The rise of the robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming more and more popular in the world of work. In times of chatbots and Artificial Intelligence that make appointments with your hairdresser, it is no wonder that some people fear a robot take-over of many jobs.
In fact, no one can forecast the exact number of jobs that robots and Artificial Intelligence will replace over the next few decades. We just don’t know how far technology development will go but we also cannot predict the number of new job opportunities that it will create.
Nevertheless, we are convinced that robots will never fully replace the human workforce. There are several reasons why human experience will remain as key factor for the business success. This article will discuss 4 of them.
1. Creativity breaks the Rise of the Robots
Robots are always programmed to “think” rational. They simply do not understand irrational thoughts, which is the reason why they will never be as creative as humans. Creativity is a process in the mind (and heart) of humans that cannot be translated or programmed into logic boards.
Creativity is crucial for business success for two reasons. First, complex problems often need creative thinking to solve them. Not for nothing do many recruiters test the problem solving skills of candidates – they aim to check if the candidate is creative enough to solve difficulties.
Secondly, companies need innovations to remain competitive. The root of innovation is often a simple idea that is discussed during a brainstorming session. This early stage in innovation needs – obviously – creativity. A robot could never came up with an innovative business idea that is able to create a competitive advantage (for instance).
Human experience will always be the key factor when it comes to creative problem solving or innovation.
2. Customer Relationship breaks the Rise of the Robots
Digital assistant, virtual assistant, chatbot or AI-Assistant – all of them represent the same intelligent software that can communicate with humans on a relatively natural way. Regardless of the name we decide to give them, they are all meant to replace humans regarding administrative tasks or customer advisory.
Of course we see the monetary advantages of using chatbots. It seems to be more profitable to use chatbots instead of expensive human work, but is it really beneficial in the long term?
A study showed that only 39% of surveyed customers were satisfied after chatting with a chatbot. In contrast, 58% of them said that the robot did not understand their issue. This shows that even when we are surrounded by chatbots today, people still prefer to speak with a human being that understands their issue.
Maybe some day we will reach the point where robots understand problems correctly, but this is not the only issue with robotic customer services. More precisely, customers want emotional understanding. Especially when something goes wrong, customers want to experience that their feelings are valid and justified. Speaking with a robot in an emotional situation can be very frustrating, which can have a bad effect on customer satisfaction and customer relationship.
Moreover, it is assumed that robots cannot understand cultural norms and slang in the next decades. This fact makes it even harder to imagine that robots can replace customer services in the next years. Instead, human experience stays crucial for the business success.
3. Leadership breaks the Rise of the Robots
Can a company with a robot CEO become and remain successful? As mentioned before, robots are programmed to make rational decisions. They evaluate all facts they have and come up with a final decision that has the highest chance to be successful in the end.
A human CEO tries to do the same, but human feelings like anger or stress after a bad meeting will always influence the decisions. Therefore, one could assume that robots make better decisions based on facts.
Nevertheless, the task of leading and managing a company does not only consist of making decisions. Instead, a leader needs to engage, motivate and inspire his teams, especially in times of uncertainty. Attributes that are crucial for business success and cannot be served by a robot.
Moreover, a leader needs to connect with others and build relationships, which leads us to the following point.
4. Networking prevents the Rise of Robots
We all know that networking is key when it comes to career and business success. Managers and leaders need to connect actively with other humans in powerful positions, which often results in an interesting cooperation or a profitable project.
Humans simply do not want to connect with robots. Technology has no emotions, no personality and no sense for humour – which eliminates all chances for a deeper relationship.
The only way where networking becomes an opportunity for robots is when they connect with other robots. They see the world on the same rational basis and can therefore exchange data and facts. But due to the fact that robots are not suitable for a leading position, fortunately this kind of relationship would not build business success.
Why you don’t have to fear the Rise of the Robots
Consequently, human experience with networking is crucial for the future success of your business. People do not have to fear the rise of the robots – they rather are free to see technology as a support that can eliminate stupefying and repeating tasks. People should build the bridge between an organisation and new technologies.
This gives humans the opportunity to focus on interesting jobs. We are discussing several fascinating (human) job fields at the Global Female Leaders Summit 2019 – book your seat now!
