve both your productivity and your team's well-being? How are you going to get that balance right?

[00:17:56] Because I think the future is here and it invites us all to rethink the way that we lead and the way that we thrive in our personal and professional lives.

[00:18:05] Over to you, email me now, techbloodwriteroutlook.com, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram just at NeilCuse.

[00:18:13] So I will sit here patiently waiting for your replies and also prepare for tomorrow's guest.

[00:18:18] So if I don't hear from you before, I will speak with you all once again tomorrow morning. Bye for now.