With the rise of Bots, are chat apps about to become part of your job?

Robots are at the center of the debate about the future of work. But automation comes in other forms. Integrating business tasks with chat and messenger apps is the next frontier for automation -- and it could rapidly become part of your job description!

Physical Robot Shipments are Rising

Robot orders and shipments have risen significantly in recent years. In fact, shipments to North America rose by over 50 percent between 2012 and 2016, with over 31,000 robots shipped in 2016 alone!

Of course, the value of robotics shipments has also risen -- by 40 percent between 2012 and 2016, with the 2016 value of North American robots shipped at $1.8 billion. With increases in technology, the volume and dollar values of robots are likely to rise further in coming years.

Automation Solutions Go Beyond Physical Robots

While the use of robots in industrial settings has been on the rise, it isn’t the only part of the automation story. Chatbots are virtual robots that provide automated solutions in a world of software. And the expectations for AI-powered solutions are high!

In a recent survey conducted by PwC, AI-powered solutions that are expected to have the largest impact are in the areas of virtual personal assistants, automated data analysts, and automated communications - like Chatbots.

This isn't something that's going to happen someday in the future. This is a transition that's already going on right now!

Bots Learn to Talk

Advances in mobile technology have come a long way from bulky telephones to text messages, and then to video chats and messaging apps. Most recently, the integration of chatbots with messenger applications (like Facebook Messenger) highlights the value for automation in our personal lives -- and in an office environment

Since messaging apps can be used as a remote platform for accessing and processing information on a mobile device, this could prove to be the springboard for further automated solutions in the workplace. After all, workers will want to use automation solutions to do more complicated and tedious calculations -- as well as other office work that might be viewed as drudgery.

Helping people avoid doing work that smacks of drudgery has been the goal of every technological development since the invention of the wheel.

Messaging Apps are the Key to Automated Solutions

Automated software solutions will take many forms in coming years, but messaging apps are the most likely candidates to be at the vanguard of the AI and Chatbot movement.

The number of mobile phone messaging app users is at a very high level of almost 1.6 billion users worldwide. And that number is expected to grow to around 2.5 billion by 2021. This means that automated solutions have a huge incentive to integrate with messaging apps to leverage a massive user base!

Of the almost 1.6 billion users of messenger apps, 1.2 billion of them were on Facebook Messenger, as of April 2017. This means that Facebook may become an integral part of Chatbots and automated Bot solutions, if it can retain and grow its user base on Facebook Messenger. It also means that any app needs to be on the Facebook Messenger platform first, since it represents 75 percent of messenger app users.

Just like emails, texts, and calls from managers and clients, automated ChatBot and Bot solutions will soon be coming to our messaging apps as well. After all, software automation isn't going away, and messaging apps (especially Facebook Messenger) are likely to be an increasingly important part of the process.

Messenger Apps are likely to be the first home of automated software solutions for personal and professional use.

For individuals, one thing should be clear: leveraging automation solutions will become increasingly critical for the professional success.

Who Will Use Automation Solutions?

In the same way that every factory in the world tries to implement automation solutions to make work easier and help workers contribute the highest value possible, office environments will also adopt automated solutions to push workers to their highest-value activities.

A recent PwC survey showed that AI Assistants (i.e. Bots) are likely to fill a number of professional roles. Even in areas where AI Assistants do not replace people, they are likely to augment work. How much of a positive contribution it will make, will depend on its execution.

After all, most customer service lines uses automated responses that use voice-recognition or numeric entry capabilities to facilitate the process...but many of them do not do it very well. I'm not the only one that sometimes is saying the word "operator" over and over again, right?

Whether they are terrific or mediocre, expect to see the full gamut of Chatbots, Bot, and AI Assistants in their various forms become a critical part of company interactions -- and of workforce augmentation. This means that Chatbots and messaging apps aren't just going to become an increasingly important part of your work life, they'll play a more important part in your personal life, too.

Education and Skills

Education and skills are critical dividers for professional opportunities and upward mobility. A study from the Office of the President that was released in December 2016 underscored this reality. Below is a graphic from my book Jobs for Robots that was based on this report. As you can see, 44 percent of jobs that require less than a high school diploma are highly automatable, compared to just 8 percent of jobs that require trade school, and just 1 percent of jobs that require a bachelor's degree are highly automatable.

The implication is clear: the best way to insulate yourself from being automated out of a career is to gain skills and education.

But there is also another important way to augment your education and skills: leverage automation solutions to work at the top of your education and skill set.

If we were to think of every job in terms of billable hourly rates, you need to be operating at your highest billable hour rate. Think about what the most valuable thing you do at work, and figure out how to do more of (or only) that.

Adding the Most Value: Working at Your Top Rate

I do not know anyone who currently spends 100 percent of their time doing their highest-value professional tasks working at the top of their degree and skills.

No matter what level of education or skills you have, you can make the most valuable contribution by augmenting your education and skills. In a factory, you can augment your skills with automated conveyors, industrial robots, and other automated solutions. In an office, however, working with automated office solutions will be increasingly important.

As we transition from the information age to the automation age, it will become increasingly critical to leverage automation solutions to work at the top of your education and skill set.

As part of the transition from the information age to the automation age, workers need to advance their technical skills. More automation is coming, and the workers that have the best and most useful tools at their disposal will benefit.

American Mobility

There is a long on-going discussion in a number of LinkedIn posts about American mobility. One of the most important issues isn't just about geographic mobility, it's about professional mobility. And leveraging automation solutions is going to be an important part of ensuring your professional mobility.

What Have You Seen?

Are you using automated solutions in your workplace? Are you using Bots?

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- Jason Schenker

Tags: #AmericanMobility #automation #futureofwork #Robots #robotics #AI #Bots #ChatBots #jobs #workforce #economy #tech #innovation #disruption #JobsForRobots #LinkedInLearning

Jason Schenker is ranked the world's leading Financial Market Futurist. He is the author of the book, Jobs for Robots.

Jason Schenker is the President of Prestige Economics, the Chairman of The Futurist Institute, and the Executive Director of the Texas Blockchain Association. He is a LinkedIn Learning instructor for a course on Financial Risk Management.