The software will replace the presidents and directors – Computerworld

The increasing automation of work has long raised concerns about the possibility of losing jobs to robots that successfully replace humans. Such concern is, however, mostly lower-level positions or workers. The American Institute for the Future (Institute for the Future) warns top managers before an illusory sense of security.

Devin Fidler, director. Research at the Institute for the Future, published in the April issue of the Harvard Business Review the results of a research experiment, which the main objective was to examine the possibility of automation of management processes in the company at the highest management level. The project created a prototype of a new software called “ICEO” whose activity surpassed all expectations of researchers.

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Basically, the new software is a virtual management system that automates complex processes, first dividing them into micro-tasks, and then allocating certain employees using tools such as oDesk and Uber, as well as e-mail and text (SMS). Operation of this system is very simple. It involves dragging and dropping in the right place separate “virtual assembly line”. The user manages them through the control panel.

Researchers at the Institute for the Future tested the new software ICEO, creating a hypothetical project for monitoring the work on a major research report on the production of graphene.

For information about methods of producing graphene, developers took advantage of Amazon Mechanical Turk platform through which freelancers commissioned to prepare a list of articles on this issue. Compiled a list of publications was then transferred analysts oDesk freelancers and service centered around Elance, who created a coherent, unified text. At the next stage of the project the text has been reviewed by experts, and then ground on by a group of editors, proofreaders and so. Controllers facts.

Using this software, ICEO divided the project into smaller tasks and separated them 23 people from around the world. The program eventually created, reformatted and prepared 60 pictures and diagrams.

– In principle we have with arms folded and just watched the ICEO implements the entire project. The intervention on our part was negligible. Despite this, we were positively surprised by the high quality of work done by the program, and the final result exceeded our wildest expectations, not to mention the speed with which all tasks have been done – Devin Fidler writes in the pages of Harvard Business Review.

Saving time is the main advantage of having a ICEO. Usually on the same quest and gathering the information needed for the study takes a few weeks, the program and the need for it just three days. In this way the report was not ready in a few months, but a few weeks.

In addition to reporting, the American Institute for the Future has conducted pilot tests in such areas as sales, quality assurance and recruitment. The results of all tests were also surprisingly good.

Applications posed by the experiment are such that soon even the most senior managers will not be able to avoid layoffs for its high quality jobs. Analysis of costs and benefits that are currently carried out by the shareholders, and relate mainly to lower-level employees may soon be used to assess the efficacy and cost-effectiveness in the hiring of executives.

It is estimated that the American Institute for the Future can We need two years to refine the technology and bringing it to a level that will allow the full implementation of software ICEO in the business environment.

So how do we prepare for the upcoming changes? First of all, it is worth paying more attention to the dynamics of the allocation of resources, because it mainly focused new solutions.