Automation & Artificial Intelligence: Job Encroachment or Job Enrichment (2/2)

In my previous article, I analyzed the level of jobs in an enterprises and proposed the depth of encroachment due to automation on those levels. (You can read it here)

Now, in this post, I shall try to look at what people working on those three levels should do in order to have a steady professional career.

Case 1: Nine to five computer jobs

It’s time for people falling under this category & doing mundane routine tasks to start upskilling themselves. These people can undergo training on new skills (data analytics, digital marketing, or higher formal education etc.). From an ITIL incident management role, an L1 or Service Desk agent may try upskill to a L2 skill level etc.

Case 2: Mid Management Level

Though the knowledge & decision making skills required at this level, keeps people working at this level safe. But since many service providers are toiling hard to make AI available at this level, hence, for the people at this level, the easiest way to stay relevant is to get their senior management buy-in on their skillset (though they too should try to upgrade). Cross-functional thinking, dependency building & taking end-to-end responsibility of execution may be the initial steps to show their skill-sets to buy management trust.

Case 3: Senior Management Level

Though automation & AI has little or no prevalence here, as of today, the people at this level are the ones who make decisions on adoption of automation in their enterprises. Hence, the challenge for the people at this level is to adopt automation responsibly in their enterprises, investing not only in automation, but also in training, educating & re-skilling their employees.

From job encroachment to job enrichment

For the people at the top level, they should inculcate the thought in the minds of their employees that automation is not going to cause job encroachment but job enrichment!

It’s about a thought process in solving problems in which the two approaches (human & machine) work together by complementing each other to use the advantages that each one has, resulting in Jobs Enrichment!

The leaders at the top management should not bogged down by claims of journalists and experts, but rather think logically upon the automation of process where the two approaches can work together, rather than machines substituting humans – This is what I call the enrichment strategy.

In my opinion, we should work to change the mindset, of employees & employers to ensure a different line of thought: automation is not job encroachment, but job augmentation.

This mindset has the power to change the upcoming time!

Automation, RPA & Artificial Intelligence: Job Encroachment or Job Enrichment (1/2)

In one of the sessions where I was explaining automation and the benefits it can bring to enterprises, I was asked an interesting question, “Considering all the hard & soft benefits which you mentioned, any CXO would be trying to get the bots into their environment, is my job SAFE? Or will I shown a pink slip in near future? What should I do?”

This question made me realize that though at the top level - automation, RPA & Artificial Intelligence - is gaining traction & creating buzz for innumerable reasons: cost optimization, improving process efficiencies & enhancing user experience; at the ground level, the level at which probably L0/L1 works, certain basics are missing resulting in fear in the minds of employees.

In this post, I shall share my two cents on effect of automation & job security at different levels in an enterprise & in the next post (the 2/2), what should a common person do.

As mentioned, for the job security part, I shall try to analyze the situation from three perspectives: from a person in a nine to five computer job, a person from a mid-management level & then from a person in a senior management level job. 

Case 1: Nine to five computer jobs

A typical automation (RPA) process works in bottom-to-top manner. It starts with analyzing what normal people do on the ground in a job, and then removes their intervention, step-by-step. It annuls any manual tasks which are either SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) driven or have a standard way of execution. Adding to this notion is that we have many players in the industry which have built bots that can automate standard routine tasks. So, if you feel that you fall under this category, then maybe you should start thinking on adding more knowledge flavors to your job to be safe.

Case 2: Mid Management Level

At mid management level, people perform certain knowledge work which required understanding language, serial decision making, tasks execution based upon that decisions etc.

Though not completely, AI is the disruption at this level. Here, the same players have tried to build data models and search algorithms to enable machines to perform less challenging cognitive work. But, as of today, many tasks which executives perform will get automated.

Case 3: Senior Management Level

The day-to-day tasks defined at this level are highly obscure, which requires analyzing a lot of conditions, contexts, situations, risks & many other unforeseeable parameters. Given the complexity of decision making and impact these decisions have, the amount of jobs encroachment by automation (RPA) & AI, at this level, as of today, is minimal or negligible.

So, for the people falling under case 1 & 2, the situation may seems dire. And that’s logical as well. But from an economy perspective, if we don’t create jobs at the same pace as encroached by automation, the number of jobless people will grow, and the social & psychological repercussions of unemployed population will be dire!