Organizations need to focus on upskilling and reskilling employees
The aforementioned figures clearly point out to the massive speed with which AI, robotics, IoT, Machine learning and other cutting-edge technologies have captured the imagination of the global business ecosphere. From manufacturing to sales, client communication and HR, AI is making headway in every sector of a conventional workspace. However, the current workforce is experiencing a hard time trying to keep up with the dynamic change of technology happening almost every day. With the twin swords of skills’ redundancy and unemployment looming large, professionals today need all the support they can get to help them tide over these uncertain times.
This is where employers and resource managers come into the picture. As employers, businesses need to ensure that they provide sufficient training and upskilling opportunities to the employees, rather than just firing them. Unfortunately, more than 54 per cent companies currently do not have a program in place to help employees build future skills. And the problem of unfamiliarity with the techniques does not remain restricted to entry-level employees. According to a 2017 survey of 1500 senior executives, only 17 per cent were familiar with both the concept of AI and its applications, current or proposed, at their companies.
From monotonous to inspired - How AI is taking away jobs only to create new, imaginative profiles
The capabilities of human and AI resources are markedly different. Where AI, after being supplied with huge data, can function independently over a sustained period, humans can do a lot with very little. Efficiency, however keeps reducing with work that is repetitive in nature. Hence, for every organization, an ideal workforce represents a scenario wherein operations of a cyclic nature or fundamental functions are handed over to AI and robotics to free human resources to pursue responsibilities that involve higher order thinking skills.
Data collection, collation, segregation, analysis etc. are tasks that can be easily, and most optimally, performed by AI. Interpreting the observations thus recorded, however, is a task which still needs the intervention of human agents. For instance, recently Morgan Stanley equipped 16,000 financial advisers with machine learning algorithms to hasten rote tasks, thus allowing the advisers to focus more on specific client requirements and providing individual attention. Closer home, Haptik, India’s leading conversational AI platform, organically created profiles such as ‘Bot trainers, analysts, developers’ etc. for human agents whose consumer engagement and backend operations were becoming redundant as the bots developed their conversation skills. These human agents were perfectly suited for the training roles, as they possessed a unique understanding of client preferences and bots’ abilities to develop the perfect ‘bot-o-mated’ conversation experience.
Collaboration, not opposition-Way forward to tide over the employment crisis
Cooperation at all stages, between employers and employees to machines and humans, is needed to not let the suspicion surrounding AI become a reality. It is after all a solution designed to assist and not put a spanner in humanity’s continued growth. AI tools are projected to create nearly $3 trillion in business value by 2021, but it will only be beneficial for a large segment of the global population if organizations consciously develop blueprints to prioritize what tasks need to be automated. There is immense scope for companies to incorporate training programs that make their workforce future ready, and the worth of such a task force, particularly in the unclear scenario of today, is worth its weight in gold.
