The Future of Work and Business with AI
Around the world humans spend a large proportion of their time at work. With industry research saying AI will displace 7 million workers in the UK, it is also said AI will create 7.2 million jobs in the same action (PwC, 2018).
In understanding this, the future of work or business will not be the same as what was before. The transition of displaced workers from redundancy, due to automation, to again providing new organisational value will be a priority for organisations across the world not just in the UK.
At Comuzi, we work at the intersection of emerging technology and humans. Taking a deep dive into the topic of AI and its place in Society in my recent piece for Courier Magazine, the future of work with AI is becoming a topical area of discussion.
Businesses are becoming more aware that AI does have a place in the organisation if used meaningfully, but what does meaningfully mean to industries which do not immediately understand the scale or impact of technology?
For business, AI open ups new opportunities for exploration. Opening business up to questions such as:
- How to use AI to bridge the gap between the formal and informal sectors (cash in hand jobs)?
- How do organisations leverage AI meaningfully for the business and the workforce?
- How to be more inclusive, using AI, in work practises bringing more women, youth and people with disability into regular formal employment?
- What are the new types of roles which are going to manifest as ‘traditional’ industry roles change with AI?
Bridging the gap between formal and informal sectors, making regulation processes more streamlined and efficient. There is an opportunity for AI to automate regulation practises, and improve access and social integration.
In Monzo’s example of banking the unbanked, working on new strategies to satisfy Know Your Customer Regulations, Monzo have streamlined and automated a large proportion of their onboarding process.
They are actively removing barriers to entry which may have hindered individuals from having accessing a basic bank account, this is an improvement in financial inclusion (Monzo, 2018).
Facilitating individuals who were previously excluded from formal work sectors to now participate in a way previously unknown to them also improves an individual’s social mobility through work, reducing reliance local social services.
Improving institutional access through technology is also good for businesses beyond an ethical standpoint. Increasing the levels of customer volume by leveraging a previously untapped market, is only one method which businesses can increase their customer base, but it works.
With the regularly changing business landscape across the world, especially with AI being ‘up next’, workplace education in AI will facilitate professionals to apply the technology meaningfully in their sector. To realise the industry benefits of AI and achieve its economic predictions by 2030, AI applications need not to be fads but ones which produces economic value.
Recent examples of AI use for economic and customer value include:
- Dominoes — Dom
Dom. The AI bot with one purpose in life: to make ordering pizza fast, from any of your gadgets. - Norton Rose Fulbright — Parker
The chatbot, “Parker”, helps clients in non-EU jurisdictions to determine whether the GDPR applies to their business. - Match.com — Synapse
Code-named “Synapse”, the Match algorithm uses a variety of factors to suggest possible mates, while taking into account a user’s stated preferences.
It is important to note here that these examples, these companies have used AI as a facilitator, facilitating access to a service, information or other people respectively.
But in the future, AI could play the role of a collaborator. There is also an opportunity to teach employees and professionals on how to no longer perpetuate their known biases, and prejudices in the workplace and business practises.
This opportunity can create more ethical business practises, something which is welcomed across the world as globalisation continues and antitrust laws become more stringent, and consumers become more socially aware.(Freshfields, Bruckhaus, Deringer, 2018; Baker, 2015).
An example of this has been explored at board level, where it could be implied or generalised that boards members of organisations follow the homogenous white male archetype. A group of researchers employed the use of AI to select a board based on other factors outside of the traditional factors such as:
- Having a large network.
- Having a lot of board experience.
- Currently serving on more boards.
- Having a finance background.
In the workplace, this model of candidate shortlisting could be applied across the hierarchy of an organisation, creating more inclusive work environments for women, people with disability and youth. However in the future, considerations must to be taken. Algorithms, and subsequently AI, cannot alone solve issues of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, as that is an issue regarding organisational culture but it can assist.
In this case, what AI can do is to play the role of collaborator in the candidate selection process — providing recommendations based on non traditional reasoning, with a view to provide an alternative input to a process which can be very subjective.
For all future roles which include tasks such as transcription, scheduling, analytics, fraud detection, service desk assistance, coaching, and even sales, they will be conducted using AI in some capacity. This opens employees to focus on human to human interactions informed by AI instead.
This emphasis on soft skills is in line with the current trends and industry research (Bruce, 2017; Thompson 2016). Technology replacing roles which humans have previously done is not a new phenomenon. Historically, during this change humans who play to their strengths, partnering and pairing themselves to tasks which technology cannot yet achieve will accomplish some level of business longevity (Burstein, 2014).
Developing specific soft skills, such as creativity (Morgan International, 2017) and empathy, especially through STEM based industries, I believe will be the next frontier of business.
This is because STEM based industries have shown exemplary levels of growth over the last few years through its endeavour to use technology to better connect people and meet human need; e.g. the digital creative industry, the engineering and biotech sectors (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, 2017; Engineering UK, 2018; Pharma IQ, 2017). Plus, there has been growth in demand for designers, technicians, developers and scientists, to produce future products and services which connect the next billion users (Google, 2018).
To achieve success, the future of work and business with AI is one of an empathetic, creative and human nature, not the dystopian future advertised in movies and Netflix series.
This is just the beginning of my thoughts regarding the future of work and business with AI. As we explore how AI impacts society through this new lens, we’re excited to find out what it means for products and services of the future.
Creating products and services which are meaningful, while being ethical and inclusive with AI and good for business is the new holy grail; and the most beautiful thing about this is it looks different for everybody and every business everywhere.
