The Tech Revolutionist, Singapore: Senior Director in Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work Says There is a Rise of “Digital Dichotomy” Among Asia Pacific Businesses

“The rapid rise of digital technologies, from analytics to artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT), is changing how companies and people work and create value,” writes Manish Bahl. “Asia Pacific businesses are investing more in digital than their counterparts around the world — and unlocking far greater rewards.” Excerpts:

“In spite of all the promises that digital offers, there is a rise of “digital dichotomy” among Asia Pacific businesses — bullish versus fearful — which poses the biggest threat to digital’s future in the region.

Automation is a disruptive force that is transforming every industry, raising profound questions about the work that people do and the future relationship between man and machine.

As per a recent research, Asia Pacific executives are reluctant to leverage machines to augment job effectiveness as they feel less positive about what digital means for the future of their jobs.

All new technologies introduce new risks, but they rarely halt the broad adoption of game-changing innovations. Once they are assimilated, we stop blaming those technologies for their perceived downside. However, we have yet to reach this assimilation stage with advanced automation.

Rote tasks — which still represent a substantial proportion of most people’s day-to-day work — will morph into the machine, freeing up time and energy to ask better questions, craft better directions and generate more impactful innovation. This does not lead directly to large-scale reductions in the number of people needed to “do” work, which is a widespread meme in today’s zeitgeist around artificial intelligence (AI) and robots.

The World Economic Forum estimates there will be as many as four new roles for each redundant role in ASEAN alone because of digital, putting the region in a far more positive position than other areas of the world in which technological change may result in net losses to jobs. Machines may help improve productivity, but they aren’t producing the ideas that move businesses forward. Instead, machines can extend the activities individuals do well for greater efficiencies. In short, in the future, people need to work in tandem with machines to help their organizations succeed.”

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