Page 21 - INC Magazine-November 2018

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MAnAGeMent

the CyBoRG

WoRkfoRCe

Think managing people is hard?
Welcome to the brave new world of leading
humans and machines in co-existence.
By MAttheW yeoMAnS

pp

L explained the tool’s uses, one of the xxppllaaiinneedd tthhee ttooooll’s uses, one of thexplained the tool’s uses, one of the xplained the tool’s uses, one of the companies expect that by 2022, auto-ompanies expect that by 2022,
Last year, Clara Shih, the founder ast year, Clara Shiih, the founder
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of Hearsay Systems, was taking f Hearsay Systems, was taking advisers, a middle-aged man, started ddvviisseerrss,, aa mmiiddddllee-aged man, starteddvisers, a middle-aged man, started dvisers, a middle-aged man, started mation will lead to some reduction atiion will lead to some reduct
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part in a routine visit with one of her art iin a routiine visit wiith one of her
p to cry. For a moment, Shih and her oo ccrryy. Foorr aa mmoommeent, Shih and her i in theiir full-time staff, whiile 38
percent surveyed expect to grow ercent surveyed expect to grow
insurance industry clients in San nsurance iindustry clients iin San c c c colleagues feared the adviser thought oolllleeaagguueess ffeeaarreedd tthe adviser thoughtolleagues feared the adviser thought olleagues feared the adviser thought p
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Francisco. Hearsay works with more rancisco. Hearsay works with more t t t t t their A.I. product was going to put hheeiirr AA..II.. pprroodduucctt was going to putheir A.I. product was going to put heir A.I. product was going to put heir A.I. product was going to put t their workforces to new productivity-heiir workforces to new product
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than 150,000 financial and insurance h fi i l d i him out of a job. After all, that’s the ii f f jj bb f ll h h enhancing roles. Another recent h i l h
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advisers, providing them with artifi- knee-jerk reaction many workers study by PwC estimates that in the
cial intelligence–driven tools to have when confronted with machine United Kingdom, seven million exist-
improve client relationships and learning. But his tears were for a ing jobs could be lost to machines
workflow processes. This particular different reason. “This is amazing,” over the next 20 years, but another
visit was to a small firm with four Shih recounts him saying. “What 7.2 million could be created.
employees—two of whom did noth- have I been wasting my time doing The transition to a workplace
ing but follow up on delinquent for the past 20 years?” where humans and machines will
payments and policy renewals. Machine learning—whether it need to productively co-exist could
The approach, involving numerous be robotic process automation, e robotic process automation, make or break a business. As com-
b
phone calls that were never advanced data analytics, or A.I.— dvanced data analytics, or A.I.— pany leaders plan for the future, they
a
returned, was not only unproductive, will undoubtedly reshape the work- will have to consider machine learn-
but also laborious and tedious. place. The question of how many ing’s impact on everything from
During the visit, Shih and her jobs will be lost and created is the productivity to skills to morale and
team demonstrated a new A.I.- s subject of much speculation. Accord-ubject of much speculation. Accord- culture. And they will have to learn
driven tool that digitizes manual i ing to the World Economic Forum’s ng to the World Economic Forum’s how to lead a business that may have
customer-outreach processes by “The Future of Jobs 2018” report, by as many intelligent machines as
sending a text to dozens of custom- 2 2025 more than half of the total time 025 more than half of the total time people. vincent Fournier/trunk archive
ers reminding them of overdue bills, spent on labor will be handled by “A.I. doesn’t just offer to make the
instead of calling each one. As they machines. Nearly 50 percent of existing things we do better, more
8 0 ● I n c . ● n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 8 ● ● ● ● ● ●