“We are being afflicted with a new disease of which somereaders may not yet have heard the name, but of which they will hear a great deal in the years to come—namely, technological unemployment. This means unemployment due to our discovery of means of economising the use of labour outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labour.”
(John Maynard Keynes, 1930)
A few months ago, on a lazy sultry
evening while glancing through American talk show videos, I found an old video of “To Night Show” by
Jimmy Fallon. I have never been an avid admirer of Jimmy Fallon and
would have preferred to watch Jimmy Kimmel or David Letterman talk show on any
given day, albeit my eyes remained glued to the screen thanks to the fascinating guest
on the show and her astonishing musical performance. The esteemed guest Sophia,
a social humanoid robot developed by Hanson and a proud first non-human citizen
of Saudi Arabia (or any country of the modern world) is unique and
unrivalled in many different ways. Since
2016, Sophia has travelled across the globe participating in high profile
interviews, discussion forums and chat shows. Her fluttering long eye lashes,
facial expressions, demeanour , social mannerism, creative and computing abilities
has already bedazzled the corporate world.
The musical performance lasted for a few minutes, yet it left me with a
compelling thought to explore the potential impact of disruptive technical
innovations on the future workforce and work environment. I was wondering if Sophia
is ever employed by any business enterprise, how would she deal with every day
issues, faults and foibles of her direct reports and ambiguous stress inducing directions
of seniors. Many science fiction movies provide a sneak peek into the
dystopian future world inhabited by human beings and their robotic counterparts.
Heralding a
new age
In a world that is changing faster than we think, it is indeed an onerous task to prognosticate
the gamut of changes that would shape the contours of the future workforce. It stands
to reason, to believe that the technology would play a pivotal role to advance,
augment and alter future workforce, work place and work culture. The economic
and social environment are continuously evolving and will have its own share of
influence on the corporate work environment and work force. In this article, we
will limit our discussion to the role of technology in preparing tomorrow’s work force and its potential consequences.
The next decade would be watershed for the process
automation, robotic interventions and AI (Artificial Intelligence) enabled
decision making in the business organisations. The trend is strikingly visible
on the corporate horizon – CIOs and CHROs are racing against time to deploy artificial
intelligence enabled tools to automate
the repetitive and transactional works.
The journey that started long back with robotic assembly lines in manufacturing
industries and for carrying out specific dangerous operations in defence sector
has already forayed into the unchartered territory of services automation, creative
world of editorial writings and robotic surgeries among many other specialised
areas.
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| AI & RPA Software - Statistics |
With the rapid advancement of technology, the mundane roles
performed by the mere mortals will continue to be replaced by the machines and
applications. The data shown in the table substantiates the degree and
direction of the proposed and potential changes vis-Ã -vis Artificial
Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation(RPA).
In the coming decade, the corporate honchos would be happy
to experiment and examine the possibility of having the humanoid robots in
decision making roles. Let us keep our fingers crossed – it would be really
worth waiting for the intriguing results and actionable insights before we
usher into a new era of human machine collaboration. The success would enhance
the extent and scope of automation considerably, unlocking the doors to new
vistas of opportunities.
Automation – Impact on
Employment
Almost a century ago, British economist John Maynard Keynes
made some predictions about the technological
unemployment in his research paper “Economic Possibilities for our
Grandchildren”. Keynes seems to have misjudged the impact, nevertheless,
this unprecedented new age of automation and innovation is also a period of
great challenges and uncertainty pertaining to employment and skill gap
vis-Ã -vis organisation job requirements. In 2017,
Forrester estimated that automation would result in a net loss of about 7% of
jobs in the US by 2027, replacing 17% of jobs while creating new jobs
equivalent to 10% of the workforce. According to report published by the
McKinsey Global Institute, 400 - 800 million jobs could be lost due to robotic
automation by 2030. It estimated that jobs are at more risk in developed
countries than developing countries due to a greater availability of capital to
invest in automation. There are experts who oppose the theory of job losses, they believe that Artificial
Intelligence (AI) will create more jobs than it displaces by boosting economic
growth. The impact of automation on employment is indeed real,
however its scope and scale will vary based on the country, industry sector and
worker education and skill profile.
Humanoid Robots and
Organisation Behaviour
The introduction and adoption of AI enabled humanoid robots in our offices will redefine the organisation
work culture and core values. It will require a lot of study and researches to
understand the spectrum of changes in Organisational Behaviour. Julia Carpenter, has
published a book, “Culture and Human-Robot Interaction in Militarized
Spaces: A War Story (Emerging Technologies, Ethics and International Affairs” on the mentioned subject. The book critically examines
the contexts that influence or constrain everyday human-robot interactions,
what human factors are shaping the (robotic) technology and how people and
culture are being changed by these interactions. It seems to me a Chinese
puzzle to comprehend - if the humanoid robots would align with organisation culture
and its nuances or perhaps organisations culture will be tweaked to provide
much needed exception to the revered machines. What is wondering me most is the
fate of ubiquitous corporate gossips in
a futuristic work environment. Perhaps, humanoids robots deployed in the corporate
organisations will have “Behaviour Settings” feature to culturally amalgamate
with fellow human colleagues, very similar to Humour and Honesty settings
capability of TARS robot in the Hollywood
science fiction film Interstellar.
Bottom Line
The automation will provide long term cost benefits and operational efficiency to the business
enterprises. AI enabled tools and humanoid robots will enable organisations to
make accurate and faster decisions. Under the increasing pressure from
investors and shareholders, companies will strive to maximise profit and
minimise cost using the cutting technologies of the modern times. The
automation with all gains and losses is an inevitable reality for the
organisations to march ahead in the post Covid world. We must gear ourselves up
to remain competitive and relevant to the ever changing market.
