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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

The hyper-intelligent workforce

and the future of work

Asking which industries are going to be most impacted there will be fewer tasks which humans can perform
by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the coming years and more efficiently or economically. The unique economic
decades, is much like asking someone in the 80s which value of humans will then be restricted to special cases
industries are going to be most impacted by computer like psychological therapy, entertainment and arts or
chips and computer software. In 1980s, it was possible roles that require human engagement or interaction to
to see that computers were going to revolutionize retail deliver value. Before we get there, we must
and medicine, but not to forecast the advent of Amazon acknowledge that AI will generally not take over the
or Taobao. Prediction of AI’s future influence is likely human workforce all at once. Instead, it will start by
even harder than was the case for earlier technologies, prompting businesses to reorganize their structures to
due to the exponential nature of change in an era of best leverage the strengths AI has to offer. In doing so,
unprecedented connectivity. pieces of people’s jobs will be reallocated to AI, giving
way to the creation of new roles and requiring humans
hat is clear, however, is that AI and its associated to upskill themselves accordingly. For instance, AI will
technologies will continue to advance. In Southeast Asia first take on more routine accounting work such as
alone, the adoption of AI technologies stood at 14% in calculations and backend processes, like intelligent
2018, a marked increase from the 8% in the previous adaptive Excel macros, while allowing accountants to
year. The use of AI will only trend upwards as handle strategic decision-making and customer
organizations turn to this technology to plug the skills interaction. Only with the emergence of AGI over time,
gap created by the digital transformation of traditional will we see AI taking over these roles and by then, only
industries. This is set against the backdrop of a potential a handful of humans will be needed to oversee the
talent deficit of 47 million workers across Asia Pacific by running of an organization’s entire finance function.
2030. When this happens, we would be living in the reality of
the hyper-intelligent workplace, where humans will
As AI becomes mainstream, today’s AI capabilities will simply provide mission critical thinking, while
open up to more general uses, otherwise known as incorporating the intuitive skillsets of AI and robots for
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Once this happens, increased productivity
8 March 2019 - Visual Search, Voice Search, Smart Speakers & SEO