AI would not be possible without all the inventions that went before, from the wheel to the robot assembly line.  Many of these do what humans can do but faster, more accurately and 24/7.   The large robots have transformed manufacturing, but they need huge investment and big factories. 

Finally it seems that we are seeing the beginnings of the Really Useful Little Robots.  These are robots that can do individual jobs – not the robots that rather awkwardly replace the receptionist (never, ever a good thing to do).  But robots that can ease labour shortages such as those proposed by the Dutch start-up Monumental, that is developing bricklaying robots that will work humans on building site across Europe.  Good bricklayers are scarce, the job is hard and bricklaying in the pouring rain is nobody’s idea of fun.

These are the sorts of jobs that are very hard to fill.  They need skills but not necessarily skills that are specifically human.  What this does mean is that human-machine collaboration is getting closer, and employers need to start planning and training for it.   

There is this interesting divide between “soft skills” and “hard skills”, and a lot of debate about what we will need in the workplace in the future. Recent data from LinkedIn shows that soft skills are still the most sought after by UK employers.  

 The theory seems to be that “hard skills” will be replaced by AI while “soft skills”, essentially human skills, will flourish while AI gets on with the coding and the engineering and manufacturing. If this is really the beginning of a realisation by employers that AI driven human-machine collaboration is becoming a reality, then that is something to welcome.

You should be recruiting at the soft end of the skills spectrum.  Start thinking about “Human-Machine Collaboration” and that means having AI as part of a team. It means training humans to work alongside AI and training AI to work alongside humans.

When you have done this, you need to find ways of helping them work as a team.  Jobs that are currently done by humans may be most effectively split between human and AI and is not impossible that the AI may be supervising the human.  Start conversations in your teams about how this might operate before it actually does.  

Introducing AI into an organisation can trigger cultural shifts. You have to manage the introduction effectively, addressing concerns and fostering a culture that embraces AI as an enabler rather than a disruptor. If this does not happen, you will create an atmosphere of fear in your existing staff.  Fear means that people perform less well than they did because they feel (and sometimes they will be right) that their future is under threat, and you will start to lose them.  Talk about it before it is too late.