The Accenture report
The opportunities for growth offered by AI are counterbalanced by a set of challenges, for both managers and blue – collar workforce. The demand for low skilled jobs will decline as a consequence of automation, but also the top positions will be affected: this will probably determine a real disruption of organisational models within enterprises.
Robots will be in charge of administrative tasks
According to a survey conducted by Accenture, at managerial level, the task most affected by AI will be administration. From the survey report: “Administrative and routine tasks, such as scheduling, allocation of resources, and reporting, will fall within the remit of intelligent machines—responsibilities that have long been reserved for humans.”
The predicted amount of time devoted to control tasks will shift from 54% (current value) to 25%. Also the tasks related to monitoring and reporting are likely to be disrupted by automation. With the data crunched and the schedules filed by machines, what space will be left for managers?
“the task most affected by AI will be administration“
Organisations based on communities
The energy that managers save – giving up scheduling and reporting to machines – may be devoted to the development of an effective network of talents within the organisation.
Machines may contribute to the creation of a more collaborative and less hierarchical work environment.
Managers will devote their efforts to bring out new ideas from the employees and combine them. They will work less as managers (in the classical sense of the term) and more like designers.
Managerial work, in the future, is likely to resemble creative work.
Judgement work and decision making
Would you trust a machine to evaluate your work and give feedback? This is another topic surveyed by Accenture. The answers were mixed, depending on the position (top managers were more optimistic on this possibility than front – line managers) and on the type of economy (managers in developed economy seemed more open to let a machine give them feedbacks).
The evaluation issue is very delicate and it might still require human judgement.
Can machine, for example, be responsible for the selection of candidates, substituting HR managers?
While integrating AI in an organisation, owners and top managers should be very careful in deciding which sectors can be automatised completely and which ones should remain people- driven.
The presence of artificial intelligence offers many opportunities for growth, but the fact that something can be done doesn’t mean automatically that it must be done.
A MIT keynote about Business Driven by AI decision makers, by PWC
Want to know more on the technical side?
“Neural networks, machine-learning systems, predictive analytics, speech recognition, natural-language understanding and other components of what’s broadly defined as ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) are currently undergoing a boom: research is progressing apace, media attention is at an all-time high, and organisations are increasingly implementing AI solutions in pursuit of automation-driven efficiencies.”
References
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