Artificial Intelligence has improved by leaps and bounds over the past decade or so. Now, the technology has improved to such an extent that it is already an important part of many use cases in healthcare, supply chains, retail, education, and much more.
In fact, AI is already so good at many previously “human-only” jobs that it is raising fears among people: “Will AI replace me? And will l lose my job to a machine?”
These fears are understandable. However, for the most part, they’re also unreasonable.
The fact is that although AI will change the world of work, its larger impact will be in complementing and augmenting human capabilities, not replacing them.
Even those companies that use AI to automate their processes will find that if they deploy AI to displace employees, they will see only short-term productivity gains. This means that they will achieve the most significant performance improvements when humans and machines work together. Such “collaborative intelligence” will actively enhance each other’s complementary strengths: the leadership, teamwork, creativity, and social skills of humans, and the speed and scalability of AI. Businesses require all these capabilities, and only a collaboration between people and AI will ensure that these capabilities are efficiently achieved.
Where humans will help machines
Humans perform three crucial roles to enable AI systems. They train machines to perform certain tasks, explain the outcomes of those tasks and sustain the responsible use of AI machines.
Training
To function, machine-learning algorithms must be taught how to perform the work they’re designed to do. They must also be trained how to interact with humans.
Explaining
As AIs increasingly reach conclusions through opaque processes, human experts that can explain their behaviour to non-expert users will be critical, especially in evidence-based industries, such as law and medicine, and in regulated or consumer-facing industries where AI’s output could be challenged as unfair or illegal. In fact, in areas where the law gives consumers the right to receive an explanation for any algorithm-based decision, AI will create jobs.
Sustaining
Companies will also need employees who can help ensure that AI systems are functioning properly, safely, responsibly and ethically.
Where machines will help humans
Smart machines will help humans in three critical ways: they can amplify human cognitive strengths, help them interact with other people and free them for higher-level tasks and embody human skills to extend their physical capabilities.
Amplify
AI can boost our analytic and decision-making abilities, and also heighten creativity by providing the right information at the right time.
Interacting
Human-machine collaboration enables organisations to interact with their employees and customers in more effective ways to solve their problems and provide better service. If the system can’t resolve an issue, it can involve a human customer-service representative and even monitor that interaction to “learn” how to resolve similar problems in the future.
Embodying
With their sophisticated sensors, motors, and actuators, AI-enabled machines can now recognise people and work alongside them in every workplace from laboratories and warehouses, to stores and offices.
5 Ways Organisations Can Reimagine Their Business with AI
To get the most value from AI, organisations need to redesign their operations. This starts with identifying the problem area and then developing a solution through “co-creation”. Next, they need to find a way to scale and then sustain the proposed AI-human solution.
Most companies want to improve one or more of these five characteristics of their business processes: flexibility, speed, scale, decision making, and personalisation.
Flexibility
To improve flexibility, organisations can implement AI-enabled “cobots” and redesign their processes around human-machine collaborations. These human-machine teams can adapt on the fly to provide new levels of customisation.
Speed
For some business activities, the premium is on speed. AI-based solutions can improve speed and accuracy by identifying patterns and flagging issues.
Scale
For some processes, poor scalability is the primary obstacle to improvement, especially if they depend on intensive human labour with minimal machine assistance. AI can help address such issues.
Decision-making
By providing employees with tailored information and guidance, AI can help them reach better decisions – a critical advantage where making the right call can have a huge impact on the bottom line.
Personalisation
With AI, advanced personalisation can now be achieved with high precision and at vast scale.
The Need for New Talent
Of course, reimagining a business process involves more than the implementation of AI. It also requires people with the right skills so they can work effectively at the human-machine interface. To start, people must learn to delegate tasks to the new technology. They should also know how to combine their skills with the skills of a smart machine to get a better outcome than either could achieve alone. They must be able to teach intelligent agents new skills so they can work within AI-enhanced processes.
In the near future, company roles will be redesigned around the desired outcomes of such re-imagined processes and the different types of skills that will be required to do so. Most activities at the human-machine interface require people to do new and different things and do things differently. Organisations that use machines to displace workers through automation will miss the full potential of AI. But those that embrace collaborative intelligence will transform their operations and no less important, their workforces.
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