Walmart, Delta, Starbucks among major companies using AI tool to snoop on employees: Report
The software created by ‘Aware' examines platforms such as Slack and Microsoft Teams for keywords that signal employee discontent and possible safety concerns. Jeff Schumann, CEO of Aware, explained that their AI helps companies understand employee sentiment in real-time, avoiding the need for annual surveys.
FollowThe classic water cooler conversations have moved online in the age of remote work. Recent studies, however, raise questions about the possibility that artificial intelligence (AI) is listening in on these virtual talks. According to Fox, a number of companies, including Walmart, Delta, T-Mobile, Chevron, and Starbucks, have allegedly used surveillance software developed by the firm "Aware" to keep an eye on employee conversations on messaging applications. As part of this tendency, European companies Nestle and AstraZeneca are also included.
"Aware" software searches Slack and Microsoft Teams for terms that indicate dissatisfaction among employees and potential safety issues. As per CNBC, the business claims to have evaluated an enormous amount of data, analyzing as much as 20 billion individual communications from over 3 million workers.
According to Aware CEO Jeff Schumann, their artificial intelligence (AI) enables businesses to gauge employee mood in real-time without doing yearly surveys. Through the anonymized data in Aware's analytics offering, employers may observe how various employee groups respond to campaigns or adjustments. Additionally, the AI can recognize a variety of behaviors, including harassment and bullying.
Crucially, while a different instrument can identify specific employee names in situations of acute threat, the analytics tool does not flag particular employee names. According to Schumann, 80% of Aware's business is comprised of Walmart, T-Mobile, Chevron, and Starbucks, which utilize the company's technology for governance, risk, and compliance.
In conversations with Lydia Hu of FOX Business, workers expressed worries about AI intruding into business communications. Some were uncomfortable, seeing it as a surreptitious breach of privacy, while others questioned the dependability of AI systems.
An AstraZeneca representative stated that although the firm employs Aware's eDiscovery software, analytics are not used to track sentiment or toxicity. Conversely, Delta told CNBC that it tracks sentiment and trends using eDiscovery and analytics tools from Aware while also getting input from stakeholders and staff. In order to maintain legal records on its social media platforms, Delta also makes use of these tools.
Concerns around AI surveillance are only intensifying as more businesses adopt the work-from-anywhere strategy. Well-known communication platforms with millions of monthly users and usage by over 100,000 organizations, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, become focus areas for AI examination.
