A game developed to train managers using artificial intelligence acts as a personalised sparring tool, explaining the impact of their choices and giving advice on where to improve. As a result, well-being at work improves and staff productivity increases – both in the game and at the workplace.
The discussion around AI often focuses on situations where it replaces human work. However, AI can also help people advance in what will remain an area of human interaction – leadership.
The project is the next phase of the Productive Manager training simulation, developed to coach managers and HR staff. SOL and Antell, among others, are already users of the game and will also be pioneers in introducing the future AI-based version of it.
Improved quality of working life – improved staff productivity
Problems undermine the quality of work life. Good management practices improve it. This is something that creates issues in day-to-day management. The Productive Manager learning game provides real-life management problems. The choices you make will either improve or reduce the quality of your working life.
In the Productive Manager simulation, progress is based on the values calculated by the game; the Quality of Working Life (QWL) index and the motivation theory linked to it.
“It is the focus on motivation that makes the simulation so accurate. Combining motivation theory with QWL’s calculations is an essential factor in being able to build such a game,” explains Marko Kesti, CEO of PlayGain Oy, the company behind the game and an associate professor at the University of Lapland, whose long-term research has resulted in the well-being and productivity metrics that form the basis of the game.
Leadership has a direct impact on well-being at work, which in turn has a direct link to staff productivity. The human resource productivity function is also a theory developed by Marko Kesti and recognised by the international scientific community, which allows Productive Managers to measure player development. This allows the game to show the player the impact of their choices not only on staff well-being, but also on financial performance.
Through the development of a manager’s skills, improved performance in the game leads to improved performance in the organisation.
AI as a personal sparring partner for managers
Productive Manager has been implemented in the first user companies for about a year. In addition to the original research data, there is now available data on players and on the development of Quality of Work Life (QWL) in companies using the Productive Manager simulation.
Now, AI has been used to create predictive analytics in the training simulation, which takes into account not only job quality and motivation, but also the player’s personal profile. A manager does their job with their own personal touch. What works for one may not work for another.
Using the data generated during the game, the AI becomes the manager’s personal sparring partner.
“The AI built into the game already takes into account the player’s personal strengths and areas for improvement, and provides customised help, for example by suggesting learning more about a topic. In the future, this support will only become more accurate as the amount of data grows,” says Marko Kesti.
Predictive analytics can help prevent issues
What is AI in this context and what do we do with it?
“To put it simply, since the Quality of Work Life Wellbeing function and the Productivity of Work Life Wellbeing function are formulas that are calculated from variables in the work environment, this calculation would simply be converted into a software that calculates the same results from the same variables that the player encounters in different game situations,” explains Jaakko Asikainen, CTO of MeKiwi, who led the development of the game technology.
“As such, a computer program would still not be a simulation, but it has an architecture and dynamics built into it based on game theory, which motivates and guides the player and at the same time creates learning,” Asikainen continues. “Productive Manager is unique because it has a game architecture that matches reality.”
Gaming collects more data, allowing the AI to make better and better predictions. This is the biggest benefit of AI for users. When an important area for leadership improvement emerges during the game, the problem may not arise at all.