The Human / Machine Partnership

by Ruaidhri Horan, Marketing Manager, Abrivia Recruitment

Automation and the rapid increase in the sophistication of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have a major effect on society and the way humans work and interact with machines in the future. Many of us fear that our jobs will eventually be replaced by a robot or some sort of sophisticated algorithm that is twice as efficient at a fraction of the cost it is to hire a human. In certain situations, these fears are well founded but the potential for the Human/Machine partnership to have a positive effect is also colossal.

For example, self-driving cars mean less down time for workers commuting whilst at the same time you have the flexibility of the entire road network at your disposal to get to your destination, without having to drive. VR-enabled simulation can be used as a fantastic training tool and can also be used to gauge how employees react in different scenarios, without having to hire actors!

Employers will be use VR/AR technology to “evaluate a worker’s aptitude for gaining new knowledge or learning new skills and applying this knowledge or learning new skills and applying this knowledge to new scenarios (Source: Institute for the future)

In regards healthcare, in the future, it is predicted that you will be able to monitor your vital health signals though health trackers 24/7, sophisticated health algorithms will instantly diagnose health problems, alert you and automatically order medicine to be delivered to your destination of choice via a high-speed drone!

In the future, with the advance of technology, homeworking should be available to practically everyone in the workforce. Even production facilities could potentially be managed from the comfort of your own kitchen especially if the production plant is heavily robotised.

VR/AR technology could potentially provide you with near instant visualisations of solutions to workplace challenges. There will be no need to search YouTube on your Desktop to find out how to change a printer cartridge! Instead a voice activated visualisation will provide you with an instant solution.

By 2030, the Institute for the future predicts that “people will develop new and deeper relationships and new dependencies on machines, at home and in the workplace. If we start to approach the next decade as one in which partnerships between humans and machines transcend our limitations and build on our strengths, we can begin to create a more favourable future for everyone”.