Neurodiverse Professionals 25% More Satisfied With AI Tools and Agents (cnbc.com) 30
An anonymous reader shared this report from CNBC:
Neurodiverse professionals may see unique benefits from artificial intelligence tools and agents, research suggests. With AI agent creation booming in 2025, people with conditions like ADHD, autism, dyslexia and more report a more level playing field in the workplace thanks to generative AI.
A recent study from the UK's Department for Business and Trade found that neurodiverse workers were 25% more satisfied with AI assistants and were more likely to recommend the tool than neurotypical respondents.
[The study involved 1,000 users of Microsoft 365 Copilot from October through December of 2024.]
"Standing up and walking around during a meeting means that I'm not taking notes, but now AI can come in and synthesize the entire meeting into a transcript and pick out the top-level themes," said Tara DeZao, senior director of product marketing at enterprise low-code platform provider Pega. DeZao, who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, has combination-type ADHD, which includes both inattentive symptoms (time management and executive function issues) and hyperactive symptoms (increased movement). "I've white-knuckled my way through the business world," DeZao said. "But these tools help so much...."
Generative AI happens to be particularly adept at skills like communication, time management and executive functioning, creating a built-in benefit for neurodiverse workers who've previously had to find ways to fit in among a work culture not built with them in mind. Because of the skills that neurodiverse individuals can bring to the workplace — hyperfocus, creativity, empathy and niche expertise, just to name a few — some research suggests that organizations prioritizing inclusivity in this space generate nearly one-fifth higher revenue. "Investing in ethical guardrails, like those that protect and aid neurodivergent workers, is not just the right thing to do," said Kristi Boyd, an AI specialist with the SAS data ethics practice. "It's a smart way to make good on your organization's AI investments."
"Standing up and walking around during a meeting means that I'm not taking notes, but now AI can come in and synthesize the entire meeting into a transcript and pick out the top-level themes," said Tara DeZao, senior director of product marketing at enterprise low-code platform provider Pega. DeZao, who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, has combination-type ADHD, which includes both inattentive symptoms (time management and executive function issues) and hyperactive symptoms (increased movement). "I've white-knuckled my way through the business world," DeZao said. "But these tools help so much...."
Generative AI happens to be particularly adept at skills like communication, time management and executive functioning, creating a built-in benefit for neurodiverse workers who've previously had to find ways to fit in among a work culture not built with them in mind. Because of the skills that neurodiverse individuals can bring to the workplace — hyperfocus, creativity, empathy and niche expertise, just to name a few — some research suggests that organizations prioritizing inclusivity in this space generate nearly one-fifth higher revenue. "Investing in ethical guardrails, like those that protect and aid neurodivergent workers, is not just the right thing to do," said Kristi Boyd, an AI specialist with the SAS data ethics practice. "It's a smart way to make good on your organization's AI investments."
and...? (Score:5, Insightful)
"...neurodiverse workers were 25% more satisfied with AI assistants and were more likely to recommend the tool..."
You know who else would be more satisfied? Stupid people. Chimpanzees would find AI unimaginably great.
And that's not a knock on "neurodiverse workers", it's a knock on the "study". In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. What matters is what the "tool" can do, not what the deficiencies of some users are.
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Obviously the tool can help these people. I mean you can start simple. Have someone with dyslexia, they can ask the AI to write a text using simpler, easy to read words. That's a task that models can do that run on your smartphone. The result isn't too surprising. People who benefit from texts being processed for them like the tool that does that. Next you can find that people who are short on time are happy to have tools that summarize text. After that you may find, that authors like tools that find synony
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I think the phrase is now "in the land of people affected with low vision, the one-eyed person is monarch."
Neurodiversity in the Workplace (Score:2)
This guarantees its failure, not because the tool is inaccurate or useless, but because it threatens the livelihood of so many.
To paraphrase: Bureaucrats conduct meetings both because they appear to be busy when they are meeting and because the minutes and slides, once written, immediately become proof that they were busy.
Re:Neurodiversity in the Workplace (Score:4, Funny)
To paraphrase: Bureaucrats conduct meetings both because they appear to be busy when they are meeting
I've worked on projects where maybe 5 people were actually contributed to the effort. But 100 people would show up for progress meetings. And those 95 people would have no input other than not liking the font I had used on my presentation.
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No need to deal with ... (Score:2)
ADHD people don't like making eye contact? No problem, boss. You can have that camera on your laptop staring at you all day.
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As far as I can tell, "neurodiverse" means "weirdo".
Not that there is anything wrong with being a weirdo. I've been one my whole life. I'm just providing you with the translation for your records.
I identify as "weirdo". Prove me wrong!
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Are you referring to me?
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Coincidentally, earlier this morning I was thinking about how when I was a kid, "mentally retarded", was the new polite medical term to replace the previous polite medical term, "mongoloid", which replaced, "imbecile", which was the new polite medical term for, "moron", which replaced, "cretin", which replaced, "idiot". Each was the new, polite, term for
It allows me to spin a simple statement of fact... (Score:3)
Jira tickets and long texts are too much (Score:2)
... but now Jira has an AI that summarizes the entire ticket into bullet points at the top, and it's fairly accurate and really useful. Claude when fed documentation that I don't understand will clarify it and summarize it for me as well, it makes my dysfunction less dysfunctional.
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While AI is unreliable, I have to point out that human summaries aren't all that reliable either. I've read more than a few textbooks that were full of obvious nonsense and terrible advice.
I tried AI for a web app I made for personal use. It couldn't build a working app, but it did at least get me the keywords I needed to google to build my own. Some of the tech it suggested was outdated and deprecated, so basically about as reliable as the Reddit posts it was trained on.
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Then you end up with vague tickets you can't act on. You can't win, and I say that from bitter experience.
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Retards Like AI 25% More than Normies? (Score:2)
Not exactly an Earth shattering revelation.
Re: Retards Like AI 25% More than Normies? (Score:2)
Also, commercial AI is like crack for kids, there's no way they aren't going to make it their best friend. People with initiative will be scorned. Truly the dawn of the idiocracy, once Vance gets Trump out of the way it's silicon valley bro's, with dudes like Theil, can I say that ? and Gelsinger, paving the way to the Hand Maiden's tale future.
nope (Score:2)