Wearables: Should my boss know when I’m aroused?
Black Mirror for Banks. More Hopeful; Less Dystopian.
From the writers of Trust Me If You Can.
Imagine the year is 2035.
Polidor is a new entrant in the banking industry that behaves like a high-tech company. It operates purposefully and seeks to create a better world through socially responsible banking.
Business optimization and growth is largely tied to employees being at their best. In the past, managers met with employees to conduct annual reviews, and occasionally to provide real time feedback. However, scheduling regular and effective meetings is often not practical, and a function of everyone’s time, busyness levels, and personalities. To manage employees better, Polidor is teaming up with an advanced Human Resource Management Technology Company, to provide all staff with a new Wearable AI, called David. David is much more than your normal “smart” watch, and Polidor’s CEO is excited about the possibilities.
What’s this?
- TRUST is the new battleground for existing and future financial institutions, society, and governments. Banks that maintain the trust of their customers and employees will be rewarded; those that do not will be starved of the data and people needed to make use of emerging technologies.
- So what? Trust Me if You Can is a collection of fictitious scenarios designed to help financial institutions build customer trust through responsible use of data and technology — in the form of articles, podcasts, and industry discussions.
- So how? We interview experts to analyse these scenarios. We also pick apart potential opportunities, risks, and control strategies using our Responsible Banking Framework.
- Why now? The confluence of two forces will change the future of banking: (1) emerging technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, the internet of things, and voice and face recognition, and (2) new laws, regulations, increased social awareness and expectations.
Who should read?
- Anyone interested in the bigger picture of where the financial industry is headed with emerging technologies.
- Anyone that wants to participate in a discussion on the ethics of responsible banking and data usage.
- Anyone interested in organisational change management, governance, responsible banking, and innovation.
- Anyone that values their privacy and digital identity.
Introducing David
David was first rolled-out in Polidor to a small group of participants. The group was selected based on receiving “low to average” Annual Review results in the last two years of working with Polidor.
Susie was one of the targeted employees. On a Monday morning, she was sent this email from the Head of Human Resource:
“Hi Susie
Congratulations! You have been selected to trial our new hyper-personalised life coach and assistant, David.
David is a wearable watch, ring, or implant. He is fully integrated into the Polidor ecosystem. There are many ways you can work with David, depending on what level you decide to opt in to him for.
We hope he will help guide your journey here at Polidor by optimizing your work day and giving you more insight into how to achieve your goals than ever before.
David looks forward to meeting you!
Kate”
On David’s terms
David’s marketing team explained that he is a cross-functional artificial intelligence that integrates into bank-wide monitoring systems.
He can:
- Read an employees heartbeat and vital signs;
- Measure movement, temperature, and chemistry levels;
- Access employee computers to see how fast they type, what webpages they look at, what type of language and sentence structure they use, how quickly they read and analyse text;
- Hear conversations from a microphone on the watch, and also detect voices from microphones on other people’s watches or computer devices; and
- Recognize an employee’s face from CCTV, where they sit, and where they spend most of the time in the day.
All of David’s “thinking” power is done on a cloud server owned by the third party provider. Any data is held on the cloud for David to work.
David’s most exciting skill is an add-on called ‘Orchestrator Now’, which Polidor has purchased. This allows David to harmonize a single employee’s goals with those of the entire organisation, including any goals specified by the senior leadership on overall corporate strategy.
The CEO of Polidor stated:
Never before has such an ambition product been introduced in a bank. We will soon be able to inspire and motivate our employees like never before, including being able to steer the direction of the entire organisation with pinpoint precision.
Working with David
On Susie’s first week with David, she consented to him having access to all her details on her office computer, mobile, voice and image. She did not give David access to her social media profile.
Susie quickly discovered that David can be a leader, a manager, or a friend:
- A messenger: David asks Susie’s boss to identify which projects and tasks are high priority for him this week. David then asked Susie what she would like to work on and informs her that he has access to her boss’ priorities, if she’s interested. Susie tells David the kind of work she wants to do that week and the project she’s interest in. David aligns Susie’s interests and the boss’ interests. When Susie finishes one task, David will make suggestions on the next task that she can work on, to align her work to what her boss believes is most important. Susie likes this arrangement as she knows she is adding value, she is productive and motivated, and there is no miscommunication with directions.
- A motivator: David’s advanced analytics software determined from Susie’s last annual review that she was struggling to write effective and concise emails. Therefore David made writing better emails a priority for Susie. When Susie sent a well written email, David was able to detect the sentence structure was concise, the tone was direct, and the words used were simple and to the point. David sent a message to Susie on her watch that read: “Great job on that email Susie, 10/10!” Susie felt motivated. David was able to detect Susie reacted well to the message, by seeing increased oxytocin levels in her blood, a slightly increased heartrate, and also associated a change in posture and smile on her face from the CCTV footage. David learns from how people react, and made a note to repeat recognition like this in future.
- A personal assistant: A large project Susie is working on needed sign-off by a manager in another department. Without the sign-off, Susie’s project would not go ahead, or may be delayed. She has been working on the proposal very hard and told David that it is a priority for her advancement in Polidor. David saw that Susie sent the final version of a proposal to her manager for review and approval. The manager did not reply. David was able to check the manager’s schedule and book a calendar time when he was free. The time also corresponded to when the manager had just had lunch, and would be more agreeable to any proposal Susie put forward. Susie was thrilled that David took this initiative.
- A productivity tool: When Susie’s friend Rosa comes to the office once or twice a week, she will sometimes sit with Susie. David observed that Susie is less productive on the days that Rosa is in the office, when they sit together. Therefore David makes a decision that Susie’s time is better placed focussed on her priority work. David sees Rosa entering the office through CCTV, and then suggests to Susie over a phone notification that she should move to the quiet section of the hotseat area, to optimise productivity. David prompts another person in the hotseat area to move elsewhere to allow Susie a seat, as Susie’s work priority for that day took precedence. Susie did what David suggested — she trusts him to look after her best interests.
- A protective colleague: Susie was working late one evening when the office lights went out automatically. She was the last one left on the office floor, or so she thought. Sofie got up to turn on the light when she saw a dark figure running through the office and breaking a window. David detected that Sofie’s heartrate shot up and there was something wrong. He scanned the area and saw there was a break-in on the level. He messaged Sofie and guided her to a place where he knew she would be safe, from CCTV footage. He also called the security to the level, and telephoned for police.
- A concerned friend: Susie has been staying home regularly on Friday nights and weeknights. David has access Susie’s psychological profile to determine that her personality type was high intuition, feeling, and thus concluded she is mostly an extravert. He assessed that she was going through a form of depression. He also noticed that she was less active at home, and that she was alone most of the time. He accessed her messages and was able to deduce that she had broken up from her partner, and that it was unlikely they would get back together. David’s concern protocols were activated. He sent a pop up to Susie to let her know there was a live Salsa lesson night on that evening, and asked if she would like David to message Rosa to join her. David also sent a message to Susie’s manager and suggested that the manager speak socially to Susie the next Monday, as there was a reasonably likelihood that she was suffering from some level of depression and loneliness. Susie’s boss approached her the next week and took her for coffee. He did not talk about work, and just asked how she was going. Susie felt supported, and part of a family.
What do you think? What else do you think David might do right, or wrong? Join our discussion.
