Computerworld, Australia: Director at Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work Says Intelligent Automation is About Elevating the Role People Play

“There is a growing concern in some industries that automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will take jobs away from the average citizen,” writes Benjamin Pring, Director at Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work and co-author of “What to Do When Machines Do Everything: How to Get Ahead in a World of AI, Algorithms, Bots, and Big Data”. “To be sure, intelligent automation is not about entirely replacing the human element, but about elevating the role people play in operations and putting businesses on the fast track to success.” Excerpts:

“There are four key considerations that should be explored in order to determine what will really happen to jobs in your industry.

Manual vs. Knowledge Labor: Manual labor and knowledge-based labor are not interchangeable, and therefore their ability to be substituted with machines is different too. Automation is likely to change the nature of both manual and knowledge work, elevating the value that each worker brings to their role, as more of their time can be spent on thinking, not just doing.

Jobs vs. Tasks: Jobs and tasks are not the same thing, and should not be considered synonyms when discussing the future of automation. It is more truthful to say that jobs are made up of many tasks, differently-sized, variously complex, and yet still crucial to the completion of one’s job. It is therefore inaccurate to say that jobs will be automated rather than tasks.

Technology: Job Destroyer or Creator: Uncertainty can be difficult to deal with, but previous times of technological change were not characterized simply by job loss. Instead, every technological shift has also led to job creation. Automation creates an abundance of products and services that are vastly more affordable and of a higher quality than they were before. In this way, technology and automation become enablers of economic stimulation.

The Healing Power of Time: It’s also worth remembering that a wide infiltration of AI won’t happen overnight. Vision, strategy, technological investment and an implementation roll-out, all need to happen before that worker is out of a job—and these roles in themselves are creating employment opportunities. Meanwhile, businesses should be training up their workforce for the change to come.

Future-proofing your business for the change is key: it is essential that organizations set realistic timeframes by taking a task-based view of work and recognizing the value of human input.

Automation will become a powerful enabler, working in tandem with people to drive new levels of efficiency, provide better, cheaper products, and tackle new business challenges. Being more digital will invariably be about being more human.”

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