Automation in a connected world

Much has been said about how far the machines can substitute the work of a person, and being myself involved in the world of technology in many automation processes, I have come to understand that in the near future, in this connected world we live in, people won't be necessary unless there is adaptation needed, or when a human life is involved.

The rapid development of technology, and what is being called “Artificial Intelligence” might not be such a technological advancement as we think, nor so intelligent as it seems. Take for example that we have been doing math in columns using spreadsheets since the first appearance of computers, and we still do it in the same way, and our calendars look just the same than the old fashioned paper agendas we used before the PC was available (they even look the same, the programming of the weeks, month, etc). In many things, we have only switched from paper to the screen. From low speed processors, to high speed processors. From monochrome screens, to LCD screens, but we basically still do things in the same way. So what, in this sense can be automated? Where can a person be substituted? Maybe when the person performs a task that a machine is doing (organizing an agenda, filling out a paper matrix with payment information, taking orders over the phone, or delivering that paper letter (that felt so good to receive !) we intuitively think that can be automated.. So again, What can NOT be automated?

If a person for example were receiving a robot collections call (any type of machine talking), and if the person was trying to explain to the machine that he or she could not pay on the due date, because a relative got terribly sick and the family economy was affected, could computers as we know them now, adapt and understand, empathetically what Is going on? Could computers adapt to people’s feelings and understand when trust is needed? When numbers are not reliable anymore?

Now.. In this near future, the connection to the human part of humanity might be the decisive factor for success at work. Whoever works as a machine, just doing monotonous activities, with no adaptation whatsoever, might be substituted by a machine, and the same will happen with companies.. Those doing monotonous activities with no adaptation, will probably follow Darwin’s law and disappear. Therefore, we might just want to stop and think, how we are building our future companies, from the “build and deliver” or “connect and inspire”, and that is precisely what the customer experience technologies might be trying to do right now.

I remember a cartoon that said: “In the future, there will be only three things: a machine, a human, and a dog. The machine will do the work, and the dog will be there to prevent the human from touching the computer”