Digital News Asia: Senior Director at Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work Says Humans Must Focus on Capabilities That Cannot be Replicated by Automated Software

“Make no mistake, knowledge work is undergoing a profound change as analytics, algorithms, big data and automation technologies dramatically enhance innovation, productivity and decision-making. But robots (essentially software tools) are also automating and abolishing rote tasks previously performed by humans,” writes Euan Davis. Excerpts:

“For example, process automation technology ensures insurance customer payments get to the right place, faster and with more accuracy; retailers automate to extract, authenticate and verify supplier invoices in minutes, not days.

Although leaders in Asia Pacific are exploring robots to reshape process work, it’s clear that the workforce of the future needs a new architecture to work because Cognizant’s analysis indicates that new human-plus-machines workflows will become the business norm.

As much as humans are beginning to rely on robots, robots won’t be taking over when it comes to intelligent, knowledge work.

For all of us to stay ahead of the curve, it is no longer a race about “faster or cheaper”. Humans will need to focus on developing, honing and capitalizing on the capabilities that are uniquely human and cannot be replicated today by automated software ― for example, constructive problem-solving, inventiveness, empathy and physical touch (say, in medical management).

Humans must focus on jobs that require a high degree of intelligence ― at least more than what can be applied today by any robot.

We see the rise of a new digital business architecture that will determine the talents organizations need and the structure in which they are set to work. This new digital business architecture features mastery with data at its core, flatter organizational structures, and an ability to use software tools and robots to augment knowledge work.

At its core is a new work platform that will augment talent with insight, orchestrate new digital workflows (farewell silos!) and create the infrastructure the people working in a digital business need.

Digital technologies and what they enable ― new business models, new revenue flows and radical new cost structures ― are redrawing industry structures and the talents firms need to thrive.

It’s time to get serious about your organization’s most important asset ― its people ― and about giving them the power they need to succeed in this exciting digital age of newer opportunities.”

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