Businesses start feeling impact of automation, artificial intelligence

A recent JLL-sponsored survey of CEOs across the Asia Pacific region reveals that 52.7 per cent CEOs are closely involved in making key strategic decisions about the future of work- particularly involving automation and artificial intelligence (AI).
Given the potentially negative effects that automation and AI can bring to jobs, wages and people’s livelihoods in the future, CEOs need to push their organizations to create an environment that encourages workers to not only embrace disruption but also to create disruption.
Impact of Technology
The survey also shows that only a small number of CEOs (11.2 per cent) think automation and AI will affect entire jobs, while 41.6 per cent think only specific tasks within jobs will be affected. 47.2 per cent expect automation and AI to affect certain jobs entirely and specific tasks within other jobs.
What this means is that business leaders understand that the impacts of automation and AI are complex; companies need to continuously train and retrain their employees, and business leaders play an important role in making sure that their companies provide the best environment for their employees in the face of disruption.
An overwhelming 81.1 per cent of CEOs claim that they would lead by example and gladly automate parts of their job if AI was better at doing them than they are. To encourage their employees to embrace automation and AI as realities of tomorrow’s workplace, CEOs must equip themselves with up-to-date knowledge and skills that will enable them to work side-by-side with machines.
In the long term, to successfully leverage technology to transform the workplace, more CEOs will have to personally embrace the change that comes with technology. Instead of clinging to old behavioural patterns and be reactive, they must move beyond simply tackling and softening the impacts of technology to actually accelerating technology adoption so that they get to lead the transformation – if not broadly, at least in their companies.