Given the speed of change, most organizations are not ready for AI. AI brings with it a proliferation of data. Organizations and their employees will need to manage, store, process, analyze, and draw actionable insights from the data generated by AI. Becoming a data-driven culture will be essential for organizations to harness the power of AI and big data.
With large-scale technology disruption, organizations will need to respond in a transformational way. It will mean rethinking workforce skills and talent management. It is important for us to understand how organizations can reimagine the future of workplace for the new decade.
From concept to reality (Is it the mainstream)
We are starting to see AI adopted in all parts of the business. Marketing is applying AI data insights on customer behavior to tailor sales offers. HR teams are beginning to use AI to recruit, screen, and interview candidates. Finance teams are applying AI and machine learning to reduce company travel costs. The list of AI applications is endless.
Machine learning and neural networks are the muscle behind artificial intelligence (AI) innovations that have taken the world by storm. Artificial neural networks mimic how the human brain processes, stores, and acts on information. While self-driving cars or facial recognition are the most popular examples, the power of neural networks can be leveraged for just about every industry.
Upleveling the human (Never been about Man vs Machine)
Workplace automation is here. AI and robotic process automation (a.k.a software robots) are scanning all kinds of data at organizations to improve workplace safety, fraud, hiring time, or travel costs. But it’s not just about software robots. 2020 is more than ever about the “human side” of our workforce. As automation and AI take care of the more mundane tasks, employees are increasingly specializing in tasks that leverage unique “human” strengths like creativity, emotional intelligence, and storytelling. 2020 and the next decade will be about upleveling the human and realizing the full potential of humans and machines in the workplace.
Countries across the world are upskilling in highly coveted tech skills
With large-scale technology disruption in the next decade, continuous skills mapping will become critical for workforce planning. Forecasting future skills for an organization is not an easy task and a common obstacle when implementing reskilling programs. In part, the challenge is old and new roles are not always a perfect match for reskilling. For many of these future jobs, there are no existing candidates externally with these emerging skills, making internal reskilling the next best option. For example, Amazon is creating career training paths for its warehouse workers to retool for new in-demand roles as data technicians at the company.
Companies often use an ad hoc approach for their talent-building efforts, according to McKinsey. They hire new workers equipped with the desired skills or apply ad hoc training when needed. But these quick-fix tactics aren’t enough to transform an organization and continuously keep up with the pace of technology and business change. According to McKinsey, “While hiring new talent can address immediate resource needs, such as those required to rapidly build out an organization’s AI practice at the start, it sidesteps a critical need for most organizations: broad capability building across all levels.” This is best accomplished by training current employees using in-house capability programs.
In this shift to a “role-less” workplace, skills are fluid.
As new technologies like artificial intelligence disrupt the world of work, Infrastructure teams will need to reinvent themselves to prepare their workforce for the skills of the future.