Robotics & AI – The Future is Now

​As Robotics, AI and other advanced technologies interweave into our everyday lives, having a sound grasp on skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving are starting to gain in importance. The world’s leading minds are rapidly recognizing that these technologies are most effective when they complement humans, not replace them.

If you would like to learn more about Robotics as a whole, please check out our Where to Begin With Robotics page.

Rethinking the Nature of Our Lives

Robotics, artificial intelligence and automation have gained a rapidly expanding foothold in our lives. In fact, this has happened much faster than many of us would have initially believed. While these technologies are increasingly being utilized to automate existing processes, true pioneers are radically rethinking our life, society and our civilization’s architecture in order to help maximize the value of both humans as well as machines. The whole process is helping create new opportunities to organize our lives more effectively and to redefine the human experience.

The adoption of robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation is accelerating exponentially. A great majority of humans believe that topic as very important. In fact, more organizations and businesses are now deeply involved in automation projects, with a great many utilizing robotics and AI to help perform routine tasks. And almost just as many are utilizing artificial intelligence and robotics to help restructure work entirely as well as to improve human skills.

The need for AI and robotics has increased significantly. In fact, it is believed that AI will become more widely deployed throughout many organizations within the next year or so. However, despite having such expectations, quite a few organizations and businesses may still be on the fence regarding the understanding of the full benefits that the addition of automation, robotics and artificial intelligence can have on their business. In fact; even now, only a small percentage of executives and person in leadership roles are familiar with both the concept of robotics, AI and the applications that they can be utilized for.

Accelerating AI & Robotics Experimentation & Shifting to Implementation

As more individuals are made aware of the benefits of AI and robotics, a rush to embrace these technologies as well as the marketplace for such is beginning to boom. Leading tech companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Tesla, as well as others are pouring billions of dollars into this area. In addition, billions of dollars are also being pumped into thousands of AI & robotics start-ups. These investments are being made within industries ranging from transportation, exploration, health care, and all across a wide range of other specialties.

Companies that are outside of the tech world are also experience a boom in robotics and automation implementation. All the way from the improvement of manufacturing technologies, machine learning automation algorithms to healthcare.

Robotics & artificial intelligence are even opening up exciting new capabilities in the Human Resources space. Today’s software is now capable of recognizing faces, identifying gender, listening and analyzing voices in order to help identify moods, decoding of recorded video interviews can be utilized to help identify the level of education, to check for misleading information as well as cognitive ability analysis. All of these analytical tools are able to aid in the intelligent selection of potential new candidates. They also help identify an employee’s future career options, as well as to coach leaders on improving their managerial skills. And guess what, it doesn’t end there. AI and robotics can even be utilized to create chat apps that are able to interact with potential job candidates. It can score and identify video interviews, as well as to help understand the sentiment of engagement surveys that are sent out to individuals. Also, just about every single human capital management cloud provider has by now implemented automation and AI algorithms, which in turn makes it super important for businesses to 100% maintain accurate data and to carefully review such AI/automation tools for accuracy and potential bias.

Robotics, AI and Humans Are Smart Together

Leading organizations have recognized the importance of having these technologies complement humans, not replace them. In fact, companies like Amazon have hundreds of thousands of robots in operation. This has in turn shortened training for their new employees workers to less than two days now. Talk about amazing breakthroughs. Walmart also deployed virtual reality technology in order to help improve its in-store training sessions and to effectively simulate virtual customer environments. Other companies like Nissan, Airbus, and Lockheed are finding ways to use collaborative robots. These machines work side by side with workers in factories and manufacturing plants.

Of course, one element that is very much still required is human oversight and involvement in everyday robot and automation management. Behind the vail of automation and robotics, large tech firms have thousands upon thousands of humans continuously training, improving and watching their algorithms. When it comes down to it, an automation or AI algorithm is really only as effective as the quality of the training data behind it. In fact, such algorithm data tasks have given rise to new technology positions with job titles like “bot curator”, “bot keeper”, “robot trainer”, “robot farmer” and more.

Note: The commonly held belief that AI would automate everything is complicated by the requirement for human engagement. As the demand for developing, implementing, and validating AI solutions spreads, humans and their inherent abilities appear to become even more crucial. As the emphasis shifts from automation to the redesign of labor, it will be essential to comprehend the distinctive talents that machines and humans contribute to various sorts of work and jobs.

Moving from Society Redesign to Civilization Re-Architecture

According to research, automation does not eliminate employment even though it can increase scale, speed, and quality. It can even have the exact opposite effect. According to studies by Boston University, occupations with higher degrees of computerization and technology have job growth rates that are higher, not lower. Additionally, many of the newly generated occupations are more service-oriented, interpretative, and social in nature, drawing on the fundamental human abilities of imagination, empathetic understanding, communication, and sophisticated problem-solving. For example, salespeople may utilize AI technologies like Salesforce, Einstein, and others to focus on human connection, while healthcare providers can employ intelligent robots to free up time to speak with patients.

In fact, it is predicted that there will be an enormous future demand for human skills such as complex problem-solving, cognitive abilities, social skills, and process skills. This is despite the surge in interest in AI and automation. Even though only a small portion of the workforce possesses the technical skills needed to build, install, and maintain machines, research confirms that this is the case. A recent study found that the top 10 skills for the next decade include crucial human skills like critical thinking, creativity, and people management.

Human Skills are Required to Utilize Automation & AI Effectively

Here are some skills required to manage robotics, AI & automation: sophisticated problem-solving, cognitive capabilities, and social skills. One problem however is that most people don’t have a strategy for developing such skills.

Fully expanded list of 10 required skills to have in order to be able to manage AI, robotics & automation:

1. Technical Skills
2. Complex Problem Solving Skills
3. Cognitive Abilities
4. Process Skills
5. Resource Management Skills
6. Social Skills
7. Content Skills
8. Sensory Abilities
9. Psychomotor Abilities
10. Physical Abilities

Robotics & AI – Conclusion

In the mid 2020’s & beyond, expect the continuing rapid adoption and maturation of all automation, robotics and AI research and solutions. Thousands of companies are working tirelessly to educate humans on robotics and AI – the rethinking of societal as well as work architecture, the educating and retraining of people, as well as the rearranging of resources and organizations in order to help leverage this new technology. The higher aim is not just to eliminate everyday tasks and to cut costs; not, the aim is to create value for the human civilization and to take us to the next stage of evolution.