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AI, robotics, and automation: Put humans in the loop

by Gaurav Lahiri, Jeff Schwartz
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    28 March 2018

    AI, robotics, and automation: Put humans in the loop 2018 Global Human Capital Trends

    29 March 2018
    • Gaurav Lahiri India
    • Jeff Schwartz United States
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    • Rethinking the nature of work
    • Accelerating experimentation, shifting to implementation
    • AI and people are smarter together
    • Moving from job redesign to work architecture
    • The bottom line

    ​As AI and other advanced technologies permeate the workplace, skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving gain in importance. Leading companies are recognizing that these technologies are most effective when they complement humans, not replace them.

    Rethinking the nature of work

    Learn more

    View 2018 Global Human Capital Trends

    Explore the infographic and watch the video

    Explore the insights from Deloitte’s State of AI in the Enterprise, 2nd Edition survey

    Download the full report or create a custom PDF

    Learn how companies are redefining work

     

    AI, robotics, and automation have gained a rapidly expanding foothold in the workplace, faster than many organizations ever expected. While organizations are increasingly using these technologies to automate existing processes, true pioneers are radically rethinking work architecture to maximize the value of both humans and machines—creating new opportunities to organize work more effectively and to redefine the human workforce’s skills and careers.

    The adoption of automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating dramatically. Forty-one percent of respondents to this year’s survey rate this topic as very important. Almost half (47 percent) of this year’s respondents say that their organizations are deeply involved in automation projects, with 24 percent using AI and robotics to perform routine tasks, 16 percent to augment human skills, and 7 percent to restructure work entirely.

    Expectations for AI and robotics have also increased significantly. This year, 42 percent of the respondents we surveyed believe that AI will be widely deployed at their organizations within three to five years—up from 38 percent last year. But despite these expectations, many organizations may still be coming to grips with AI’s potential uses. Indeed, a 2017 survey of 1,500 senior executives found that only 17 percent of them were familiar with both the concept of AI and its applications at their companies.1 This finding is consistent with our own results: Our analysis of the “readiness gap” for this issue shows that, while 72 percent of our respondents see this area as important, only 31 percent feel ready to address it.

    Accelerating experimentation, shifting to implementation

    As more organizations rush to embrace these technologies, the marketplace for AI tools and robotics is booming. Leading companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, and other technology giants are heavily investing in this area. At the same time, analysts believe that more than $6 billion has been pumped into over 1,000 AI start-ups in the last three years, in industries ranging from transportation to health care, and across a range of specialties—including HR.2

    Organizations outside the tech world are also forging ahead with implementation. Coca-Cola used AI analysis of data from self-service soda fountains to help make the decision to launch Cherry Sprite.3 Morgan Stanley equipped 16,000 financial advisers with machine learning algorithms that automate rote tasks, freeing up advisers to focus on client service.4 In health care, AI and robotics are speeding up patient service, improving medical record-keeping, and monitoring employee well-being.5 Overall, AI tools are projected to create nearly $3 trillion in business value by 2021.6

    AI and robotics open exciting new capabilities for HR. Software can now recognize faces and identify gender,7 listen to voices and identify mood,8 and decode video interviews to identify education level, lying, and cognitive ability.9 Analytics tools are intelligently selecting candidates,10 identifying employees’ career options,11 and coaching managers on improving their leadership skills.12 And the potential doesn’t end there: AI is even being used to create chatbots that can interact with job candidates, identify and score video interviews, and understand the sentiment of engagement surveys. Every major human capital management cloud provider is now implementing algorithms, making it important for organizations to maintain accurate data and carefully review these tools for accuracy and potential bias.

    AI and people are smarter together

    Leading companies increasingly recognize that these technologies are most effective when they complement humans, not replace them. Amazon now has 100,000 robots in operation,13 which has shortened training for holiday workers to less than two days.14 Walmart recently deployed virtual reality technology to improve its in-store training and effectively simulate customer environments.15 Manufacturers such as Airbus and Nissan are finding ways to use collaborative robots, or “co-bots,” that work side by side with workers in factories.16

    There is also growing recognition that AI tools require human oversight. Behind the scenes, major tech firms have tens of thousands of humans continuously watching, training, and improving their algorithms.17 As the CEO of CrowdFlower—a start-up that provides algorithm trainers—puts it, an algorithm is only as effective as “the quantity and quality of the training data to get [it] going.”18 This realization has given rise to new jobs with titles such as “bot trainer,” “bot farmer,” and “bot curator.”

