AI, Robotics, and Automation: Keep Humans in the Loop

Far from stealing jobs, robots and AI are most effective when they work side by side with humans. Organisations’ next challenge is redesigning work accordingly.

Enterprise adoption of automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating dramatically. Almost half (47 percent) of the 11,070 respondents surveyed for Deloitte’s 2018 Global Human Capital Trends report say their organisations are deeply involved in automation projects: 24 percent are using AI and robotics to perform routine tasks, 16 percent to augment human skills, and 7 percent to restructure work entirely.

Expectations for the technology are also high: 42 percent of this year’s respondents believe AI will be widely deployed at their organisations within three to five years—up from 38 percent last year. Yet many organisations may still be coming to grips with AI’s potential uses. While 72 percent of respondents see this area as important, only 31 percent feel ready to address it. Working Side by Side The marketplace for robotics and AI tools is booming. Leading tech companies are investing heavily in the area, even as billions are pumped into AI startups. Meanwhile, implementations span industries. Coca-Cola, for example, used AI analysis of data from self-service soda fountains to help make the decision to launch Cherry Sprite. In health care, AI and robotics are speeding up patient service, improving medical record-keeping, and monitoring employee well-being. Overall, AI tools are projected to create nearly $3 trillion in business value by 2021.

Although images of job-stealing robots have long fuelled fears about the future of automation, leading companies increasingly recognise that these technologies are most effective when they complement humans, not replace them. Manufacturers such as Airbus and Nissan, for example, are finding ways to use collaborative robots, or “co-bots,” that work side by side with workers in factories.

There is also growing recognition that AI tools require human oversight. Behind the scenes, major tech firms have tens of thousands of humans continuously watching, training, and improving their algorithms. This realisation has given rise to new jobs with titles such as “bot trainer,” “bot farmer,” and “bot curator.”

The need for human involvement complicates the widely held view that AI will automate everything. If anything, humans and their innate skills seem to be growing more important as the need to devise, implement, and validate AI solutions becomes widespread. Understanding the unique capabilities that machines and humans bring to different types of work and tasks will be critical as the focus moves from automation to the redesign of work. The Human Touch While automation can improve scale, speed, and quality, it does not appear likely to do away with jobs. In fact, it might do just the opposite: Occupations with greater levels of computerisation have been found to exhibit higher, not lower, employment growth rates. What’s more, in many cases, the newly created jobs are more service-oriented, interpretive, and social—playing to the essential human skills of creativity, empathy, communication, and complex problem-solving.

A recent World Economic Forum study found that the top 10 skills for the next decade include critical thinking, creativ- ity, and people management. Respondents to this year’s survey reinforce that view, predicting tremendous future demand for human skills such as complex problem-solving, cognitive abilities, social skills, and process skills.

The irony is that many companies are struggling to recruit and develop these essentially human capabilities. Despite having an increasingly clear understanding that these skills are needed in a world where humans work side by side with machines, 49 percent of respondents say they do not have a plan to cultivate them.

Rather than replacing humans outright, the introduction of new machines changes the skills and requirements the workforce needs to be able to take advantage of the new technologies. The greatest opportunity this may present is not just to redesign jobs, but to fundamentally rethink the architecture of work. That involves decomposing work into its fundamental components—assessment, production, problem-solving, communication, and supervision, for instance— and then analysing ways that new combinations of machines and humans working together can accomplish them, with each party bringing unique strengths to the task.

The marketplace for robotics and AI tools is booming. Leading tech companies are investing heavily in the area, even as billions are pumped into AI startups. Meanwhile, implementations span industries. Coca-Cola, for example, used AI analysis of data from self-service soda fountains to help make the decision to launch Cherry Sprite.

*** Over the next several years, one of business leaders’ greatest challenges will be to redesign many of today’s work and workforce configurations. This will require them to ask fundamental questions about which work tasks and activities can be automated, what technologies to use, and what combinations of people and smart machines can most effectively do the work. CIOs can lead the way by identifying and introducing innovations that can drive greater value. A renewed, imaginative focus on workforce development, learning, and career models will be important. Perhaps most critical of all will be the need to create meaningful work – work that, notwithstanding their new collaboration with intelligent machines, human beings will be eager to embrace.