There’s a lesson to learn here: Amir and his team designed a new messaging app that worked for them. It allowed people to have time off from the app (they didn’t include an indicator of someone’s online status) and was built on promoting well-being and productivity. They made their tech more human-centric.

Software That Promotes Real Connections

In my experience, some software is already built with that in mind. The idea behind them is to help improve communication and help us make space for relationship building. These are my favorite programs and uses for tech-enabled human connection in the workplace. (Full disclosure: I’ve consulted the team at Lately.)

I use X.AI to build a virtual artificial assistant — her name is Amy — and she (I say she but it’s a robot) actually eliminates hours of my time that used to be spent finding a time to meet with someone. Amy stays on the case until something is booked. All of my information is fed in and the software knows my conference numbers, phone number and Skype address. With one email, you could be saving hours, which leaves more time to work on other things. AI can help connect people faster and more efficiently than a single person could. The technology used is AI, but the consequence is face-to-face communication.

Nimble is a CRM tool that helps you find the right contact and stay in touch with them. It gives you methods of measuring your level of interaction with someone, and then it has AI that reminds you to make sure you keep in touch. Nimble also lets you find the right contact information faster much faster than if you’re doing it manually. Essentially, you’ll be reminded to chat and connect with people.

Nudge analyzes your entire network and points you in the direction of new, useful relationship opportunities. You can receive real–time information about notable people in your own network and in friends’ networks, too. This moves you closer toward new, interesting and valuable relationships — on top of updates about what’s going on in their world, giving you subjects to connect over.

OutreachPlus lets you send out emails to multiple people simultaneously from your own email account, and the best part is that you can personalize each email. There are unlimited variables and follow-up sequences you can address automatically, which saves you time lets you concentrate on making connections with people based on their interests — a much more personal approach.