AI Magazine December 2020 | Page 70

INTERVIEW

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According to Gallup research , 85 per cent of employees worldwide are not fulfilled by their work , because it is too manual , repetitive , and tedious . IA solves a large part of this issue by freeing up employees from repetitive and transactional tasks , such as keying in invoices in an accounting software . And it refocuses them on more value-added and exciting tasks ( ones involving insights , creativity ).

It also augments them , transforming them into superhumans able to generate insights from millions of data in a few seconds ( such as identifying a tumor on an X-ray ).

In my view , this crisis evidenced the need for more resilient systems to support our society . Our health and economic systems , mainly managed by a human workforce , have been put under extreme stress . Hospitals were desperately in need , while economies were falling into downturns . IA has a large role to play in solving this and make our world ready for the next crisis .

Ilan Oshri , professor at the University of Auckland ' s Graduate School of Management , said : " Covid-19 achieved in six to eight weeks what the evangelists of automation have not managed ... for more than five years ."

Despite the bad aspects of Covid-19 , it has helped the world understand the importance of digitalising processes , enabling remote performance , and automating them to rely less on the human workforce .

Companies that already leveraged IA have been able to continue their operations , collect their cash , manage their operations , and motivate their employees remotely .

— Pascal Bornet

DECEMBER 2020