    In the HR technology domain, vendors of recruitment chatbots such as Textrecruit’s Ari, Hiremya.com’s Mya, and Paradox.ai’s Olivia display the growing adoption of natural language processing. The hard part is often not decoding human language but training the software to ask the right questions, provide the right answers, and avoid alienating the job candidate. One vendor says it has taken over a year to train its chatbot to intelligently screen hourly job candidates.

    The need for human involvement complicates the widely held view that AI will automate everything. If anything, humans and their innate skills seem to be growing more important as the need to devise, implement, and validate AI solutions becomes widespread. Understanding the unique capabilities that machines and humans bring to different types of work and tasks will be critical as the focus moves from automation to the redesign of work.

    Moving from job redesign to work architecture

    Research suggests that while automation can improve scale, speed, and quality, it does not do away with jobs. In fact, it might do just the opposite. As Boston University professor James Bessen has reported in his research, occupations with greater levels of computerization and technology experience higher, not lower, employment growth rates.19 What’s more, in many cases, the newly created jobs are more service-oriented, interpretive, and social, playing to the essential human skills of creativity, empathy, communication, and complex problem-solving. Sales professionals, for instance, can leverage AI tools such as Salesforce, Einstein, and others so they themselves can focus on human interaction, and health care workers can use intelligent machines to free up time to communicate with patients.

    Indeed, despite the surge of interest in AI and automation, respondents to this year’s Global Human Capital Trends survey predict tremendous future demand for human skills such as complex problem-solving (63 percent), cognitive abilities (55 percent), social skills (52 percent), and process skills (54 percent). While 65 percent also predict strong demand for technical skills, research shows that the technical skills to create, install, and maintain machines account for only a small fraction of the workforce.20 Reinforcing this view, a recent World Economic Forum study found that the top 10 skills for the next decade include essential human skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and people management.21

    What human skills are needed to use AI effectively?

    Respondents have a clear understanding of the human skills needed to manage AI, robotics, and automation, such as complex problem-solving, cognitive abilities, and social skills. Yet many also said they do not have a plan to cultivate these skills.

    Explore the data further in the Global Human Capital Trends app.

    The irony here is that most companies are struggling to recruit and develop these human skills of the future. Despite having an increasingly clear understanding of the skills needed in a world where humans work side by side with machines, 49 percent of our respondents told us they do not have a plan to cultivate them. We see this as an urgent human capital challenge requiring top executive support to transform organizational structures, cultures, career options, and performance management practices.

    Rather than replacing humans outright, the introduction of new machines changes the skills and requirements the workforce needs to be able to take advantage of the new technologies. The greatest opportunity this may present is not just to redesign jobs, but to fundamentally rethink “work architecture.” Doing this involves decomposing work into its fundamental components—for instance, assessment, production, problem-solving, communication, supervision—and analyzing ways that new combinations of machines and humans working together can accomplish them, with each party bringing unique strengths to the task. Absent a thoughtful approach, organizations may not only risk failing to identify the skills they need to take effective advantage of technology, but also suffer damage to their employee and corporate brand due to perceptions around (real or supposed) workforce reductions.

    Over the next several years, one of HR and business leaders’ greatest challenges will be to redesign many of today’s work and workforce configurations. This will require them to ask fundamental questions about which work tasks and activities can be automated, what technologies to use, and what combinations of people and smart machines can effectively do the work.22 A renewed, imaginative focus on workforce development, learning, and career models will be important. Perhaps most critical of all, however, will be the need to create meaningful work—work that, notwithstanding their new collaboration with intelligent machines, human beings will be eager to embrace.

    The bottom line

    In 2018 and beyond, we expect continuing rapid adoption and maturation of AI, robotics, and automation solutions. Leading organizations are working hard to put humans in the loop—rethinking work architecture, retraining people, and rearranging the organization to leverage technology to transform business. The broader aim is not just to eliminate routine tasks and cut costs, but to create value for customers and meaningful work for people.

    What role does the C-suite play in capitalizing on AI, robotics, and automation? How can individuals adjust?

    Authors

    Dimple Agarwal, of Deloitte MCS Limited, is the global leader of Organization Transformation and Talent for Deloitte’s Human Capital practice. She is based in London.

    Josh Bersin, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, leads Bersin & Associates, now Bersin, Deloitte Consulting LLP. He is based in Oakland, CA.

    Gaurav Lahiri, of Deloitte India, leads Deloitte India’s Human Capital consulting practice. He is based in Delhi.

    Jeff Schwartz, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, is Deloitte’s global leader for Human Capital Marketing, Eminence, and Brand. He is based in New York City.

