Professional Engineers and AI

Human and Machine collaboration reimagines processes with AI, letting humans work more like humans and less than robots

By: Ryan Malone

Find Professional Engineer PDH renewal courses here

According to an article by Susan Fourtane' on Interesting Engineering's website:

Humans and machines can complement each other resulting in increasing productivity. This collaboration could increase revenue by 38 percent by 2022, according to Accenture Research. At least 61 percent of business leaders agree that the intersection of human and machine collaboration is going to help them achieve their strategic priorities faster and more efficiently. 

Human and machine collaboration is paramount for organizations. Having the right mindset for AI means being at ease with the concept of human+machine, leaving the mindset of human Vs. machine behind. Thanks to AI, factories are now requiring a little more humanity; and AI is boosting the value of engineers and manufacturers. 

New technologies come with new learning curves- the article goes on to talk about Re-skilling and developing new skills 

Re-skilling is now paramount and applies to everyone who wishes to remain relevant. Paul Daugherty recommends enterprises to help existing employees develop what he calls fusion skills. 

In their book Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI, a must-read for business leaders looking for a practical guide on adopting AI into their organization, Paul Daugherty and H. James Wilson identify eight fusion skills for the workplace:

Rehumanizing time: People will have more time to dedicate toward more human activities, such as increasing interpersonal interactions and creativity.

Responsible normalizing: It is time to normalize the purpose and perception of human and machine interaction as it relates to individuals, businesses, and society as a whole. 

Judgment integration: A machine may be uncertain about something or lack the necessary business or ethical context to make decisions. In such case, humans must be prepared to sense where, how, and when to step in and provide input. 

Intelligent interrogation: Humans simply can’t probe massively complex systems or predict interactions between complex layers of data on their own. It is imperative to have the ability to ask machines the right smart questions across multiple levels. 

Bot-based empowerment: A variety of bots are available to help people be more productive and become better at their jobs. Using the power of AI agents can extend human's capabilities, reinvent business processes, and even boost a human's professional career. 

Holistic (physical and mental) melding: In the age of human and machine fusion, holistic melding will become increasingly important. The full reimagination of business processes only becomes possible when humans create working mental models of how machines work and learn, and when machines capture user-behavior data to update their interactions.

Reciprocal apprenticing: In the past, technological education has gone in one direction: People have learned how to use machines. But with AI, machines are learning from humans, and humans, in turn, learn again from machines. In the future, humans will perform tasks alongside AI agents to learn new skills, and will receive on-the-job training to work well within AI-enhanced processes. 

Relentless reimagining: This hybrid skill is the ability to reimagine how things currently are—and to keep reimagining how AI can transform and improve work, organizational processes, business models, and even entire industries.

In Human + Machine, the authors propose a continuous circle of learning, an exchange of knowledge between humans and machines. Humans can work better and more efficiently with the help of AI. According to the authors, in the long term, companies will start rethinking their business processes, and as they do they will cover the needs for new humans in the new ways of doing business.

They believe that "before we rewrite the business processes, job descriptions, and business models, we need to answer these questions: What tasks do humans do best? And, what do machines do best?" The transfer of jobs is not simply one way. In many cases, AI is freeing up to creativity and human capital, letting people work more like humans and less like robots.