How Managers Can Help Employees Sort Out Office Issues Without AI

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming integrated into the world around us. Whether it’s asking Siri or ChatGPT a question or relying on automated suggestions and self-driving cars, we are being increasingly inundated with AI tools all around us.

AI chatbots allow anyone with a wifi connection and a laptop or smartphone to tap in a prompt that ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini will answer back with anything from a low-fat lasagna recipe to the safest way to jump-start a car battery to the best things to do in Topeka on a Tuesday night. Pretty cool – and seemingly harmless.

But that capability can cause trouble when it crosses streams with the workplace. AI is in use as a professional tool in some form by almost every major employer, and given how we use it outside of the workplace, it might seem like a small leap for an employee to turn to a chatbot for help, say, solving a work relationship issue. However, there are risks that come from relying too much on AI when attempting to repair relationships.

How Artificial Intelligence Can Skew Office Problems for the Worse Although AI tools can be helpful in certain cases, a recent study by Stanford revealed that AI is overly agreeable when it comes to giving interpersonal advice, affirming users’ behaviors even when harmful.

Those findings track what we already know about artificial intelligence, which can be limited – or downright misleading – because of inherent biases, flawed algorithms and human assumptions. If an AI system tells a user that they’re right, that person is less likely to talk about the problem or reach an understanding of another person’s side of a disagreement. Not

only is it likely that artificial intelligence won’t resolve the interpersonal issue, but it also could promote dubious behavior that exacerbates the problem.

Why Workers Are Turning to AI for Help With Interpersonal Issues Why are employees turning to chatbots in the first place? People may be naturally skittish about confronting a problem and making a false move, particularly when it comes to matters of the workplace such as job security, promotions, or failed commitments. Conversations with AI can feel safer, easier and non-judgemental, which can be indicative of a fear of conflict and a lack of psychological safety and accountability in conversations.

But a nonconfrontational interaction with a chatbot can still yield unwanted outcomes if the user takes action on bad AI guidance. In fact, the real risk isn’t bad advice – it’s failing to have conversations that need to happen. AI gives safe, consequence-free answers. Because of this, feedback doesn’t get delivered, misalignment persists and small issues compound into performance or culture problems.

Moreover, this isn’t limited to just individual behavior – it can scale culturally. If everyone vents to AI instead of managers, seeking validation instead of resolution, it promotes low trust and passive-aggressive environments, and leaders are left out of the loop. The real issues go unaddressed. Healthy workplace cultures are defined by shared accountability and open dialogue around performance gaps, and artificial intelligence can’t forge that connection.

How Leaders Can Encourage Workers to Meet Issues Productively – Without AI

So how can workplace leaders combat this issue and encourage employees to have tough conversations with their managers and co-workers instead of a chatbot? Here’s a quick checklist to learn if you’re already fostering a healthy, collaborative environment or if there may still be work to be done:

• Make it safe to speak up. Normalize hard conversations and reward employees for raising issues. Take special care in considering those problems that have been mentioned by multiple workers.

• Share facts. Describe the behavior you’ve noticed, but don’t give it a label or make judgments about those facts. Simply state what has occurred and the behaviors that for you are evidence of the problem.

• Tentatively share your conclusions. After sharing the facts you’ve observed, tentatively share the conclusions you’re coming to based on those facts. State that it’s only your perspective and ask them to help you clarify.

• Intervene early. Don’t let issues linger. Encourage addressing problems, even when they might seem small or unrelated to broader goals.

• Reframe accountability as collaborative. Avoid blaming. Instead, invite dialogue. Make it clear you are open to their point of view and even any disagreement they have. If you’re more open to hearing their point of view, they’ll be more open to hearing yours. Focus on what happened, why and what’s next.

The workplace doesn’t have to be a setting charged with constant tension, frustration and just-under-the-surface animosity. Most friction on the job is tied to misunderstanding and a lack of communication, and chatbots simply aren’t the solution to those issues, either for individual workers or companies as a whole. Creating an environment where tough conversations are not only allowed but encouraged, and providing workers with the tools to navigate those conversations, helps promote a lasting culture of accountability. In this case, the stew of human complexity – trust, patience and empathy – can move mountains that AI can’t reach.

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Joseph Grenny is a New York Times bestselling author, keynote speaker, and leading social scientist for business performance. His literary work inspired the courses at Crucial Learning, which have helped millions of people across thousands of organizations. Joseph focuses on organizational performance and interpersonal communication and his work is highly regarded in the field of leadership, development, communication and change management.