    Erica Volini, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, is the US Human Capital practice leader. She is based in New York City.

    Acknowledgements

    Cover image by: Traci Daberko

    Endnotes
      1. Thomas H. Davenport, Jeff Loucks, and David Schatsky, Bullish on the business value of cognitive: Leaders in cognitive and AI weigh in on what’s working and what’s next, Deloitte, 2017. View in article

      2. CB Insights. View in article

      3. Bernard Marr, “The amazing ways Coca Cola uses artificial intelligence and big data to drive success,” Forbes, September 18, 2017. View in article

      4. Hugh Son, “Morgan Stanley’s 16,000 human brokers get algorithmic makeover,” Bloomberg, May 31, 2017. View in article

      5. Novatio, “10 common applications of artificial intelligence in healthcare,” accessed January 24, 2018. View in article

      6. Bill McDermott, “Machines can’t dream,” Project Syndicate, January 24, 2018. View in article

      7. Sam Meredith, “A.I. can detect the sexual orientation of a person based on one photo, research shows,” CNBC, September 8, 2017. View in article

      8. Yonatan Sredni, “Listen up: Study shows your voice can tell if you have heart disease,” NoCamels, February 12, 2017. View in article

      9. Josh Bersin, conversations with HireVue executives and interviews with HireVue clients, October 2017. View in article

      10. IBM, “IBM Watson recruitment,” accessed March 7, 2018. View in article

      11. IBM, “IBM Watson Career Coach for career management,” accessed March 7, 2018; Fuel50, “Home,” accessed March 7, 2018. View in article

      12. Ultimate Software, “Ultimate empowers managers to become stronger leaders with new “Leadership Actions” feature in winter 2016 release of UltiPro,” press release, January 15, 2016. View in article

      13. Nick Wingfield, “As Amazon pushes forward with robots, workers find new roles,” New York Times, September 10, 2017. View in article

      14. Laura Stevens, “How Amazon gets its holiday hires up to speed in two days,” Wall Street Journal, November 28, 2016. View in article

      15. Lucas Matney, “Walmart is bringing VR instruction to all of its U.S. training centers,” TechCrunch, May 31, 2017. View in article

      16. McDermott, “Machines can’t dream.” View in article

      17. Christopher Mims, “Without humans, artificial intelligence is still pretty stupid,” Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2017. View in article

      18. Ibid. View in article

      19. James E. Bessen, “How computer automation affects occupations: Technology, jobs, and skills” (Boston University School of Law, Law and Economics Research Paper No. 15-49, October 3, 2016). View in article

      20. James Bessen, Learning by Doing: The Real Connection between Innovation, Wages, and Wealth, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), p. 79. View in article

      21. Alex Gray, “The 10 skills you need to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” World Economic Forum, January 19, 2016. View in article

      22. Peter Evans-Greenwood, Harvey Lewis, and Jim Guszcza, “Reconstructing work: Automation, artificial intelligence, and the essential role of humans,” Deloitte Review 21, July 31, 2017. View in article

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    Topics in this article

    Global Human Capital Trends , Artificial intelligence (AI) , Talent , Cognitive technologies , Future of Work

    Deloitte Human Capital Consulting

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    Gaurav Lahiri

    Gaurav Lahiri

    Partner

    Gaurav Lahiri is a partner with the Consulting practice of Deloitte India. He leads the Human Capital service area based out of Delhi. He brings significant experience in consulting, focusing primarily on organization transformation, leadership development, and M&A. Gaurav works with clients to align their organizations with their strategic agenda— including reviewing strategies, designing organization structures, implementing talent management programs, and formulating reward strategies to drive performance and motivation. While Gaurav’s expertise is in Organization Effectiveness, he has also helped clients research and develop competency models for outstanding performance. He managed a seminal Indian CEO research study sponsored by Bharat Petroleum under the aegis of India’s Public Enterprises Selection Board and co-authored the book The Indian CEO: A Portrait of Excellence published in 2007. Gaurav has authored several papers on post-merger integration, change management, and has won several prizes and awards, including the McKinsey Best Management Paper of the Year. Gaurav is a graduate with Honors in Mathematics from Delhi University, and holds an MBA from the XLRI School of Management.

    • gauravlahiri@deloitte.com
    Jeff Schwartz

    Jeff Schwartz

    Principal

    Jeff Schwartz, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, is the US leader for the Future of Work and author of Work Disrupted (Wiley, 2021). Schwartz is an adviser to senior business leaders at global companies, focusing on workforce and business transformation. He is the global editor of the Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends report, which he started in 2011.

    • jeffschwartz@deloitte.com

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