Automation Doesn’t Necessarily Look Like Robots
In the tech community, there tends to be a fascination with “futurism.”
Technology and the future go hand in hand. Most technologists (or tech startups) are aiming to build the future. Technology investors are hoping to catch a glimpse of the future in order to make the right bets. Consumers look towards emerging technology to envision and draw inspiration for their personal future. In a way, however, it’s paradoxical. Even history’s most powerful, civilization changing technologies take time to reach peak adoption. Furthermore, it’s hard to distinguish between today’s “present” and tomorrow’s “future” as the arrow of time presses forward incessantly. Which is to say, our experience of the future sits on an ever-changing spectrum rather than a specific event horizon. As a result, our expectations of the future don’t always match reality.Let me elaborate. There are two vantage points we can examine: looking backward from the present and looking forward to some indeterminate future state, respectively. The famous (rather cynical) refrain originating from a Peter Thiel quote goes “we were promised flying cars but all we got was 140 characters.” This illustrates our failure to recognize incremental shifts due science-fiction level expectations, thereby underestimating the power of current technology that couldn’t have existed in the recent past but is now ubiquitous. Take the iPhone, for instance. This is a piece of technology beyond what even the President of the United States had access to just two decades ago, in the pocket of anyone willing to part with $1K. That is wild!
Conversely, as we look towards the future, our instinct once again deceives us, the predominant theory being that AI and robotics are coming to take our jobs. While this may or may not be true, it certainly won’t happen in one fell swoop. In fact, the nature of work is already changing and arguably for the better.
To be clear, I’m not dismissing the impressive automation of our factories and ports — it’s fantastic engineering. But there’s still a long way to go. When people talk about the robot takeover, one conjures images of Boston Dynamics robots replacing servers in restaurants, delivery drivers or traffic guards. Perhaps one day this will be the case (and in certain scenarios, may prove a boon to human safety), but the reality is robots have already come for our jobs. Today, however, that takes the form of your ordinary software as a service. Chatbots replace customer service agents, health insurance software reduces the need for actuaries or claims officials, scheduling tools eliminate secretaries. These are fundamental changes to the working world and they’ll have two primary consequences:
- Some jobs functions will fundamentally change or be outright eliminated
- Most humans will be able to pivot their focus to higher-order activities, creative work or complex, intuition-based decision making
We know this will be the case and policy-makers should act accordingly to modify education systems and mitigate any adverse economic effects to people who may be impacted — we’ll save that for another post! The fact of the matter is that the workplace is changing (and always has!), largely for the better. Better working conditions, data-driven decision making, transparency and streamlined workflows make for higher efficiency and employee retention. Not to mention more fulfilling work.
Our portfolio includes several examples of this “robot takeover” in the form of value-added software. Hublo is revolutionizing human resources management in healthcare. Solving for inefficiencies in manual scheduling by providing skill-based network management and contract provisioning means there aren’t staffing gaps at the hospital during peak hours. That’s meaningful. Planity empowers small business owners in the beauty sector to focus on their priority (customer experience) by automating appointment scheduling. Epsor and GoHenry transform the banking and saving experience by lowering barriers to entry, providing education and guidance, and aligning your financial goals in a digital solution. Aircall offers computer telephony solutions enabling any business to create a call center or help desk (historically very capital intensive!).
These changes are happening already. And while robots might not be an immediate threat to our workforce, software is already shifting the landscape. The future is now. We hope to be a part of identifying, funding and sustainably scaling ambitious projects to usher in this brave new world!
