Bio-enhancement tech is coming to transform your workforce. Are you ready?

In the next ten years, bio-enhancement technologies could transform offices, factories and the people in them. Whether these have unintended negative consequences or not will largely depend on how prepared business leaders are. Leading through this change will require the ability to anticipate and the agility to adapt.

In this excerpt from our report, The future of workplace transformation, we look at the implications, threats and tensions in this emerging scenario.?

Bio-enhancement technologies

Bio-enhancement technologies mix biology, engineering, medicine and other sciences to modify living organisms. They can improve human function and performance, restore and maintain our health and enable us to operate beyond our natural limits. But they will create tensions that need to be resolved.?

In 2023, 305 tech innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers and academics responded to a survey* by Pew Research Center and Elon University. Overall, 79% were “more concerned than excited” or “equally concerned and excited” about the likely changes to our digital lives by 2035. Regarding the ‘humans-plus-tech’ evolution, 42% were “equally excited and concerned”.?

One respondent, a director of research for a global futures project, said: “Human knowledge will wane and there will be a growing idiocracy due to the public’s digital brainwashing and the snowballing of unreliable, misleading, false information. Science will be hijacked and only serve the interests of the dictator class. In this setting, human health and wellbeing is reserved for the privileged few. For the majority, it is completely unconsidered.”

What tensions need to be resolved?

These two potential future scenarios are at opposite ends of the spectrum of possibilities:

Optimised wellbeing and performance

By 2035, organisations are using bio-enhancement technologies in multiple ways to create a more equitable world. AI-driven personalised learning is able to adapt to individual needs, democratising education. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) improve how we communicate? with devices and systems, giving us new ways to collaborate, be creative and solve problems. Innovation in healthcare, using bio-enhancement technologies, is leading to improved physical and mental health across society, with people living longer and more fulfilled lives.

Privacy and ethical dilemmas

Unevenly distributed bio-enhancement technologies, with disparities in tech maturity across sectors and regions, risk deepening societal divides. Unequal access to advanced tools exacerbates inequality and there are worries about the privacy of BCIs. Some people feel that AI’s influence over personal decisions is eroding their personal autonomy. This fragmented landscape creates social tension, as some people benefit from bio-enhancements while others are left behind, leading to distrust and alienation.

What are the implications?

Workplace opportunities

Workplaces will be transformed by bio-enhancement technologies. Employees will benefit from AI-driven personal development plans, BCIs will improve collaboration across regions and real-time health monitoring will reduce stress and burnout. These technologies will help us continuously learn, innovate and be more productive, with greater job satisfaction.

Workplace threats

Disparities in tech access could create friction, inequality and challenges in the workplace. Employees in less tech-advanced regions may feel disadvantaged, leading to tension and reduced morale. The pressure to optimise performance through AI and BCIs could contribute to burnout, with uneven support exacerbating stress. The blurring of boundaries between personal and professional lives could result in a loss of autonomy, with employees feeling more like cogs in a machine than valued contributors. This scenario risks creating a work culture of inequality, anxiety and disengagement.

How can you prepare now?

Explore equitable access:?

• Pilot bio-enhancement tools with small test groups, with a vision of making them accessible to everyone in the future.?
• Consider offering financial assistance to employees who need it, so that it’s accessible to diverse groups.

Introduce gradually:

• Bring employees on the journey by sharing the benefits, use cases and watch-outs, to build awareness, understanding and engagement.
• Use iterative test and learns to refine and improve as you go.

Build trust and ethics:

• Develop clear ethical frameworks and guidelines focused on privacy and fairness.?
• Communicate openly about data use and give employees opt-out options.

Transformation needs a partner

The visionary leaders we work with, across sectors, want to take charge of transformation and that’s why they’re thinking about questions like these:?

• How can you train managers to be more agile and deal with ambiguity??
• What are the skills that you and other leaders will need to manage this change?
• How can teams organise and upskill themselves to add strategic value in new ways?
• How can you unite people around a long-term vision and set the priorities needed to achieve it?

Ways we can work alongside you, as your transformation partner, include:

1. Measuring your internal barriers and identifying innovative solutions
2. Building innovation capability in your teams
3. Strategic foresight and identifying opportunities
4. Defining your long-term vision, strategy and initiatives
5. Culture change and internal/external storytelling

To find out more, email Prudence Foster on prudence.foster@wearemagnetic.com?????

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Download: The future of workforce transformation

*Global Leadership Monitor H2 2024, Russell Reynolds

**Pew Research Centre: Changes in Digital Life by 2023?