Could AI help us to rethink how we design jobs for people ?
One of the most controversial ongoing discussion today relates to the impact Artificial Intelligence will have on our jobs and the future of our children’s work. Some experts predict a world of job abundance, with numerous new jobs categories and bright perspective for all activities full of empathy, emotion and human relationships. Other experts foresee a world of job’s scarcity where numerous job categories – repetitive cognitive and non-cognitive tasks – will disappear and will not be replaced.
Personally, I don’t know and I won’t dare a prognostic on that one.
But I am optimistic as I believe that AI might redistribute the cards between men and machines and this might be a fantastic opportunity.
To make this opportunity a reality, we have however a big and important task in front of us: we should strive to redefine what a fulfilling job is, and what it is not. One speaks more and more today about “Bore out”, this phenomenon where people feel their job makes no sense and lead to nowhere. But AI might change this fatality. By undertaking senseless tasks, robots might give us the chance to redefine what a job for a noble human being is.
I believe companies and leader should not only look at AI as the next big efficiency jump but should at the same time develop a social strategy where jobs in the company will be newly defined and designed. If a lawyer can hand over cumbersome researches to robots, how could he/she delivers more value to his/her company with the time gained by this automation? If customer support and field services get rid of numerous customer requests by handing over to robots the resolution of them, how could these people get involved in proactive customer interactions to deliver more value? And foremost, how can these enriched jobs be more fulfilling to these employees and increase their intrinsic motivation and energy?
I don’t believe “Bore Out” is a fatality and I am convinced AI could help us to create more fulfilling and meaningful tasks. But for that we need to revisit the way we define jobs and tasks.
What do you think?
Best regards.
Christian Petit
Sergio Ermotti, UBS dans 20 Minutes aujourd’hui : « regardez UBS, nous employons un nombre significatif de collaborateurs, soit près de 95.000 (...). On peut en avoir 30% de moins. Mais les emplois seront beaucoup plus intéressants. Le contenu humain y sera la clef de voûte de la fourniture de service”. Dont acte !
Managing Director @ Z Digital Agency 👀 | Investor & Venture Builder @Sommelier.bot & AKBD | Cyber Security Content Editor | Board Member
7yThank you for the interesting questions, rarely raised in the AI world. However the previous automatization wave over the last decades has already not really improved the "meaning" of work. If the model doesn't change, i.e the way we create value at work, the full automatization with AI, won't change it. If the management of our companies is not agile enough to rethink and constantly adapt the way resources are used (from producing to supervising, from fabricating to anticipating...), the Bore-Out may even be faster. So at the end it may be a very human problem, that machines will raise. Self-learning technologies could/should reshape how organizations are actually learning. But as CEOs or Shareholders we sometimes struggle to really create agile and constant self-learning processes regarding the work of our teams ;)