Does your boss talk too much? AI can tell them

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The author is the author of Think Big, an associate professor at the London School of Economics and founding director of the Inclusion Initiative

When different generations of colleagues come together to discuss ideas and make decisions, there is usually no shortage of potential for conflict.

But Generation Z, the Millennials, the generation are all sure about one thing

In research my colleague Daniel Jolles and I conducted for the Inclusion Initiative at the London School of Economics, we surveyed more than 3,400 professionals about their experiences with meetings. They found that 35 percent of meetings were unproductive – a finding that was consistent across all age groups.

Respondents felt that the loudest voices spoke for too long and with little substance. Our research found that people from Generation X – now in their 40s and 50s – spoke the most; Gen Z – the youngest cohort in the workplace, in their 20s – the smallest. In three quarters of the meetings, the voice of Generation Z was not heard at all. And as older people continue talking, they create a “cascade” that drowns out the contributions of younger colleagues.

Such intergenerational tensions are not just a problem for young workers’ self-esteem. Our research found that the annual cost of unproductive meetings in wasted hours in the U.S. could be about $259 billion – that’s about $9.6 million for a company with 2,500 employees. When meetings are dominated by the generation that speaks the loudest, it can cause companies to miss out on ideas and new perspectives.

So what can companies do to realize the potential of group meetings? By following a few key mantras and harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, they can break through ingrained power dynamics and habits of not listening and bring out the best in everyone in the room.

We found that to be truly inclusive, leaders need to take three approaches. They should show that contributions are valued. You have to use everyone’s ideas. And finally, they should be open to new perspectives.

That’s easier said than done. AI can help by making some of the bad habits we bring into meetings clearer. Natural language processing tools, for example, can flag when certain voices are dominant and alert the session leader to problematic dynamics, including the overrepresentation of a generation or group.

Tools are being developed to give us a nudge during a meeting, telling us, for example, that one person has dominated the discussion for the last 10 minutes. At the moment they are more often allowing the chairman to ask an AI companion who has spoken the most.

AI transcriptions help ensure that quieter (or younger) voices are recorded and reflected upon later. The same applies to posts in the chat function for those who do not feel safe in person.

And while no technology can force us to listen, AI can make us more aware of the tendency to prioritize our own voice.

By summarizing contributions during a meeting, AI tools like Fathom AI’s Meeting Assistant or Grain can encourage participants to think and only focus on speaking when they have something to say – after all, who wants to hear? how his mediocre point of view is repeated to him? Generative AI can also suggest follow-up questions to delve deeper, enabling better quality discussions and encouraging quieter voices to expand on their ideas.

This could be better for all of us if meetings transition from “technical discussions” to strategic forums where ideas are exchanged and refined.

Inclusive meetings where everyone feels included, regardless of generation, are linked to better employee performance. According to our research, executives who said their last important meeting was comprehensive were more likely to report better financial performance for their company. Even more striking, 86 percent of employees who said the same were satisfied with their jobs, compared to 56 percent who experienced non-inclusive meetings.

Fortunately, our research suggests that meetings where everyone is encouraged to talk are just as long as any other.

These are the beginnings of giving AI a seat at the table. I encourage anyone leading a meeting to experiment and find what works for them.

But if AI delivers on its promise, it could become one of the most valued voices in meeting rooms. After all, the strongest voice is not necessarily the loudest; more often, it is the one that best transforms collective intelligence into actionable insights.