Ikea take the AI high road

This AI high road involves seeing AI adoption as a way to create a more human experience for your customers and your people rather than an end in itself.

Sure, AI has made IKEA's operations more efficient, by automating 57% of customer service conversations.

But rather than treating this as a cost cutting opportunity, IKEA instead chose to protect their culture by reinvesting these gains, while focusing on creating new value in the 43% of interactions that did require human intervention.

Instead of downsizing, they reskilled parts of their customer service workforce, enabling employees to transition into interior design consultants.

Within the first year, their new specialist design consultancy offering is estimated to have generated nearly €1 billion in additional revenue.

This is a perfect example of the human-centered approach to AI that we talk about at Work Time Revolution.

While AI handles the routine at scale and speed, human judgment, creativity and connection is what creates the extraordinary.