Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI

This optimistic book explains how AI is going to allow humans and machines to work together as collaborators instead of competitors, and is going to liberate humans from many of the artificial constraints on work left over from the industrial revolution. During the industrial revolution, the authors explain, humans had to adapt to machines. But now, machines can adapt to humans instead thanks to the flexibility of modern machine learning, so that humans and machines can gradually come to work together in a progressively more symbiotic relationship.Throughout the book, the authors press the concept of the "Missing Middle," which is the class of jobs that sits between the jobs that only machines can do and the jobs that only humans can do. In the missing middle, humans and machines cooperate to be more effective than either could be individually, with humans providing judgment and creativity and machines providing processing power, memory, and excellence at automation. The vast majority of jobs in the future will come from the missing middle, and it is only blindness to the existence of the missing middle that causes doomsayers to predict widespread unemployment as a result of AI.To help elucidate the missing middle to corporate leaders, the authors provide the "MELDS" framework, which stands for Mindset, Experimentation, Leadership, Data, and Skills. Through numerous examples, they systematically demonstrate how this framework will help corporate leaders make wise decisions so their companies can leverage artificial intelligence effectively.My only criticism of the book is that the book seemed to assume that the responsibility for AI preparedness rested only with corporate leaders, and they often seemed to act as if the dictates of these leaders would make or break the futures of those lower down in the organization. In this regard, I must disagree, as I believe it is the responsibility of all workers, especially scientists, to educate themselves now on the changes that are coming and to prepare themselves accordingly. That way, even if their organizations fail, they will be able to succeed with a new organization, perhaps even of their own making.In all, I thought it was an excellent book that made potentially complex ideas easy to grasp. The book clarified in my own thinking the various ways that work will change in the near future, and helped me to feel optimistic as well that AI is going to make work more human again.

Many companies are already using or intending to use Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is defined by the authors, Daugherty and Wilson of Accenture, as “systems that extend human capability by sensing, comprehending, acting, and learning.”There is a widespread misconception that AI systems will gradually replace humans in one industry after another. However, the author’s research indicates that although AI can be used to automate certain functions, the technology’s greater power is in complementing and augmenting human capabilities. Rather than replace the need for humans, AI will perform the tedious grunt work, collecting data and doing the preliminary analysis, and so free human being to perform work only they can.A brief overview of the evolution of businesses is necessary to position the authors’ insights.The first wave of business transformation involved standardized processes. Henry Ford’s extraordinary contribution was to deconstruct the manufacture of automobiles so that they could be made on an assembly lines powered by men. With each step made measurable, the assembly line could be optimized, and standardized with enormous gains in efficiencies.The second wave was the automation of processes that began in the 1970s and reached its peak in the 1990s. This ‘business process re-engineering’, was propelled by the ubiquity of computers, large databases and the automation of numerous back-office tasks. Many people were replaced by machines. At the time Walmart was the gold standard.The third wave rests on the previous two waves, but is a completely new way of doing business. This combination will adapt to the behaviours, preferences, and needs of workers at a given moment. It will be powered by real-time data rather than by a pre-organized sequence of steps.When this third wave is optimised, it will allow organizations who take full advantage of AI. They will be able to produce individualized products and services which are satisfying beyond the capabilities of the mass-production of the past. And deliver more profit.The difference can be compared to travelling to a destination you are unfamiliar with. In the past, you used a map-book, and then you used the early version of the GPS, which was very similar to a map under glass. The third wave is like ‘Waze’. It is a combination of AI algorithms and real-time data to create a living, dynamic, optimized map to get you to your destination on the quickest route possible at that exact time. Waze doesn’t replace the driver; rather it amplifies our navigation skills and collaborates with us to achieve productivity gains in navigation that have previously not been possible.“Humans and machines aren’t adversaries, fighting for each other’s jobs. Instead, they are symbiotic partners, each pushing the other to higher levels of performance,” the authors demonstrate.Infused with AI, factories, for example, are acquiring more humanity, with jobs changing in nature and increasing in number. But AI is also creating brand new roles and new opportunities for people up and down the industrial and even the back-office value chain.In the past engineers would have to program a robot and then re-program it when the job changes. The new robotic arms, developed in Japan, adapt on their own using an AI technique called ‘deep reinforcement learning’, which involves giving the robot a picture of the desired outcome; and then the robot uses trial and error to figure out how to do this. The robot takes 8 hours to become 90% proficient, and then can ‘teach’ hundreds of other robots in the network! The arm is now an autodidact, freeing humans for other tasks.Mechanical arms are perfect for highly repetitive and heavy tasks. However, there are always a subset of tasks that are just too complex to program into a robot. This could be a factory-floor task such as positioning numerous small wires or handling awkward or dynamic objects. Or, it could be a back-office task that requires judgment, after the AI-programmed computer performs an analysis from a data set too large for a person to manage. A human is still needed in the loop.In a pilot project using AI to analyse big data and workers’ routines, Hitachi was able to instruct employees to meet real-time fluctuating demand and on-site kaizen objectives. This produced an 8% productivity improvement in logistics tasks.With all the benefits of the third wave, we need to have a much deeper understanding of how humans and machines must collaborate so that people are augmented and not replaced. The authors call this the “missing middle”. There is lots of information and excitement about AI and “almost no one talks about…how to fill this crucial gap.”The authors’ method requires five deliberate changes which can be summarised by the acronym MELDS.The first is a change of ‘Mindset’. This requires reimagining the work, then discovering how people can improve AI, and how smart machines can give humans superpowers. You can get to your destination as rapidly as possible even if you don’t know the way, or the number of cars on the route, or that an accident has occurred that will block the short cut.The second change is “Experimentation”. Businesses need to be actively looking for parts of processes where AI can be introduced, and then learn and scale that process, with the enhancing power of people. Only people could conceive of the entirely new, such as the agricultural model - the “vertical farm” - in which plants are grown in thirty-foot-high stacks of trays in urban warehouses.The third change is the responsible use of AI by the “Leadership” of the business. It is too easy to look for the next quarter’s improvement, and overlook the long-term catastrophe of unemployed people.The fourth change is to see “Data” in its rightful place. Data is the fuel of any intelligent system and, not unlike fossil fuel, requires the building of a data “supply chain” to ensure efficient delivery. Data is not a static body, but an ever growing one that requires the same attention to delivery that is required of any other resource.The fifth change involves a new set of eight “Skills” that need developing, that the authors call ‘fusion skills’. Each skill draws on the fusion of human talent and machine ability within a business process, to create better outcomes than could be achieved working independently. These skills are more than learning what the machine can do; rather it is the machine learning from the person and the person learning from the machine.“The AI revolution is not coming; it is already here, and it is about reimagining your processes, across all functions of the company, to get the most benefit from this technology’s power to augment human capability.”This book not only makes fascinating reading about the AI revolution, it offers a coherent and practical tool to get the most out of the human and machine interaction. That said, we face the frightening reality of huge unemployment, growing by hundreds of thousands annually. The ‘Leadership’ element of the model have a Herculean challenge.Readability Light ---+- SeriousInsights High -+--- LowPractical High -+--- Low*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of the recently released ‘Executive Update.

