The Next Industrial Age is about Smart & not Automation
While most companies are either starting or in the middle of their digital transformation, the world is accelerating towards the next industrial age which is fundamentally different from the industrial revolution which jumpstarted machines and automation. The next decade will be predicated on the integration of hardware and software and there are a few technology candidates on the horizon which will drastically change the scale of the next industry revolution, namely: artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing, drone delivery systems and smart and automated vehicles.
Yet, we are at the beginning of the hype cycle that drive this new revolution. The next industrial age is not about automation but it is about how artificial intelligence can assist the machines to learn and adjust to the situations required.
One important misconception is the notion of smart objects or devices and how they drive new business models in traditional and new industries. A smart device is different from an automated device. Here is a simple example to how to think about smart and automated devices: a massaging chair and a human masseuse. A good human masseuse can work out the correct pressure points and apply the right force to massage your body while a massaging chair is only an automated machine that applies a set of adjusted average pressure points and a range of force on your body and yet it cannot achieve what a human can do.
The artists or hipsters will claim that technology cannot replicate the human touch. It’s basically the issue which most technologists miss in trying to leverage robotics to replace human labour and manual tasks which require customisation. The “human touch” is where the smart object distinguished itself from the automated objects. The real challenge is to find a way to collect enough data within a set of parameters from a good masseuse to work out the correct pressure points and appropriate force to massage the individual, which is a highly customised manual task that require a degree of smartness. The solution to that is in unstructured learning of data which is currently led by advances in deep learning and the ability to integrate different datasets to extract insights on getting the correct task done. One can extend this analogy to great Michelin chefs, famous hairstylists and other kinds of profession.
Once you are able to distinguish between smart and automated machines or objects, the next step is to work out the data required for the machine to gain “intelligence” on how it should approach the individual. The same goes for human robots. For example, SoftBank’s Pepper robot utilises facial expressions from humans to determine their emotions such that the robot can configure their responses appropriately to the customer.
As we look forward to the next five years, the emergence of robotics and how it replicates the “human touch” will be the next steps towards the displacement of labour from specialised labour and that is where the next industrial age will happen.
