Control message timelines to boost productivity. With AI increasing message volume, recipients should manage how communications are received. Inspired by ITSM, this approach emphasizes recipient control, AI triage, and tool integration.
What would your day look like if you controlled the timeline of how you consumed messages, instead of your attention being constantly dominated by the senders of messages? |
Even the best collaboration tools can easily become a nuisance to productivity and sanity when the sheer volume of messages becomes a constant barrage of notifications, pings, and replies. With the advent of AI being used to craft messages, the volume of messages each person receives is certain to increase. But imagine an alternative scenario where recipients control how communications are consumed, instead of the sender. As tech leaders plan for the next generation of AI-native collaboration, the goal should be to allow recipients to control how communications are received, not senders. The best practices around communication developed for ITSM can be a starting point for implementing the “Service Management for All” approach to next-gen collaboration.
When email was new, it was a miracle for businesses that helped speed up collaboration dramatically, changing the very nature of how and when we work. However, the volume soon became overwhelming for many because it can be easily manipulated to divert attention and time away from key tasks, whether because of spam or unnecessary colleague messages. What had been a blessing became a curse, and recipients struggled with clogged inboxes and incessant interruptions.
Chat tools, like Slack, were supposed to be email-killers and solve some of these problems. The messages are instant and more focused. ChatOps led to notifications and discussion rooms on chat for tickets. But soon we were all back where we started. Users were struggling with interruptions from chat notifications. Tickets trigger email notifications discussed in chats – it’s become the modern equivalent of a mom calling to tell you she sent an email. And good luck finding the message from last week that you needed; it could be anywhere.
Large-language AI will be central to the future of business collaboration. The past has shown that the volume increases as each technology makes collaboration easier. AI will certainly make content creation exponentially easier and cheaper; leaders need to plan now to prepare for this eventuality.
catworkx suggests that teams look to the success of ITSM to plan for the next generation collaboration. catworkx recommends these priorities to focus on for the future.
The future of collaboration demands that recipients control when and how they receive messages. Messages must be sorted by importance to limit interruptions, and less important messages are held or diverted. Recipients must control when and how they collaborate so that AI can convert incoming messages to the recipient's preferred format, including emails, tickets, voice messages, videos, gamification, and more. Teams can benefit from "Service Management for All" without forcing employees to learn a new tool. Managing messages in queues instead of inboxes allows recipients to decide when a message is received, rather than the sender deciding who to copy. It ensures that a team can respond according to their availability, rather than everything being housed in a single inbox.
Service desks were designed to handle large volumes of tickets efficiently. Teams are already overwhelmed by the volume of messages, and AI will only compound that problem. That is why catworkx advocates for “Service Management for All” as the backbone of next-gen collaboration. |