I often get this quesiton asked by clients and colleagues. At the end of the day, AI and automation technologies are evolving at an unprecendented pace and automation practitioners are now able to automate tasks that would have been impossible to automate earlier. Automation is no longer limited to mechanic and repetitive tasks, but now cognitive work can also be automated. Examples include:
- Using an LLM to interpret the intention and tone from an email, and extract structured data from it
- The ability to extract structured data from unstructured documents such as a contract, legal texts, etc.
- The ability to predict an outcome based on Machine Learing and using patterns in historical data
- The ability for AI to use Computer Vision to “see” the way we see and take action
However, and whilst we are now able to automate more and more tasks for organisations, these automations enhance the quality of our working lives. I explain, if I’m able to delegate the parts of my working day that are important but can be automated, then that allows me to free up time and use my creativity to plan, strategise, and find new ways to add value to the business, something the bots cannot do. Suddenly the value I bring to the business is higher because I have all this thinking time available, whilst the bots take care of the automatabla tasks.
So no, I don’t think automation will lead to mass unemployment. I do think however that it is our responsibility to increase our awareness of automation and make sure we enhance our carreers with automation skills to make sure we grow professionally as a result of automation, not the opposite.