The way work is done has always been an evolving process, but the pace at which the evolution takes place has never been faster. Increasing connectivity, brand new talent models, and cognitive technologies are changing the face of work and giving rise to a new kind of economy. The Covid-19 pandemic increased the pace of adoption of the new technologies and accelerated a paradigm shift.
Machines, as of today, complement human labor, and humans need to readjust to this reality to reap maximum benefits. Automation and artificial intelligence augment the way work is done and can enhance the potential of any business by increasing productivity. An interesting step in bringing humanity closer to technology and converting aging population into a societal advantage is the “Moonshot” initiative of the Japanese government. Through this initiative, the Japanese government is tackling three challenges – aging population, climate change, and exploring opportunities in science and technology to augment the future of humanity. No pennies for guessing, automation and AI will help them tackle this problem in the foreseeable future.
Let’s look at some of the trends in the future of work through the lens of AI and automation:
1. AI and automation will increase business and boost economies
As per a McKinsey research, societies will benefit from advancements in technologies associated with AI and automation. Rapid technological progress is bringing new and enhanced autonomous systems that can be seen in scenarios as diverse as automated vehicles to automated check-outs at grocery stores, not to mention the traditional industrial automated systems and upcoming advanced robots. Improvements in software systems and hardware components are firing up this upturn. Getting in touch with an automation service provider may be the need of the hour for businesses
2. All sectors will benefit from automation and AI
If you think your business sector doesn’t need AI and automation, think again.
A McKinsey research shows that AI has the potential to create value across sectors. This means that the global economy stands to benefit from AI and automation technologies. Even as labor productivity growth has dipped in the past few years, the same can see an upturn through AI and automation.
3. Close to 50% of worker activities could be automated
This may shock some people as the immediate afterthought here is “loss of jobs”. However, as per this McKinsey Research, close to 50% of activities performed by workers, including structured physical activities and data collection and processing activities, can be automated. However, it has been further found that despite major recent advancements in technologies, the current technologies cannot displace humans. Hence, even though occupations would be affected, jobs would require humans to acquire new skills. Computers are still not capable of the perceptual, creative, and reasoning abilities of humans. But humans must learn how to operate computers for their maximum benefit, especially where their jobs are concerned.
4. Increase in jobs expected
Even as traditional jobs become completely obsolete or require technical skill upgrades, a sea of new jobs will be created. The new jobs will be in fields that did not exist previously. But this is in sync with history. When the personal computer first arrived in the 70s and 80s, it brought with it jobs of computer operators, software developers, semi-conductor and computer hardware manufacturers. The new wave of technology with automation and AI will be no different.
A question that may arise in many of our hearts would be what exactly will the computers then do for us? Let’s take a look:
- Reinforcement learning: A computer may be able to detect patterns from past consumer behaviors as per collected data. A pattern detection reinforces certain repetitive actions and thus a computer or software may be able to make predictions basis the same.
- Supervised learning: The data collected could be interpreted in a knowledgeable manner by an experienced human. Thus, the human could decide or supervise how the data can/should be used. Another possibility is where humans are unable to recognize/interpret patterns previously available. The machines could help humans do that through neural nets, support vector machines, regression, and recommender systems. Thus, machines could supervise in this case.
Though currently, it may be difficult to decide when a machine is better at predicting patterns than a human, a machine can definitely assist a human in making these predictions. The future of work is, therefore, “machines with the humans” not without them. Automation and AI will power the future of work and the pandemic has already shown the world the way.