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- Do I believe everybody is gonna be replaced by robots?
Absolutely no, I think we've showed a fantastic
propensity to survive all threats
that have been thrown at us to date.
Does that mean we'll stand still, no.
Does that mean we'll have some massive fundamental
change that goes on, absolutely.
Does that mean we have technology
that augments the really dull and boring stuff we do today?
Yep, we should love that, embrace it.
And we should also then follow that up
by learning brand new things to go into the organization
and do, and add more increased value.
So embrace it, love it and you know, it's here to stay.
- Sometimes we can worry that digital HR means
we're all gonna be replaced by robots,
and the answer of course is yes,
and that's very important because then I'll be able
to lie around and drink cool drinks on hot beaches.
But in reality we're humans, and we're the ones
with the ideas, and sure, artificial intelligence
can come up with some stuff, but it's not now,
and I don't think in the near future,
gonna be as creative
and as compassionate as humans can be.
So I don't think we're in any danger of losing our jobs.
- Things are gonna change.
I think the big issue we're facing at the moment,
is we have an educational system which is entirely built
on sausage factories for certain things, right?
So, we're educatin' people for short-term memory,
exam-passing, and the one thing you don't need
in a digital society is short-term memory,
'cause you have Google, right, so if you want information.
And what I think the three things I think we're missing,
which we're gonna need to really shift as a society,
is creativity, so we're losing creativity.
Art, creativity, drama, those kinda things
are gonna be important, because that's the things
that machines can't necessarily do at the moment.
So that's an aspect of it.
The second thing is that I don't think
it's a case of being replaced, actually,
so if I look at talent acquisition,
I can automate about 80% of workflow right now,
and loads of things that people did that they don't need to,
appointment-making, scheduling, booking rooms,
video interviews, communication, screening,
all that kinda stuff, I could automate all of that.
I've got 100 recruiters, my choices are,
if I get rid of 80 recruiters 'cause I've automated 80%
of the work, then I might be doing things a bit faster,
I might be doing things a bit cheaper,
but I'm not doing them better, I'm not doing them better.
So I think what the opportunity is, is if I look at it
and say if I took away 80% of what's essentially
mundane work, right, and I gave you 80%
of your time back, what would you do instead?
So I think what we're gonna see
is not people getting replaced,
but jobs changing, in that they will become a lot more
on the relationship-based stuff, a lot more on chat,
and more time actually to do our jobs properly
that we don't have right now.
- I think it would be madness
if we were all replaced by robots.
Who's gonna go out there and buy the products?
And new jobs are being created all the time,
so there's far more jobs, for instance, in analytics.
There's a lot of jobs around machine-learning,
about jobs of actually creating these machines
that are gonna do it anyway, so, yeah.
I don't think we'll be replaced by robots, no.
- Well, the scales are slightly different.
We need to be technology evangelists,
we need to have the strategic thinking that is required
to support organizational change, maybe compliance?
Maybe procurement, the skills are gonna change an awful lot.
With AI and some of the other technologies you've mentioned,
we're gonna have less transactional work.
It's gonna be automated.
So, probably less people working in more specialized roles.
- I saw something on the BBC website at the weekend,
and it was talking about previous predictions
about the future of work.
So back in 300 BC, apparently, when we started writing,
that was going to affect our memories.
Back in the 1930s, Cain said that we'd all
be doing 15 hour weeks by the end of the century.
So, even the people like Cain's got it wrong,
when they were predicting the future,
I think we're getting it wrong when we're saying
that we're all gonna be replaced by robots.
- I think there will be a lot of change,
I think, as human beings, we'll become
partly non-biological, and partly biological.
And I think there'll be two types of people
in the workplace, there'll be those people
that go, I don't want anything implanting inside me,
I'm quite happy as I am, and let's call them the workers,
or the worker bees, and they may be quite happy
with a relatively simple lifestyle,
having more leisure time and less work time.
But then I think we'll have the people that will drive more,
and they will want to get to the next level,
and then they will take the, let's say,
non-biological advantages,
having implants in their brain, or whatever,
or having downloading technology onto themselves.
And I think those people may become,
let's say, the richer, or the more successful,
but that's what they will choose to have.
So I don't think robots will replace us,
I think robots will do a lot of the menial work for us,
the things we don't want to do, but I think we'll end up
with those that are happy, having less stress
in their lives, but then those people actually want
to become the next amazing person, the next Einstein,
or whatever it may be, and we'll use advantages
from technology to get there.
So that's what I think will happen.
So I think we'll see more automation in the workplace,
but I actually think humankind will actually
find a way of living with the technology,
and we'll all live happily ever after.
Or we'll all get replaced by robots and die.
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