The Future of Intelligence is Not Artificial
Until very recently, AI was standing for Artificial Intelligence. But there is another AI which is even more exciting and will undoubtedly be the right AI for the years to come: Augmented Intelligence.
The term Artificial Intelligence is being overused, with excessive fantasy, but there are still many opportunities to use it on purpose. Augmented Intelligence is about using technology to enhance the human capabilities: this is one of the most elegant ways of talking about Artificial Intelligence. Being required to embrace the digital transformation, organizations need to smartly leverage available assets and revamping existing processes by combining staffs’ expertise, knowledge and data with Artificial Intelligence’s robust automation and fast pattern recognition abilities.
From Artificial Intelligence to Augmented Intelligence
The beginnings of modern Artificial Intelligence can be traced to classical philosophers’ attempts to describe human thinking as a symbolic system in the late 50’s: it then took fifty years to create a bridge between theoretical definitions and an actual “intelligent” machine. In the last decade, Artificial Intelligence has led to mind-blowing applications for everyday use, industrial applications, business transformation, etc. and is now both a buzzword and ambiguous: everyone has heard about it and it is confused with some of its own subfields, such as Machine Learning or Deep Learning. A new era is born, populated with algorithms, data, automation and robots. It seems that people do not usually understand what the current state of these new technologies is and Artificial Intelligence is also a source of worries, fears and rejections. Are human likely to be replaced? No. Because Artificial Intelligence is not enough — or at least not mature enough — and individuals can develop new skills and adapt to new realities.
A new era is born, populated with algorithms, data, automation and robots. Are human likely to be replaced?
For example, in a place of automated processes — where systems and bots manage the multiple, disparate and rapidly evolving work elements — the role of a project manager needs to dramatically evolve. While many projects are combined into programs or huge enterprise portfolios, there is a room for subjective decision-making that might run counter to the decisions made by machine algorithms. These big-picture decisions would need to be made with a complete understanding of the implications, effects and mitigations needed to optimize organizational performance. Think of this new role as a coach, standing on the sidelines and making the tactical changes to the automated team that operates on the playing field of execution. In fine, the human would augment the machine.
Towards a fusion of human and intelligent computing for businesses
Artificial Intelligence is a powerful tool when mastered and every organization needs to learn how to leverage it efficiently. However the ability to embrace it, adapt and benefit from it is not equally shared and depends for instance from the company’s digital quotient. Indeed, within organizations, technology is enabling innovation quicker than predicted but Artificial Intelligence is not implemented everywhere because there are still few doubts about the potential economic value of it and because transformation is a bag of pains and fears. There is a critical need to build an internal new culture for enhanced leadership, data-driven decision-making and augmented management. Co-workers and decision-makers need to learn new practices and unlearn unefficient past models. Accordingly the “Artificial Intelligence” mania is set to evolve towards a more purposeful “Augmented Intelligence” paradigm, a new business context where technology is committed to:
- Reducing human-biased intuition-based decisions thanks to wide range informations;
- Developing individuals’ skills or groups’ productivity through adapted choices;
- Transforming old-fashion workflows based on available assets and underused data.
There is a critical need to build an internal new culture for enhanced leadership, data-driven decision-making and augmented management
Augmented Intelligence for Project Management: reduce execution risk
Augmented Intelligence has already started to impact organizations, reshaping partly or totally industry segments. Technology-augmented decision-makers use with ease optimized available data and expertise to detect weak signals within their teams or processes ; they leverage tailor-made analytics, benchmark competitors and predict at different scales ; they keep track of past experiences and onboard at best new collaborator or new methodology ; they minimize managerial bias with objective insights and clear visual tools and reports ; in a word, they reduce execution risk through balanced Augmented Intelligence, slowing down and speeding up wisely at the same time.
The Future of Work will be about capitalising knowledge, mobilizing talents and understanding the power of data
Organizations are facing a large and deep revolution and intelligent technologies are both part of the problem and part of the solution. Companies must use them for value creation while keeping control and responsibility. Work is undergoing deep cultural changes: let’s prepare and use the available assets — data, tools, experiences, expertise, skills, etc. — to produce level up the playing field by innovating faster and execute business initiatives more efficiently. The Future of Work will be about capitalising knowledge, mobilizing talents and understanding the power of data: companies need to create a new business culture and build peacefully the alliance between human and intelligent machine.
Supporting businesses in their digital transformation journey and enabling organizations to leverage Augmented Intelligence to better execute their projects is part of SteerIO’s core mission.
SteerIO is a project health analytics solution leveraging data insights and team intelligence to boost projects’ success rate: Discover more on SteerIO’s website
