Upskill yourself: It’s better to work with the digital robots than against them

An ingenious human mind is always looking for ways to develop a tool or “automate’ its activities to make its life easier and faster. Wheel, horsecart, sewing machine, industrialised factories, and computers, are all examples of liberating humans to be more creative, innovative and move the human race forward. Now, another wave of automation capability is coming for software robots based on artificial intelligence and robotics process automation (RPA). The earlier waves of automation impacted on low-skilled workers, this time white-collar office workers will be affected. White-collar tasks that are repetitive, rule-based such as accounting, consolidating data, and monitoring data are going to be replaced by these RPA and AI based software robots. 

This article will argue that it’s better for the white-collar workers to upskill themselves, work with new tools and technologies such as software robots and not against them. 

The COVID-19 Pandemic has accelerated the adoption of software robots; Lockdowns across the world have highlighted the need for reducing dependence on humans working in offices. The businesses at large have realised that the best use of humans is not doing repetitive tasks, but more of problem solving and creativity. UiPath, one of the leading RPA software vendors was valued at US$10.3 Billion in mid-July20, investors endorsing the expected demand in automation.

#Upskill Why: Protect your livelihood

History tells us, automation or industrialisation causes job losses. In the last 30 years, the number of people employed in the UK has gone down by nearly 50% in manufacturing and 70% in mining and quarrying. Jobs have transitioned from one industry to another all the time, what’s different now is that the changes happen fast. If someone is going to lose their job due to automation, they might lose it rapidly. Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the first phone to the public in 1874, it took 75 years for the phone to be in the homes of 50 million people. Radio took 38, television 13, Facebook 2 years, YouTube 10 months and Pokeman Go took 19 days in achieving 50 million users. The speed of adoption is fast and changes happen within months. Software robots taking over white collar’s jobs will happen maybe in years and not in decades.       

#Upskill Why 2: bring and show mastery.

Automation and tools are not a foe, they are an ally to deliver outstanding work. Artists, Michael Angelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Pink Floyd, have used their ingenious tools to deliver great work. Software robots are tools, an ally, they can do the rule-based menial tasks, allowing humans to deliver exquisite work and bring mastery. 

#Upskill Who: Everyone.

Another question arises, “who in the organisation should up-skill?”  Realising digital benefits is not the work of a few it requires a small cross-functional team. Every level in an enterprise needs to upskill, the CEO, the board, the senior management, middle management, and staff. Mobile phones are pervasive in individual lives; similarly, digital technologies will be pervasive in people’s work lives, upskilling only a subset of people will fail to deliver results. People may be upskilled in different facets, but everyone has to be part of the journey.  

#Upskill on What: Hone your strengths.

Digital upskilling doesn’t mean that everyone has to become a data scientist or AI modeler; actually, digital transformation is multi-faceted, it's an opportunity to hone your strengths and develop skills around:

1. Developing new ways of serving the customers
2. Identifying new revenue streams and business models,
3. Delivering benefits incrementally with Agile 
4. Design thinking
5. Of course, for technophiles, there's plenty of new software and apps to learn 

 #Upskill How: 

In the 21st century, for those who want to learn, resources aren’t an issue. 12-year-old rhythmic gymnast, Upasha Talukdar, was born in Assam, India. She had no access to coaches or equipment practice arenas, yet she competed in the 2020 India youth games, winning a bronze and two silver medals. With her parents’ help, she trained using Facebook and YouTube; her success illustrates, in today’s time obstacles to learning are smaller, a desire to learn is more important. 

This is not an exhaustive list, but here’s the list of ways to for digital upskill: 

1. The traditional approach of buying a book on the topic of interest still works. 
2. There are many educational videos on Khan Academy, YouTube and at Ted conferences, 
3. Audiobooks are a great way of learning; one can learn while doing mundane tasks of travel, exercise, cleaning, or cutting vegetables. 
4. Today, the best and the biggest universities, Harvard, MIT, Oxford, etc. are providing courses online, 
5. MOOC - Massive Open Online Courses, e.g. Coursera, Udemy are a good way to learn in bite-size 
6. Download an App

COVID Crisis will drive automation into the white-collar jobs, it will take rule-based repetitive tasks away, but it will provide an opportunity to force humans to find their strengths and be the best version of themselves. Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford University commencement speech famously said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” Software robots are meant to free-up time, find the best version of yourself, and do some great work. Upskill yourself.