PodChats for FutureCOO: AI innovations that transform frontline industries

Across Asia’s factories, hospitals, and retail outlets, AI is revolutionising frontline work by collaborating with employees in real time—enhancing safety, personalising customer service, and providing instant knowledge access. 

However, this transformation faces challenges from diverse regulations, evolving labour laws, and data privacy concerns, alongside issues of trust, fairness, and digital literacy. Successful AI adoption demands a human-centred approach that involves frontline workers in design and feedback, offers tailored training to bridge digital divides, and implements ethical governance to ensure fairness and accountability. 

Beyond productivity, organisations must measure impact through employee engagement and customer experience, investing in people and fostering human-AI collaboration to build resilient, agile teams ready for Asia’s dynamic future.

In this PodChats for FutureCOO, Steven Kramer, CEO and president at WorkJam offers his insights on how AI innovations that are transforming frontline industries.

Steven, welcome to PodChats for FutureCOO.

1. How is artificial intelligence (AI) reshaping the daily tasks and overall roles of frontline workers across Asia’s diverse industries?
2. Name 3 of the most promising AI-enabled tools currently empowering frontline teams, and how do these technologies vary between sectors such as healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and logistics.
3. How do evolving regulatory frameworks in Asia—covering data privacy, labour laws, and safety standards—affect the deployment and design of AI solutions for frontline work?
4. What are the key challenges organisations face in building trust, ensuring reliability, and maintaining fairness when integrating AI tools alongside tools used frontline employees?
5. In what ways is AI enhancing frontline training, knowledge access, and on-the-job learning, and what potential drawbacks should companies be mindful of?
6. How can organisations ensure AI adoption is inclusive, addressing digital literacy gaps and language barriers to prevent frontline worker exclusion?
7. How can frontline workers be more actively involved in shaping AI tools, and what ethical or governance considerations should companies prioritise as they scale AI across large, distributed workforces?
8. Outside of AI boards to ensure better/proper use of the technology, what metrics will be of interest to the CFO and CIO in terms of metrics for measuring the effective of the technology (the impact and return on investment of AI deployments on the frontline, balancing productivity with employee and customer experience)?