How can AI and machine intelligence enable disruptive business ideas and customer experience?
Few leaders would dispute the fact that business today is driven by data and smart algorithms. Yet, rather than real digital transformation, many instead pursue digital incrementalism, using automation to cut costs or, worse — cut jobs. Doing so might buy you some time from impatient shareholders, but it will be short-lived unless you can face the challenge: How do you reimagine what you do for a new era of AI-powered competition?
The high unemployment numbers of the Covid-19 recession have obscured a systemic problem: the accelerating effect of automation on the workforce. We have been here before. In each of the last few recessions, there have been significant spikes in labor-replacing automation. Although salaries may fall in a crisis, shrinking revenues and the impact on the bottom line typically drive companies to invest in new technology rather than hiring people.
That is one grim scenario, certainly, but not an inevitable one. One way out of the dystopian cycle of automation and job loss is if more organizations can harness technology to reimagine work — rather than merely replace it. To do that, we need to consider how AI and machine intelligence can enable disruptive business ideas and customer experiences, unlock new ways of working, and augment teams to innovate and solve problems more effectively. read more
Source: Mike Walsh | Harvard Business Review