“Human + Machine,” Management Playbook for Success in Age of Artificial Intelligence, Finds AI’s Real Power Is Helping ...
March 19 2018 - 6:59AM
Business Wire
New book from Accenture AI experts shows how
the future of business will be defined by “collaborative
intelligence” between people and machines
The real power of artificial intelligence (AI) is how it enables
leaders to reimagine and transform their organizations through
human-machine collaboration, which will ultimately reshape
businesses and industries, according to a new book by two AI
experts at Accenture (NYSE:ACN).
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Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the
Age of AI (Photo: Business Wire)
Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI discusses how
AI gives businesses the power to reimagine and transform their
processes – whether related to breakthrough innovation, everyday
customer service, or personal productivity habits. The book details
how, by reimaging business processes, companies are using the new
rules of AI to leap ahead on innovation and profitability.
Co-authored by Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s chief technology
& innovation officer, and Jim Wilson, managing director of
information technology and business research at Accenture Research,
Human + Machine is being published by Harvard Business Review Press
and will be widely available March 20.
Based on the authors’ experience and on quantitative and
qualitative research with 1,500 organizations, Human + Machine
debunks the widespread misconception that AI systems will replace
humans in one industry after another. The authors show that while
that will be true for some jobs, with AI being deployed to automate
certain tasks, the technology’s true power is in augmenting human
capabilities.
“Our research shows that to fully harness the power of AI,
business leaders must change the relationship between employees and
machines to one of ‘collaborative intelligence,’” Daugherty said.
“In other words, AI isn’t about making ‘artificial’ superhumans –
but about using technology to give humans ‘superpowers,’ equipping
them with new skills and capabilities so that they can achieve more
and learn faster.”
The collaboration of human and machine is unlocking what the
authors call the “third wave” of business transformation (the first
wave, ushered in by Henry Ford, involved standardized processes;
the second wave consisted of automated processes, peaking in the
1990s with the business process reengineering movement). The third
wave has created what the authors refer to as “the missing middle”
– a dynamic and diverse space in which humans and machines
collaborate to attain orders-of-magnitude increases in business
performance.
In the missing middle, humans work with smart machines to
exploit what each party does best – with humans developing,
training and managing various AI applications, and machines
providing humans with significantly enhanced capabilities, such as
the ability to process and analyze copious amounts of data from
myriad sources in real time. To exploit the full power of AI,
companies must fill the gap of the “missing middle” by considering
new employee roles, establishing novel types of working
relationships between humans and machines, changing traditional
concepts of management, and overhauling their very concept of work
itself.
“The unprecedented power of AI to transform businesses is
creating an urgent and growing challenge,” Wilson said. “To help
leaders reimagine their processes and get the most benefit from
AI’s power to augment human capability, we developed what we call
the ‘MELDS’ framework, with five crucial principles required to
become an AI-fueled business: Mindset, Enterprise, Leadership, Data
and Skills. Innovative companies can leverage this framework to
ride the third wave and capitalize on AI-powered human-machine
collaborations.”
Human + Machine explains how AI augmentation is reshaping
business processes across three categories of human-machine
interaction in the missing middle: amplification, in which AI
agents give people extraordinary data-driven insights, often using
real-time data; interaction, in which AI agents employ advanced
interfaces such as voice-driven natural-language processing; and
embodiment, in which AI agents work in combination with sensors,
motors and actuators that enable robots to share workspace with
humans and engage in physically collaborative work.
The book also identifies three broad types of brand-new jobs in
the missing middle that companies will need to ensure the
successful implementation of AI: Trainers, who will teach AI
systems how they should perform, helping natural-language
processors and language translators make fewer errors and teaching
AI algorithms how to mimic human behaviors; Explainers, who will
bridge the gap between technologists and business leaders,
providing clarity by explaining the inner workings of complex
algorithms to nontechnical professionals; and Sustainers, who will
ensure that AI systems are operating as designed – i.e.,
functioning properly as tools that exist to serve us, making our
work and lives easier.
“Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI,” is
available everywhere starting March 20, including at amazon.com,
barnesandnoble.com and walmart.com.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company,
providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy,
consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched
experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries
and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest
delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business
and technology to help clients improve their performance and create
sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 435,000
people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives
innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us
at www.accenture.com.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180319005315/en/
AccenturePeter Y. Soh,
+1-703-947-2571peter.y.soh@accenture.com
Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
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