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6 Knowledge Management Trends to Consider in 2021

by | Jan 21, 2021

You may have some form of knowledge management (KM) in your company, but it may involve far too much human control to make it truly efficient. While humans will never be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI), they’re starting to work together to enhance knowledge for employees and customers alike.

As KM evolves in companies, it brings more trends in this category. What are some KM trends to consider in 2021? Take a serious look at these six for the new year.

1. Advanced use of artificial intelligence.

Undoubtedly, you have heard a lot about AI in the workplace. While you may think AI still has limitations, it has continued to evolve exponentially in just the last few years.

Some companies, like Capacity, have advanced AI to a higher level for applications in knowledge management. This includes the use of machine learning to create tools like AI-powered chatbots to pass on information when needed.

Capacity is at the helm of these developments, thanks to advanced AI and machine learning. The more a chatbot absorbs information from those asking questions, the smarter it becomes in providing information later.

In the end, this creates a huge knowledge base that’s usable for years to come as a repository of information when new hires arrive.

2. More integrated communication.

Being able to communicate ideas among employees is essential when collaboration occurs on critical projects. A knowledge base is the only way to really enhance collaboration, but it requires integrating as many apps as possible.

Finding a platform that can integrate every business app available today adds to this improved web of communication. Capacity currently integrates with more than 50 of the most popular apps in the world. Whether you need to connect to Capacity’s universally available apps, those from third-party publishers, or the apps your team has developed, Capacity’s developer platform makes it easy.

3. More work autonomy for employees.

A significant push toward work autonomy is leading to advances in knowledge management. Much of this trend comes from the advent of self-service portals, which are prominent in many companies.

Capacity played a big role in this throughout 2020 through our use of Guided Conversations technology. Guided Conversations helps teams choose their own work path more intuitively by providing simple answers to often complex questions.

When new employees need information to help grow their knowledge base, Guided Conversations is a go-to tool to help bring a sense of autonomy. During busy times, this is important to consider since many employees likely don’t want to bother support staff.

Employees strive to be autonomous. Knowing they can work on their own time and be able to do a good job in the process is why tools like this need stronger consideration in the coming year.

4. The use of tacit knowledge.

Another popular KM trend is tacit knowledge, or sharing the knowledge of experts within your company. Those employees with industry knowledge you valued so much might have moved on to another job recently. Rather than all that knowledge of theirs going with them, the new trend is to capture that knowledge before they leave.

Even if you still have some of those employees working for you, getting their knowledge into some kind of useful platform is invaluable for new hires. The trend is to use a platform to store this knowledge and then supply it to employees through a simple answer format.

Simplifying knowledge is already becoming a new norm since most employees don’t want to read a multi-page policy document to find an answer to something. Our Capacity platform is also at the forefront of this new trend, making it easy for a knowledgeable employee to instill their knowledge into the database.

Once that knowledge is in there, the use of artificial intelligence helps take that information and formulate it into easy-to-understand answers. New workers get those answers using a chatbot or when searching for an answer to a complicated policy question.

5. More efficient onboarding.

Hiring new employees and getting them trained for their new roles is no small task. Training takes a lot of time and effort you may not have. Plus, it’s often a slow procedure, leading to productivity slowdowns in the process.

New trends now tilt toward faster onboarding methods using knowledge management systems. As a connector to tacit knowledge, this allows new employees to get fully educated on your company in hours or days rather than weeks.

Powered by AI, your knowledge base is a valuable training tool. Now your employees can find all the handbooks, enjoy Learning Management System integration, and enhance the employee experience overall.

6. Reduce software subscriptions.

One last KM trend making waves for the coming year is companies eliminating duplicate software they don’t need. The need to save more money in challenging times is always on the radar. Eliminating wasteful spending on software that doesn’t really add anything to knowledge management should become a key goal.

Centralizing your knowledge management tools might not sound easy when the average company uses over 130 apps in a year’s time. Capacity helps reduce the flow of apps that are perhaps taking too much work and money to maintain.

Capacity is making it easy to share knowledge and automate workflows by integrating with your most important day-to-day tools. With Capacity, you can access all of the information you need through one central login, without logging into disparate systems.