The Future of Work will be Human-Centric and Machine-Driven: Cognizant survey

With intelligent machines all around us, it is only natural for them to follow us to work. Companies today are redefining their approach towards analytics, and AI and robotics are well on their way to complement human effort across industries. At such a juncture, it becomes imperative to understand how humans and machines can synergize to offer greater productivity and usher in a new future for work. 

In an interview with BW People, Manish Bahl the Assistant Vice President, Center for the Future Work,  Asia Pacific region at Cognizant, explained the findings of their survey titled, 'The Work Ahead' and enumerated the future of human-machine dynamics.

Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work surveyed 4,000 senior executives (1,200 from the Asia Pacific and the Middle East, including 160 in India) across 23 countries and 14 industries to understand the changing nature of work, commerce, and success in the new normal. 

How has the current scenario impacted the future of human-machine dynamics?

The Pandemic has disrupted business operations and pushed India to the next phase of digital adoption. When we spoke to Indian business leaders for this study, 49% felt that the human-machine connection will be of utmost significance. Plagued by increasing expenses and pressure on margins, automation is no longer optional for businesses. If companies don’t keep pace, their cost structure will soon be unsustainable. Companies must apply the 25%–25% rule for machines ― cost reductions of 25% with an associated productivity increase of 25%. Machines will eliminate only portions of a job (and not jobs completely), most often the ones humans find to be drudgery. Thus, in many cases, the routine, repetitive and rote tasks of a job will go to the machine. In short, automation is an unstoppable force.

Increasingly, the human role will become more focused on what gets done with machine-driven insights. The work ahead will be about striking a balance between machine-driven and human-centric work. Regardless of how much machines can do, we will still rely on human intelligence for decision-making. Interestingly, learning as a skill will become one of the top three important human skills by 2023. Machines will share more insights augmenting humans in better decision-making.

How do you see intelligent machines contributing to workspaces? 

Intelligent machines will take on a greater portion of the labour involved in executing various data-oriented tasks between now and 2023. On average, companies plan to spend 13.5% of their revenue on building and managing intelligent machines in the next three years. Based on our report findings, the top three tasks likely to be performed by machines will be sifting large data sets to filter and identify errors, evaluating options/recommendations to make decisions, and facilitating rules-based decisions based on data inputs.

How do you think employees' role will change with the increasing application of intelligent machines?

As opposed to the common myth, humans will certainly play a huge role in the work ahead while taking the assistance of machines. Machines lack an emotional quotient and will be less effective in offering real-time customer experiences. Decision-making, strategic thinking and learning will become the top three most important skills among humans in 2023. Preparing the current and future workforce with relevant skills requires a reboot of traditional, decades-old training and learning models and approaches. Workers will need to think in terms of the systems, tools and processes needed to make the best use of machine-driven insights and capabilities to collaborate effectively with machines.

How can leaders of tomorrow establish a seamless man-machine connection?

To establish synergy between man and machine, organisations must prepare themselves for change by aligning five elements in an organisation ― tasks, teams, talent, technology, and trust. Among these elements, technology has already gained immense momentum during the pandemic. But only 42% of organisations are confident about their ability to integrate AI with existing business processes. The other organisations lack confidence due to challenges like misalignment of workforce strategy with business goals, lack of IT infrastructure-readiness, and shortage of required talent.

Companies that refuse to invest in modernising their technology core are more likely to be left behind in the next five years. The key to a successful transition is to acutely focus on the relationship between humans and machines, how the two will collaborate, and how the current workforce and the business itself will adapt to AI. With more machines fulfilling worker tasks, businesses will require new roles, such as man-machine teaming managers to identify tasks, processes, systems and experiences to be upgraded by newly available technologies, as well as imagine new approaches, skills, interactions and constructs