Practical Ways AI Can Support Team-Building Activities

Being part of a functional, cohesive team is one of the keys to better employee engagement, and it’s one that many organizations still seem to be looking for. 

A recent Gallup poll found that global employee engagement dropped to 21% in 2024, at a cost of $438 billion to the global economy. Implementing team-building activities can help turn this around by encouraging interpersonal relationships, cohesion, and collaboration. 

Until recently, offering team-building activities in the workplace required a huge amount of planning and organization, and that’s on top of everything else that doesn’t require marshmallows, paintballs, or sturdy walking shoes. 

The good news is that AI can support team-building activities in all sorts of practical ways, making it easy for you to do what you need to do to bring your teams together.

Team building in a nutshell 🥜

It’s easy to reduce team building to specific activities such as staff fun days or quizzes with prizes up for grabs. Yes, these and other activities absolutely can contribute to strengthening team spirit, but there’s more to it.

Team building is an ongoing process aimed at pulling people together in ways that lead to greater mutual respect, trust, and understanding. It’s about getting everyone on the same page. 

When this happens, each team organically develops its own identity, personality, and sense of purpose – but this will all go nowhere slowly if it's not nurtured and reinforced regularly. 

Why your organization needs AI-supported team building 🚀

There’s a good reason why factories and railways started building social clubs on their premises in the 1800s. Even before the days of HR experts, some employers knew almost instinctively that workers who are socially integrated are dedicated, happier, and more productive. 

Our world has been through incredible changes since the 19^th century, but the basic principle behind those early workplace social clubs is still true. McKinsey found that employees who attended outdoor work retreats returned feeling renewed individually and as teams, and that they brought a greater sense of clarity, cohesion, connection, performance, and perspective into the office. 

Basically, their level of engagement increases, and when employees are more engaged, they benefit, and your organization benefits too. When your teams are engaged, there’s:

• Less absenteeism
• Fewer safety incidents
• Lower rates of shrinkage and turnover
• More productivity
• Greater profitability

The role of AI 🤖

Now, you don’t need us to tell you that building social clubs on the premises or taking employees on outdoor retreats isn’t something every organization can do, and that’s OK. This is where AI comes in, and we’re not only talking about using it to generate a few suggestions for team-building activities. 

Sure, AI can do that in the blink of an eye, but it also offers a range of other possibilities, from freeing up time for activities to monitoring team feedback and everything in between.

How to support team building with AI 🤝😊

AI can support almost every aspect of your team-building activities. Here are a few ways you can use it in your organization:

Make organizing team-building activities easier 📅

Use AI to make organizing team-building activities faster and easier. One way of doing this is to include AI in the planning process, using it to generate suggestions, itineraries/programs, activity kits, and reminders. This means you spend less time researching and planning activities and more time on either implementing those activities or focusing on other tasks.

You can go as far as using AI to automate simple, repetitive tasks to free up time for managers and staff to participate in activities, while ensuring at least some tasks are completed while everyone’s building marshmallow towers or trying to make their way out of an escape room. 

• Tip: Use AI-driven scheduling tools to find the best times for teams (especially remote teams) to participate in activities.

Create personalized activities with AI 🤓

With AI, there’s no need to rely on the same old icebreakers and team-building activities that have been used for decades (and most people are probably bored with). 

Ask AI to use employee feedback and team dynamics to generate or suggest custom activities, quizzes, conversation starters, or questions. 

Then, take it further by:

• Asking AI to put a contemporary spin on traditional icebreakers.
• Generating quizzes that also include questions based on company milestones or your wider industry.
• Matching specific employees with activities relating to their interests, skills, or personality, or matching teams with activities based on their roles or dynamics.

You can even use an AI design generator to create visually engaging materials for your activities, from custom worksheets and posters to digital challenges that reflect your team’s unique style and interests. 

Take advantage of virtual team-building activities 💻

Completing an obstacle course or going on a hike has its place, but with AI, your teams don’t need to leave the office to enjoy exciting team-building activities (or wait for you to build a social club – seriously, clubhouse schmubhouse). There’s also no need for you to invest in a pricy generative AI model and spend time trying to get it to generate complex activities.

Take advantage of Confetti’s virtual team-building games and activities, such as Escape Quest. This virtual experience brings together the best elements of an escape room and a scavenger hunt to encourage collaboration as teams solve puzzles as quickly as possible in a bid to be the first to escape. 

• Tip: Use virtual activities to ensure remote workers are included in your team-building efforts.

Get teams talking with AI 🗣️

Having fun together is an important part of team building, but the activities you offer in your organization should also give your teams the chance to talk about things that really matter in the workplace. Use AI to help facilitate meaningful conversations that lead to greater understanding between teammates and to personal and professional development.

Use Confetti’s Culture Club mini exercises, such as Culture Club: Work Community, to get your team talking about workplace culture and community. They’ll explore what’s important in a workplace culture and how to meet their individual needs as well as those of the team.

Final thoughts 💡

No one’s saying don’t build marshmallow towers (seriously, who doesn’t like marshmallows?!), but you don’t need to limit your team-building activities to stuff like that. 

AI allows you to use what you’ve got to give your employees what they need to strengthen bonds and work together. Use it to support team building and see what a difference it makes.