How Walmart, Nestle And Starbucks Use AI For Employee Message Monitoring

Major corporations like Walmart, Delta Air Lines, Starbucks, Nestle and AstraZeneca, have enlisted the services of a seven-year-old startup called Aware to monitor communication within their workforce, as reported by the company.

Aware uses AI to analyse messages exchanged among employees on business communication platforms such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Workplace. Its objective is to observe employee behaviour while comprehending potential risks.

Aware’s AI models, are equipped to read text and process images. It can also identify insider trading, bullying, harassment, discrimination, noncompliance, pornography, nudity and other behaviours.

Upon a new client's registration for the analytics tool, it takes Aware's AI models approximately two weeks to train on employee messages and understand patterns of emotion and sentiment within the company, distinguishing between normal and abnormal behaviour.

Jeff Schumann, the co-founder and CEO of Aware, said, "It's always tracking real-time employee sentiment, and it's always tracking real-time toxicity."

The CEO mentioned that the information gathered by Aware regarding employees' sentiments doesn't involve their names. However, in severe instances, confidentiality may be lifted.