From digital assistants to smart homes, artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved rapidly from the realm of science fiction to something that permeates our everyday lives. For businesses, machine learning can be transformative, thanks to algorithms that can crunch data on an industrial scale. But AI technology has also raised questions over privacy, trust, bias and whether automation will decimate the workforce. So how can businesses best navigate the “robot revolution”?
According to Cecilia Harvey, chief operating officer at blockchain company Quant Network, businesses should always weigh the benefits and functionality of AI against the costs and potential risks. Speaking at a panel event at the Guardian in July, which was paid for by SAP Concur, she highlighted the need for transparency when deploying AI. “There has been this breakdown of trust within the industry overall. All of a sudden you’re transacting with people you don’t know on the other end – you don’t know if they’re a real person.”
Harvey said the key thing is to ensure that people understand exactly what they’re dealing with. “I think it’s up to the particular entity, the organisation, to have a role educating clients, educating staff.”
The panellists noted that one of the main advantages of AI for business is its ability to take on mundane tasks, freeing up time for humans to concentrate on more creative or complex roles. Alastair Jardine, head of product at Trint, which offers an AI-powered transcription service, pointed out that, thanks to machine learning, Trint could potentially use people’s corrected transcriptions to constantly improve the service it provides – thereby freeing up humans to engage in less onerous tasks.
Likewise, SAP Concur uses machine learning and optical character recognition (OCR) technology in its automated expense solution. The technology enables employees to take a photo of a receipt that is then automatically scanned and prepopulated into an expense claim, saving finance teams and employees valuable time. It sounds simple, but the system intelligently analyses vast amounts of data to ensure its accuracy and flag non-compliance.
The panellists also discussed how AI solutions can help businesses and organisations avoid some of the pitfalls associated with human interactions. Chelsea Chen, co-founder of Emotech, an AI company focused on robotics, explained how its device called Olly can be used to teach children a new language by offering encouragement without the human foibles classmates may have, such as mocking.
Harvey added that robots could also be used in areas where employees are let down by their human bosses. “The reality is there are a lot of bad managers out there and potentially AI can help in terms of things like new employees starting and making sure they’re getting the right guidance – things perhaps a manager would never even ask or think to ask. You have this robot who’s just checking on you every day and making sure you’re happy.”
Similarly, taking the human element out of expense claims can make the process quicker and less sensitive for employees. For instance, an employee is less likely to be offended by a machine that highlights an out-of-policy claim, rather than a manager who is seemingly questioning their integrity.
For Manu Dell’Aquila, technology transformation manager at RED Commerce, which provides businesses with IT consultants who are proficient in SAP solutions, it’s incumbent on senior managers to consider staff who will be affected by the introduction of AI. Business leaders have to be mindful of the people who currently do “mundane” tasks that are set to be replaced, and help them to “transform and reskill to something that adds more value to the business and not just ship them out”. For Harvey, that’s about managing the robot revolution in the same way as any big transformation. “You have to treat something like this no differently to how you would if you were having some kind of redundancy or some kind of major workforce change, and really think about it strategically.”
Handled well or not, the concern remains that ultimately the robot revolution could see humans consigned to the dole queue. So should we be worried as more organisations embrace AI in the name of efficiency? Dell’Aquila pointed out that humans carry out roles that entail many different tasks. “There are so many steps, I think it’s difficult to just replace like for like,” he said, suggesting that AI was more useful for carrying out specific functions to alleviate “bottlenecks” in the system.
Chen agreed, saying AI could be best used to complement humans rather than replace them. “Intelligence is not the same as consciousness,” she said. “[In] any job that is highly relevant to people, [it] will be really hard to replace humans with robots.” She compared it to any other industrial revolution. “If you look at history, new technology generates more jobs than it takes away.”
For Harvey, the introduction of AI into the workplace – managed properly – could encourage workers to take advantage of other opportunities. “If you do it in the right way, in a transformation process, in terms of engaging people upfront, you let them know what their opportunities are across the organisation,” she said. “But it’s important to give them that transparency of what those opportunities are, and guide them in order to help them make that transformation within their career.”
Jardine pointed out that the debate around AI and jobs has already prompted discussions about a universal basic income, which could allow us to restructure what work we value across society. “You’d argue that teachers are extremely undervalued, given their role in society, so how do you reframe the work that people do to add societal value back again?”
Indeed, other panellists suggested that, just as industrialisation saw the introduction of the weekend, the robot revolution, which includes AI tools such as SAP Concur’s automated expense solution, could allow humans even more time away from the workplace and ultimately improve society.
