Digi, Gigs and Pia

October 14, 2025. 8.30 am. As I exit the elevator to the 7th floor and walk into our office, the beep on my handheld indicates a call from Pia. As usual in her chirpy tone she rattles out her thoughts on our strategy for the review meeting scheduled for 3 pm. She is on her way to work and traffic looks somewhat better today. However, it is still another 30 mins of ride and she uses the time to catch up on some of her calls. We also spend a couple of mins talking about the 6 am conference that we had with Shan and the team at SFO. As we sign off, we sneak in a laugh as to how Shan's paranoia hasn't changed one bit over the 7 years that we have known him. Ten minutes of him, even on technology, can be more potent to the mind than the morning doze of caffeine.

As I step into our bay I do my morning greet to Digi. Digi immediately responds with the usual 'Good Morning Som. How are you today?', in a tone that has never changed over the last 2 years since the installation. The screens keep flashing different patterns of lines and dots, as databases are hummed through. We would be reviewing and signing-off the bonus recommendations at 2 pm and Digi is relentlessly ensuring that every piece has been scanned through to ensure perfection to the second place of decimal. Behind Digi on the wall, is a pic of Pia and myself with KP. The pic is the only existing artifact which has stayed on at that corner, which used to be at one time KP's desk. KP was our tireless soul who used to spend days peering at the laptop screen and every piece of printed paper with the bonus recommendation, prior to being placed for approvals.

I glance at the desk where Gigs is seen on rare occasions when he is here in person. Today is that lucky day when he is in, but not visible presently out there. I walk up to the coffee machine for my morning Latte. As I have my steaming mug ready, Gigs announces himself. No time for a quick coffee chat this morning. He mentions he just had a wonderful connect with the Finance folks and all the audit observations on benefits have been aligned on. He has clarified and provided the needed response on the two findings which were tagged in red. And now he is 2 mins away from his session on benefits for the new joins, an integral part of their on-boarding module. As he breezes off towards the conference room, he confirms that we would meet up for a quick 10 mins before he is done with his 8 to 10 am commitment for the day and will be remotely connected for the rest of the week. I wonder how he keeps it going, as he does the jig of 3 organizations each day.

2025 is not too far off and the reality of then is already taking shape. The workforce of the future will be different from what we are used to today. KP will have to reinvent himself now, else will never be able to match what Digi can do. Digi the digital worker will be a team member comprising of a bot or a series of bots and trained through rule based algorithms to carry out designated processes just like humans, but faster and without mistakes. Gigs will represent the gig workforce that would be mobile and on demand. They will engage on the premise that work can be done from anywhere, so that job and location can be decoupled. As freelancers they will shift between organizations, loyal only to their zone of specialization. Pia, would represent the workforce of today, human FTEs with longer term commitment and engaging through heart and mind. The ability to embrace the diversity in the workforce of tomorrow, needs to be more consciously triggered now. Shan, Pia and I will be joined by Digi and Gigs soon.