Top Reads of the Week: Artificial Intelligence - Friend or Foe?

This week I had an amazing and inspiring time at the CrossKnowledge Conference Next 2018. As CrossKnowledge’s strategic partner for Singapore, Malaysia and HK we are excited to bring our expertise on implementing and designing digital learning solutions to the region.

It was timely that during the same week HRM Asia released the first results of their study “Thriving in a World of Digital Learning”. The insights showcase that the vast majority is expecting their organisations to increase their use of digital learning over the coming 12 months.

Digitisation, AI, machine learning and other disruptive technologies are profoundly changing people management practices and the way we will work in the future.

Scary?

Would you agree with Albert Einstein?

I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. - Albert Einstein

Amazon might agree this week as they had to fire their chatbot for discrimination against female candidates. According to Reuters, the AI system was trained on data submitted by a majority male-based audience, and as such it basically taught itself to prefer male jobseekers.

In addition, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and automation, could eradicate as many as 180 million jobs for women globally.

Exciting?

New research from the McKinsey Global Institute finds that AI could deliver an additional $13 trillion to global GDP by 2030, averaging about 1.2% GDP growth a year across the period. “This would compare well with the impact of steam during the 1800s, robots in manufacturing in the 1900s, and IT during the 2000s.”

While the changes of new disruptive technologies are fast, McKinsey expert Jacques Bughin expects for the AI technology as most new disruptive technologies to take 10-30 years to spread to all the sectors in order to reach an economy of scale.

This week I selected for you articles about the potential and the dangers of Artificial Intelligence and how you can prepare yourself for the work of the future. Make sure to watch the visionary talk on "How AI can save our humanity" by computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee.

How Competition Is Driving AI’s Rapid Adoption

A fierce competitive race among companies appears to be in prospect with a widening gap between those investing in AI and those that are not. This divide can facilitate “creative destruction” and competition among firms so that the reallocation of resources toward higher-performing companies improves the vibrancy of overall economies. But there is no doubt that the transition may cause disruption and shock in the economy. These tradeoffs need to be understood and managed appropriately in order to capture the potential of AI for the world economy.

The rise of the emotional economy in the world of AI

Artificial intelligence is radically re-orienting the very nature of the workforce. With automation paving the way for routine technical tasks to be surrendered to robots, a new and invaluable workplace currency has emerged – the emotional economy. Here, employees who possess ‘soft skills’ or emotional intelligence are highly sought after – an emerging elite. Empathy, communication, adaptability and problem solving will become an employee’s most valuable asset, not to mention the most sought-after attributes by HR departments and employers.

Should your CEO be afraid of AI

With the way algorithms are written to tune out the noise of impulsive and irrational human decision-making, AI might even prove better than humans at making judgments, said Daniel Kahneman, who specializes in the psychology of judgment. While there’s a commonly held notion that AI and automation would wipe out mostly blue-collar jobs, the sophistication that AI-powered software demonstrate could also be “very threatening to the leaders,” those in executive roles, Kahneman said at a people analytics conference in Wharton.

BONUS: How AI can save our humanity

AI is massively transforming our world, but there's one thing it cannot do: love. In a visionary talk, computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee details how the US and China are driving a deep learning revolution -- and shares a blueprint for how humans can thrive in the age of AI by harnessing compassion and creativity. "AI is serendipity," Lee says. "It is here to liberate us from routine jobs, and it is here to remind us what it is that makes us human."

About Timeo-Performance

We were founded with a vision to improve the world of work for everyone

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We are in the Skills Business!

Through recruitment, training and consulting, Timeo-Performance provides solutions for increased performance of companies, teams, and individuals. As our clients are in the center of global business and often serve the APAC region, our solutions need to be sustainable in a multicultural and remote context.

Our joint venture with Akteos, the European leader in intercultural training, and partnership with digital learning solutions provider CrossKnowledge have therefore been organic and logical additions to our service. Timeo-Performance has been helping companies in APAC increase business performance since 2008 with offices in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

We love what we do, feel the Timeo-Performance experience!

As busy professionals, our schedules are often filled to the brim with meetings and tasks to complete. We can get so caught up with work that we might even forget our all-important lunch and power through dinner as well. Alas, we can only do so much given the 24 hours we have in a day. While time management is vital, being productive is another matter in its entirety.Enter time batching.

THE AUTHOR

Isabelle Larche

Managing Director, Recruitment & Executive Search at Timeo-Performance

Isabelle is a Human Performance expert, with over 10 years of professional recruitment experience, and 15 years of Business Management Consulting experience. Isabelle is the Vice President of the French Chamber of Commerce and Trade Counsellor (Singapore Chapter) to the French Embassy.

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