Day 6 | Automation

After pontificating deeply on concepts like leadership, environmental factors, and cultural context over the past few days, Gianmario Pisano of Accenture Dubai was there today to slap us in the face with a healthy dose of reality. Today's conversation with Gianmario was equal parts invigorating and frightening and it was one of the most thought-provoking mornings I've had in recent memory. Our conversation centered around the future of work and how we as HR professionals can be prepared for the changes that are coming, whether we like it or not.

Accenture predicts that over the next 10 years, 50% of work will be automated away. The key word there is work--as opposed to jobs. Gianmario emphasized the importance of breaking down jobs into tasks and starting with the work, not the people, in order to understand the future of work. As Gianmario told us, 40% of Accenture client CEOs already believe that job descriptions are obsolete. The future is about tasks and while about 10% of jobs won't be automated and 40% will be augmented by automation, the other HALF will be done by machines in 10 years. The implications of this for workforce planning are obvious.

While we started down--and quickly stopped--political paths a few times, I couldn't help but have my mind go there. Gianmario pointed out the reality that we've reached a tipping point with capitalism where it's beginning to eat itself--both through automation and destruction of the planet--and governments will need to step in to help those that are displaced. Up until Andrew Yang prompted me to do more research a few months ago, I've been dubious about Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a concept. After spending today with Gianmario, it’s hard to ignore that governments will have to act in order to counter the forces of automation. Am I finding myself headed down the path to becoming #YangGang? I never thought I’d see the day!