Humans, Bots, or Cyborgs?

I recently have engaged in discussions with HR personnel who absolutely think that everything they do should be done by humans to give it that personal touch. Whereas I have worked in AI start-ups customer success and sales and don't find that to be 100% true.

Let me back up though, Customer support and Sales is being automated alarmingly quickly meaning Business Developers, Lead Generation, and the first level of customer support are losing jobs as it is replaced by software, which means I understand the very real fear of losing my job to a machine. At the same time, I have used some automated or even outsourced work and have always felt that although the time benefits are tremendous some of the quality is lacking, just try to make me buy leads.

However, what the recruiters, customer support staff, sales, marketing, and business administration people fear is that they are replaceable. When doctors and lawyers who have the most extensive schooling also are beginning to fear the same it makes sense to worry the businessperson or politician. However, these fears are misguided for 3 reasons.

It's not ready...yet!

1. The most important one is AI/Machine Learning is incredibly hard to make and still can't give similar quality. However, time savings are enormous in that at scale AI can replace an entire person or even job position at the lowest levels, which while great for a start-up isn't great for a SMB or Multi-national employee. It is great for their boss and/or CEO though and that's why the change is being made. Solar and Electric power, not to mention self-driving cars were fun experiment for hobbyists and cutting-edge researchers, now it is on the verge of going mainstream. Why?
2. Now there is a movement towards hiring gig-economy workers from across the globe with small regional HQs to manage it all. A la Facebook, Google, Uber, etc. Gig-economy workers get paid more than most W-2 employees and enjoy more flexibility, but they get no healthcare benefits, no retirement, and pay more taxes. This has actually helped create more jobs in the developed world whether you like the loss of benefits and the remote work it enables or not(I do!). What about those offshore companies in the developing world, what do they do?

We will always create new jobs!

1. The first step towards replacing humans with machines was cloth factories. Which was great for poor farmers and businessmen, but not so much for weavers. Then the cloth moved from water to steam power to electricity and all of those factory weavers suddenly lost their jobs too. However, does anyone want to wear that old linen or wool cloth that comes in grey, brown, and black? Not really we tend to like colors because it's attractive and the Royals used to be the only ones who could afford white(because they could wash it and weddings have never been the same) or purple (because the dye was so expensive).
2. What happened next the superpowers like the UK and US made a lot of the cloth and exported it, but then 8-hour work-days, weekends, no child labor, sick leave, & high wages and impossible to fire workers moved it offshore. Most people know about offshoring ask your local telecom employee, web designer/developer, or administrative assistant. It was cheaper although like AI quality and timeliness were sometimes issues. Solar and Wind are now cheaper than Coal and gaining on Natural Gas, it just makes sense, business sense, not environmental sense. Well mostly it improved cost and more advanced technology was created. No one wants black lung but coal miners in the Appalachia cling to the mines because it was the best job he or she had while steel and auto workers made great money as union workers, but ultimately that was their undoing. So what would happen if AI achieves this? Well it will, but...
3. Companies mostly Multi-nationals and start-ups are fighting back because right now large call centers and administrative assistants are losing out to local VA's and FAQ pages and Customer service bots. Kind of like Uber v Taxi. If they don't retain their cheap price, their faraway location(nearshore is becoming more popular), and lower quality will kill them. One guaranteed way to lower price is to do more quicker and/or with less resources. Which essentially is how start-ups can compete with multi-nationals or for the dystopian ones how a machine can replace your entire team. While this is possible and we do need to guard against an elite, using upper-middle class developers to control an underclass a la the Robber Barons of the 19th century in a 21st-century steampunk remake; the last reason AI won't replace your job is because of a long fight between employees and employers.

Some CEO's actually treat their employees well, some politicians care about their citizens(I know its sadly amazing!)

1. While one Jr. Employee is never going to beat the CEO, if 20-30% of the company walks out the CEO, will be kicked out by the board or be the CEO of their broken dream. Nowadays Oligarchic cartels exist in Telecom, Health Insurance, Cable TV, Social Media, Governments, etc. Some people hail the disruption of companies like Uber, AirBnB, and Facebook/Google for this reason or for the hardware inclined Apple/Google v. Microsoft/IBM. But at the same time Travis Kalanick is a colossal a$$hole that had a good idea, Zuckerberg is only recently not being a total d!ck and only when he is forced to (See Russia e-mails), Bezos and Thiel just don't give a f**k, and even the Founders of Don't Be Evil search engine do some dodgy things. This can also be seen worldwide in South Korea's former President Kim & Samsung; Dilma, Lula, and Operation Carwash; Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and the Nisman case, Maduro and the Venezuelan meltdown, Brexit, Trump, etc.
2. But there is hope because good leaders still exist although they are few and/or less visible. For example, Elon Musk, Angela Merkel, José Mujica, Shinzo Abe, Reed Hastings at Netflix, Narendra Modi, etc.Why are these good leaders that will save us for AI because they aren't greedy assholes that want to own the world, but rather eccentric strong-willed people who want to do what's best for their people/community despite personal cost. For example, Merkel, Modi, and Abe implemented painful measures(mass immigration from Syria, tax reform, Abenomics) that will benefit the countries in the long-term, but will be very politically unpopular in the short-term. Musk has amazing long-term visions a la Tesla(the inventor) such as Mars habitation, reusable rockets, cheap/efficient/green transportation. Mujica is a former left-wing guerilla in a very conservative country Uruguay that despite progressive policies on marijuana(I see you potheads), public education, and public healthcare actually wants to create a deep-water port, encourages lax banking laws, and is building a paper processing plant along the Uruguay river(ask Argentines/environmentalists how they feel about this).
3. Meanwhile, Netflix has some of the most progressive in-house benefits such as Free lunches. Up to 12 months maternity and paternity leave. Employees use their discretion on actual leave taken. Unlimited vacation days, within reason. Open working hours (at the California office) Health, vision, and dental insurance. Employee stock purchase plan. Mobile phone discounts. AND a pretty nice salary.

How to use AI right

How do we apply this to AI? Rather than have Humans and bots(hate that word) compete, make beautifully productive Cyborg employees.

-HR Staff already use forms and e-mails to automate applications why not automate screening, so the best candidates do receive a more personal touch rather than be part of a mass interview and onboarding process?

-Customer Service workers already have canned responses to common questions and know that your FAQ is massively unread, so why not automate those questions and have them handle up-selling, cross-selling, and the most complicated questions/issues.

-Non-technical founders can get great website design and functionality without hiring a single employee and focusing on improving their product rather than their marketing.

-Gig-economy jobs for the less-skilled make it possible to add the human touch needed for much less and mean that machines won't entirely replace us.

Key to all of this is 1 basic thing; human decency winning out(most of the time) over corporate greed and political corruption. Good leaders, good institutions(like when a Trump happens), and basically treating people well will make the world a truly better place not the faux-improvements that unsavory marketers/egotistic Silicon Valley CEO's and hedge funds/Kelly Conway PR people try to sell you.

Disclaimer: I have and continue to sell to both developed and developing countries, AI Solutions.