This Harvard Business School published book is a good survey, by 2 well connected Accenture consultants, of the state of integration of AI into all facets of work circa 2017 (book went to press in ‘18). Daugherty and Wilson argue that we are in the midst of what they call the "Third Wave" in business transformation - the first two being Standardized Process, and Automation, respectively. The authors make much of what they call the "missing middle" - that area where machines and people will need to interact to create real value. The book is full of examples of firms who are leveraging AI, and suggests that companies will find ways to retrain, or otherwise take care of those whose jobs disappear, or change significantly as a function of workplace AI integration. Highly recommended for those unfamiliar with AI, and its role in business, and those looking for ways to improve productivity. The view in this work is positive, perhaps overly so, for those who will be displaced. That said, AI is coming - we will all need to be ready for it.

Technology has been helping people for decades, even going back to the lightbulb and automating processes in factories. With AI, smart machines are becoming more intelligent and are providing superhuman capabilities to help people. In this management playbook, the authors discuss how AI has the power to transform business processes and thus reshape entire industries through human + machine collaboration. This is creating the third wave of business transformation which can be a competitive advantage for companies. The authors share many examples of how AI can transform business processes in many industries. The key to success is when business leaders use AI responsibly, re-skill employees to take on new jobs, and follow operational principles when implementing AI.

if you would like to understand how the organizations will work and will be more efficient collaborating with AI

Livro essencial para quem quer estar atualizado sobre os rumos da IA.

Excellent read, gives a good perspective of the roles humans will have to play in future businesses and what skills would be required

Will write an update when I've finished, but so far some very quotable and insightful examples and theories.

Très bon livre, très facile à suivre, particulièrement pour une audience non-avertie sur les domaines de l'Intelligence Artificielle et de l'automation. Basé sur des cas d'utilisation réels, il casse le "à priori" d'un monde ou l'homme et la machine seraient en opposition. Il donne aussi un angle de lecture particulier pour identifier des cas d'usage et l'évolution des compétences requises pour des applications très variés.Une lecture obligatoire pour tous ceux qui s'intéressent à titre professionnel ou personnel au futur du travail.