An Article By: David Tan, Chief Technology Officer, CHIPS Technology Group Inc.
There is a long running narrative that the machines will
rise up at some point in the future and completely overtake us. This isn’t just about the fear of machines
becoming our overlords, that’s pure science fiction reserved for movies and
futuristic novels. The real fear most
people have – whether they’ll admit it or not, is machines taking over our jobs
and making us obsolete. Clearly the
ability of machines to automate us out of a useful existence is vastly
overstated, and frankly we need to embrace the opportunity this presents.
A recent article in the Harvard Business Review looked
deeper into the opportunity that automation presents us. They studied approximately 2,000 activities
that are performed in various jobs across the entire U.S. economy. Their research revealed that work that
currently occupies about 45% of employee time can be automated, but less than
5% of jobs can be fully automated. What
does this mean? If we extrapolate their
findings out, they concluded that across the board, about 30% of the time an
average employee spends is on work that can be done through some form of
automation, however the opportunity to completely replace people with machines
is exceedingly small – too small in fact to spend the time or monetary
investment. However, just think what we
can do with the approximate day and a half (30% of your time) that you can get
back.
Even the most highly compensated managers in your
organization spend time on tasks that can be very easily automated. This could range from anything like data
entry to review and analysis to setting up pricing and marketing plans. Decisions like this are based on empirical
data, so why not let a powerful machine learning engine make them? They are better at it than people anyway, and
have no pre-existing biases or assumptions.
Taking this work (tedious or otherwise) out of the hands of people opens
them up to focus on things they are better at, that machines can’t do anyway. Tasks like professional development, training
and coaching are in no way cut out for machines, and think what your managers
alone could do if given time to focus on these and other areas. Other critical areas you can now have your
key people focus on include strategy, product development and business
growth. Think about it – you just
increased your staff by 30%, and all they’re focusing on is the areas that can
take your company to the next level.
When people hear talk like this, they get worried about
eliminating jobs for humans, and I understand that is a real concern, but like
the study points out, a very small percentage of jobs can be completely
automated away from people. The cost
savings and increased productivity that automation represents are actually a
tremendous opportunity for the company as well as the employee. By doing more interesting work that requires
human style thinking and knowledge, employees will be more engaged and
happier. Who likes doing the type of
mindless work that can be automated to begin with? Plus, this translates into better job
performance and serves a real benefit to the company, which can in turn funnel
some of that added productivity into training and growth opportunities. Think about it, even these automated systems
and machines need people behind them to build and maintain them.
Companies that embrace automation will gain real competitive
advantages in the marketplace. Becoming
more productive, innovative, and agile all represent opportunities to raise
both top and bottom-line performance.
Plus, the penalties for not automating are becoming increasingly steeper
– errors today are far more expensive than they have been in the past. It’s up to you as a business leader to
understand the opportunity, explain how it benefits the entire organization and
all employees, and figure out how to integrate it into your business and
culture.
