Roboboss – hell or help?

So, how can the robots help us?

According to the study in Canada:

“People are losing faith in human management, and rightly so. Who would you trust, a human with personal biases and opinions or a rational and balanced AI? These results are not surprising, and I expect to start seeing automated HR and management systems being deployed in the next 3 to 5 years – with a human touch to maintain creativity and empathy. Flexibility and empowerment will be the new work currencies and productivity will be redefined.“

Here are some examples of where the robo-boss will support you, ranging from the mundane to the judging:

• The iOS 9 traffic helper, notifying you about when to leave for the next meeting
• Scripts and software to handle trivial, repetitive work, e.g. in finance, by handling bookkeeping, invoices, regulatory aspects, and taxes. Here’s a Danish example (in Danish): Martin Thorborg i ny satsning: Vil erstatte revisorer med robotter (and a Google Translate version – which in itself is an example of a robot)
• Translation services
• Creating duty rosters, taking into account personal preferences and availability
• Finding spots for calendar bookings, e.g. Meekan
• Distribute information based on preferences
• Taking notes and creating minutes of meetings
• Notifying you of when you should consider starting the next piece of work

Gartner writes: “Content that is based on data and analytical information will be turned into natural language writing by technologies that can proactively assemble and deliver information through automated composition engines. Content currently written by people, such as shareholder reports, legal documents, market reports, press releases and white papers are prime candidates for these tools.”

And the more sensitive tasks:

• Spotting talent via deep learning and big data
• Finding the right people to hire – and promote, see e.g. IBM Watson’s personality reader is creepily accurate about which is said “IBM Watson is capable of using text – in your emails, speech, or social media – to analyse the soft facts of a person; not just what you did, but also how you interact with people, how you react in specific situations. HR departments are very strong at analysing the people that are actually applying for specific jobs but it’s very labour intensive, and this is harder if there’s no budget or time.”
• Analyzing the internal informal network and relations (Organizational Network Analysis), and spotting weak links, people who will leave in a few months, or rising stars)
  “Can’t afford a PA? Don’t worry IBM Watson’s here to help you.” “Meet Amy: A virtual PA that is fixing my meetings”
• Assessing results and progress according to expectations
• Supporting you in decision-making, giving unbiased input and possibilities for actions
• Creating strategic scenario-simulations, eliminating the guesswork in setting direction

Gartner writes: “Some performance measurements can be consumed more swiftly by smart machine managers aka “robo-bosses,” who will perform supervisory duties and make decisions about staffing or management incentives.”