Aside from retooling their people with intelligent technologies, businesses must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and human-machine collaboration to become a top-performing entity in the digital age.
So says Lito Tayag, country managing director of Accenture Philippines. In a recent news briefing, Tayag said Accenture believes companies will benefit in the long term if they can balance the deployment of intelligent technologies and human creativity in their operations.
Citing a company-sponsored report, Tayag said harnessing AI and human-machine collaboration on the same level as top-performing companies do can boost revenues by 38 percent by 2022 and increase employment by 10 percent.
“Collectively, this would lift profits by $4.8 trillion globally over the same period,” Tayag said, quoting the report. “For the average Standard & Poor’s 500 company, this estimates to $7.5 billion of revenues and an $800-million increase in profitability.”
In the research, Tayag noted 72 percent of the 1,200 senior executives surveyed said that intelligent technology will be vital to their market’s positioning and 61 percent believe shares of roles needing collaboration with AI will increase in the next three years. Meanwhile, 69 percent of the 1,400 workers surveyed pointed out that it is important to hone their skills to work with the intelligent machines.
Nevertheless, Accenture warned that employers must iron out the kinks to avoid a “disconnect” with the works when they push for the deployment of these technologies.
In their survey, a majority of 54 percent of business leaders pointed out that human-machine collaboration is vital to their strategic priorities, only 3 percent said their organization plans to push for a major investment in upgrading the skills of the workers in the next three years.
To enable business leaders shape the future work force in the AI era, Tayag said Accenture recommends firms to “assess tasks, not jobs.”
“And then allocate the tasks to machines and people that must emphasize balance between automation and elevate people’s capabilities,” he said.
According to the firm’s report, 46 percent of business leaders concur that job descriptions are already obsolete, while 29 percent said they have redesigned jobs extensively.
Another step that Accenture suggests companies to undertake is to implement “a pivoting of the work force to train them to develop new customer experiences.”
Enterprises “must also develop new growth models by reinvesting the savings from automation into the future work force,” the report said. “Moreover, it must craft a new leadership [set] that underpins the mind-set, acumen and agility required to capture longer-term, transformational opportunities.”
Third, the company recommends that businesses test the work force’s level of skills and willingness to learn to work with AI.
“It must use digital platforms to develop programs at different segments of the work force and personalize them to develop new skills.”
The survey covered 14,078 workers across skill levels and generations and a survey of 1,201 executives between September and November last year.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes