Technology makes it possible to communicate and collaborate faster than ever before, but human bottlenecks can still grind any team to a halt. Whether due to disorganization or poor coordination, teams left with meetings that don’t start on time or lack ample preparation can turn a well-oiled machine into a sinking ship.

Many of today’s AI-enhanced collaboration tools are seeking to change the equation. By increasing the amount of time-consuming or confusing clerical work that can be automated, teams can collaborate freely without having to worry about simple tasks that can slow things down. The result is an AI-assisted workforce that’s able to stay focused on their top priorities.

Here are some ways AI is helping teams get more done faster than ever before.

Automatic meeting scheduling

One of the most frustrating and common pain points for any collaborative team is meeting coordination. Juggling an entire team’s worth of calendar entries, appointments and vacation days can make it downright frustrating to find a single time to meet that works for all team members — even if it’s just five minutes to check in. Worse, a last-minute change can topple a carefully scheduled meeting like a house of cards, creating even more confusion and inefficiency.

AI-based interview scheduling tools  are transforming meeting scheduling by automatically drawing from each team member’s availability. Rather than having to email team members to determine available times, AI-based scheduling assistants can coordinate and reschedule meetings on a team’s behalf.

More efficient collaboration tools

Working as a team member frequently means exchanging ideas using many different types of documents, software tools and communication methods. But within many organizations, different teams may speak entirely different languages by using completely different toolsets.

The marketing team’s Slack and Google Docs operation may look completely different from the accounting department’s Skype and Office workflow. When preparing documents or meetings, this mish-mash of different technologies can slow down cross-team collaboration and increase the possibility of distractions, meaning people waste valuable time on tasks that have nothing to do with the actual tasks at hand.

AI is enhancing this experience through enhanced collaboration tools that work anywhere and everywhere. For an increasingly remote workforce, this includes building easy-to-use communications tools that bring everyone together into the same virtual workspace. Tools like real-time language translation and voice control can help teams naturally communicate, reducing potential confusion.

When organizations streamline digital clutter and make it easy for teams to access and communicate in a single space, collaboration becomes more powerful and focused than ever before.