From Open Bionics’ 3D-printed arms turning amputees into superheroes to dating apps helping people find romance, technology is transforming all areas of life at the moment. And the trend shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, new research suggests that artificial intelligence could soon take humans’ place at the top of companies. Or rather, some employees wish that this was the case.
The British technology firm Advanced has surveyed over 1,000 workers about how the health of businesses in the digital era. The research revealed a staggering 34% of employees think machines would make better decisions than their human bosses. Moreover, 65% would be happy to incorporate robotic technology in their work if it meant less manual processes as automation could help improve productivity. Additionally, 72% have already adopted tech that removes some of the more tedious tasks from people’s to-do lists.
But Gordon Wilson, CEO of Advance, doesn’t believe there is any real need for head honchos to worry about losing their jobs just yet. Commenting on the report’s findings, he said: “While robots are unlikely to take on the job of the decision maker, the reality is that they are simply not yet suited to such complex tasks and will instead work side-by-side with humans. [Still,] our findings suggest that employees are dissatisfied with their current leadership, want to get rid of arbitrary decision making and are starting to challenge the norms. Leaders need to step up to provide a clear direction that people need and take charge of the intense technology change happening as a result of the digital era.”
Indeed, while bosses can breathe a sigh of relief that the robot take-over of the future may not have arrived yet, it’s clear that company leaders must strive to find innovative ways to boost their workforce satisfaction or risk seeing a decline in company productivity.
