Collaboration in the age of AI: Optimizing your team's time

There are no participation ribbons in business.

Companies aren’t rewarded for existing. So how do leaders ensure their organizations thrive and are primed for success?

Metrics for organizational success often include profitability, cash flow, brand recognition, revenue growth, and market share. And all of these depend on how efficiently a business operates. Today, smart Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration across core business functions is one way to streamline workflows and improve efficiency, but it doesn’t always lead to optimized productivity.  

Why? Meetings.

A recent Microsoft study revealed that meetings are the top reason for lost productivity. Imagine leveraging strategic AI integration within a company’s meeting culture. What impact would that have on organizational performance?  

This article explores striking the perfect balance between human and AI productivity, and leveraging Kairos AI to transform meetings, including follow ups, into productivity best practices.  

Want quick wins with AI? Start with your meetings  

For busy executives, meetings are essential. However, scheduling and preparing for meetings, such as crafting agendas, often get crammed into the few spare moments between calls.

Without an assistant, managing calendars, agendas, and follow-ups eats into time better spent on strategy. AI fills that gap. It cuts through the noise, captures key takeaways, assigns action items, and flags what needs your attention. It helps you skip the busywork and stay focused on what drives results. If you want to leverage AI fast, start with your meetings.

With one billion meetings taking place globally each day, meetings are essential in business. Yet on average, employees report that they spend 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings. That’s not surprising, considering that 75% of managers admit never having received any meeting training.

Effective meetings drive momentum. Whether growing or scaling, good meetings help companies achieve their objectives faster.

Adopting AI, striking the balance with human involvement

We are not here to debate the merits of AI adoption.  

Most business leaders recognize that their biggest challenge isn’t should we adopt AI across key business areas, but how can we leverage AI to drive strategic impact?

The strategic use of AI can free up human bandwidth

Strategic AI integrations gives your team more time. AI unlocks the ability to remove low-value tasks and clears the way for real work. People can focus on ideas, decisions, and human connection. They can do what machines can't. That’s how you move the business forward.

Embrace AI boldly: Practical ways leaders can jumpstart adoption

1. Leverage AI to amplify human skills
   • There’s no one-size-fits-all AI solution. The best results come from trying different tools, use cases, and team combinations. Encourage your teams to experiment with AI in their workflows, whether it’s automating manual tasks, sparking creativity, or uncovering new data insights. When you free teams from mundane tasks, they get to do the work that moves the needle. Treat AI adoption like a discovery journey rather than a checklist.
2. Challenge assumptions and iterate
   • AI isn’t perfect, and some tasks are still best handled by humans. Rather than fearing failure, use each experiment as a learning opportunity. Test how AI augments decision-making, creativity, and collaboration. Be ready to pivot or combine human and AI strengths to unlock new value.
3. Collaborate with your teams to find the best fit
   • Involve your people early in exploring AI tools. Their frontline insights will uncover high-impact opportunities you might miss. This builds trust and accelerates adoption while ensuring AI supports real needs.
4. Set flexible guardrails, not rigid rules
   • Instead of strict protocols, create adaptable guidelines that empower teams to experiment. Encourage feedback loops so you can refine AI use as you go.
5. Measure, learn, and adapt fast
   • Use data to track what works and what doesn’t. Share those insights and encourage teams to keep iterating. Continuous improvement, not cautious paralysis, is the key to AI success.
6. Invest in skills and mindset
   • Equip your people with training and time to explore AI. Make it clear AI is a partner, not a replacement. The most successful organizations cultivate curiosity and a growth mindset alongside new technology. 

The Role of AI in Meetings

When it comes to meeting follow up best practices, the strategic value of AI integration cannot be overstated. AI transforms meeting culture and allows business leaders to:

• Access transcripts for any team meetings they organize
• Turn them into actionable summaries  
• Add context by selecting previous meeting summaries
• Generate effective follow up meetings with speed and quality.

So business leaders can resume meetings exactly where they left off. No more wasting time or rehashing conversations, plus create trackable action items and ensure clear expectations are visible to all stakeholders.  

How? Cue Kairos Follow-Ups.  

Meeting Follow Up Best Practises

Kairos Follow-Ups is an easy add on that allows team owners to generate agendas for follow-up meetings that are concise and relevant while progressing action items.

Among executives and business leaders, Kairos’s AI solution outperformed and consistently garnered the highest agreement for:  

• Most likely to drive progress and meaningful results
• Link to action items for previous meetings
• Recommend the appropriate duration for future meetings
• Overall quality and relevance

Take note if you’re keen to avoid your next meeting disaster and filling rooms with team members who don’t really need to be there. With integrated AI capability, leaders can enable effective meeting follow-ups, keep stakeholders aligned, and maintain momentum towards key priorities.

Try Kairos AI!

Why your Business Needs this Now

There is no easier, faster, low risk way to get your team hooked on the power of AI without having to master prompt engineering.

In an increasingly competitive market, productivity gains are no longer a nice to have. Given the central role of meeting culture, using AI intelligently to streamline and improve meetings creates a positive ripple effect throughout your organization.

Plus, Kairos removes the guesswork because ‘Follow Ups’ has been tested by business leaders like you. Our integrated meeting platform leverages years of scientific research with AI insights, and uses your company’s inputs to develop customized, actionable, and concise outputs that will accelerate your organization’s momentum.

Watch how fast your team can move when you solve the puzzle of over-inviting and polite attendance of bystanders that slows down decision-making for your organization.

What are you waiting for? Try Kairos AI for free, here.