Businesses on a global scale are arguing if AI is the right thing to do if AI would capture the emotions and behave like a human. But much before this discussion happened, Google and Uber’s of the world had already made us addicted to AI.
Often shown as the big baddie in science fiction flicks that takes control over everything, Artificial Intelligence is not just the thing of the future anymore, it is already present in workspaces worldwide today. With this new-gen tech streamlining operations for organizations rapidly, it is important to ask whether AI is becoming the new boss?
“We all use AI several times a day, whether we recognize it or not, so every time you step out of your house and look at Google Maps, that’s AI working to find the best route for you to get from point 1 to point 2. Every time you do a Google search, and Google tries to predict what search item you’re trying to look at, that’s AI working for you,” Akhilesh Tuteja, Head of Digital Consulting at KPMG told ETCIO, giving examples of everyday AI.
With tech entering the mainstream space with immense speed, it has become difficult for the average eye to capture the nuances of AI in our everyday lives. The situation is quite different in the business world, where the use-cases of AI are controlled to maximize efficiency.
While this may sound like good news, Tuteja emphasized that we often overlook a dimension in which AI is actually controlling humans. He further gave the example of the Uber app, which provides the driver with the destination, the best route to pick, how to collect money, it even gives them the rating at the end of every trip, day, and even month, which has basically digitized the responsibilities of a project manager thereby taking a job of a human or a boss.
“One industry that has lived with Machine bosses is the call center industry. So, when a call lands at the call center, who decides who will pick up that call, is based on the skill, availability, and past performance. If it is a credit card call, about getting the balance, it might go to a relatively unskilled person, but if it’s about canceling a card and you need to retain that person, the call will go to the most specialized person,” he elaborated.
An argument often used against the tech is that it lacks the empathy that is often needed in a boss, when dealing with employees that have personal problems of their own, Tuteja believes that while this may be true today, there may come a time when the machines can surpass humans even in that matter.
“A lot of people earlier thought that machines are dealing with the area which is rule-based, rational, etc. The Google Art Project really talks about creating art that has never been created before and as we all know, art is a reflection of society, humans, feelings, etc. Today, an AI algorithm can produce art that has never been produced before,” Tuteja further explained.
While machines cannot express emotions, they have been trained, and also possess the ability to demonstrate or at least create those emotions and it is only a matter of time before they learn the rest.
