#AI@Work: Are Knowledge Workers Obsolete?
Technologies are not the sole solution to using and supporting alternative workers. It really comes down to a question of value and respect. Organizations that switch their mindset and take this workforce seriously will be well positioned. They will be able to engage talent and build strategies that adapt quickly to change (IBA Global, 2017).
AI has had several starts and stops along the road to successfully infiltrating the workplace. Some experts see this as evidence. Since AI can handle only minimal and narrow tasks, its impact on productivity will be marginal and slow. This of course relies on the old definition of productivity which is: more work done by fewer workers. Increased productivity then is defined as the same amount of work done by fewer workers. The worker is a widget and fewer of them cost less money. This might have worked in a prior era, but it won’t hold up in the new workplace. Even the term “knowledge worker” coined by the infamous Peter Drucker in 1959 is obsolete. We are asking so much more than just knowledge from our workforce. AI is replacing and will continue to replace “knowledge.” It will be much harder for AI to replace creativity, innovation and imagination.
Much of what happens now in AI is knowledge based. The education and health care industries are only two examples. Very few sectors of our economy will escape the impact of AI. Healthcare uses it to diagnose patients. AI prescribes treatments based on medical research and the probabilities of success. Similarly, Google and Chegg help students complete their homework. The transformation is already beginning. The data is available and being updated, and machine learning is growing. Algorithms are producing more algorithms. AI impacts everything from ads on your mobile phone to delivery at your doorstep. The data never stops flowing or growing.
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