AI-Talent is the new combination. From the most mundane to the complex, AI powered machines are learning to do it all. The AI-Talent landscape is the new equation that we have to get used to. What does that even mean? AI-talent is affecting even pizza making. When Zume Pizza tells us that they have employed a robot to make pizzas, there are sniggers. There is some curiosity. In food preparation, human beings have some advantages over robots. They are better at recipe development and produce selection. They can find substitutes of ingredients that the original recipe had not accounted for. But ask humans to move a pizza in and out of a 800 degree oven a thousand times a day and humans get bored or hurt because they have lost focus. This is where robots have an edge.

Collaborate, train and work

Will AI-Talent replace employees? Parts of every job will get augmented by AI. That is inevitable. Already many work environments are being realigned as automation replaces or augments everything from manufacturing to accounting-related tasks. Collecting and processing data are two categories of activities that increasingly can be done better and faster with machines.

“As we move into the age of artificial intelligence and machine learning, it’s not just important that you collaborate well with people, but also that you can collaborate and train and work with AI”.

– Brian David Johnson, Futurist

https://youtu.be/i2OGwzhrW-0

Training budgets need to increase

As this automated work environment becomes more ubiquitous, companies need to invest in “reskilling” their workforce. According to a recent study by Accenture, 74 percent of companies expect to significantly automate workplace tasks over the next three years, yet just three percent plan to increase spending on training. As a result, reskilling the workforce will be a challenge for individuals, as well as organizations.Companies have to invest heavily in building skills at all levels. For example, coding can no longer be a job that can be done in isolation. Coders have to learn how to work in cross-functional teams. That means the companies have to invest heavily in teaching specialists how to collaborate with other specialists. In the companies that have been born digital, the engineers work with designers, anthropologists, data scientists and social psychologists as they code.

Create conversations

The senior leaders have to create conversations across the organization to address people’s fears and apprehensions. Employees will look up to their leaders to see if they have reskilled themselves. Unless the leaders re-skill themselves, all talk about continuous learning will sound fake. There are training tools available and lots of providers. It is a problem of plenty when it comes to learning options. What is scarce is the drive to learn and reskill. To build trust, leaders must walk the talk.Are you aware of examples of organizations where leaders are visibly sharing their own struggle at reskilling? I would greatly appreciate your sharing those examples. Meanwhile here is an example I can share <click here>Here is that video of the pizza making robot. Enjoyhttps://youtu.be/TkhWonFm-Lw