Does new technology mean you have less need for people in your business? Only if you don’t understand the value of people. Let me explain. 

We often see tech as a way to save money on employee costs. If a system can do in a few minutes what it takes a person a few hours to do, then you need fewer people. 

Plus, the system is more reliable, more accurate and less troublesome. It doesn’t want a pay rise or a promotion. 

When it is no longer of value you replace it without having to have an awkward conversation. And it’s generally cheaper. 

As AI becomes more accessible and starts to do work that we’ve thought, until now, required a human, we now face the very real possibility that a high proportion of white-collar office jobs will be replaced. And, even if your whole job can’t be done by AI, much of what fills your day can be. 

A complementary tech

I’ve started thinking of this new tech as if it were a non-human employee. It isn’t just a tool that a human employee uses to assist them in their work, like Google or Excel. 

We can now actually delegate to AI as if it were an intern or assistant, or even as if it were a duplicate of ourselves enabling us to do two tasks simultaneously. 

If you’ve been using ChatGPT you have experience of this. 

I’ve started thinking of this new tech as if it were a non-human employee. It isn’t just a tool that a human employee uses to assist them in their work, like Google or Excel

Can what you do be done by a machine?

I can explain to it that I need a template for a board meeting covering specific topics, who is going to be in attendance, how long the meeting is going to be and the culture of the organisation (to ensure the agenda fits the tone of the business) and, within minutes, a template is produced. 

I can tweak that, of course, or even reject it and start over, but I’m not staring at a blank page for hours or having to Google ‘Board agenda template’ and sift through pages of poor quality or irrelevant information. Chat GPT is doing that for me in seconds. 

Presumably, then, this is even more evidence that much of what I do can be done perfectly adequately by a machine. 

I’ve saved a few hours, therefore if I was employed by a company, it can now reduce my hours, or my salary, or sack my PA. 

Except for this – we’ve had people doing work that could be done better by a machine for hundreds of years. We had to ask humans to do this work because we didn’t have the machinery to do it. 

Until the invention of production line robots, people had to put products into boxes by hand. A machine can do it better, and as soon as the machine was invented, we swapped out the people. 

Time to stop treating people like machines

More than that, because what we really wanted was a machine, not a person, we’ve treated people like machines. From time and motion studies to key-stroke analysis, we’ve tried to get people to be as much like machines as possible. 

And even when we’ve talked about engagement or mental wellbeing, you could argue that we only care because we want people to work as efficiently and enthusiastically as possible and, if this is what they need to do that, so be it. 

Because what we really wanted was a machine, not a person, we’ve treated people like machines. From time and motion studies to key-stroke analysis, we’ve tried to get people to be as much like machines as possible

Making space for human work

People are so busy doing mechanical work that is better off done by a machine that they are rarely able to bring their humanity to work. This is the case to such an extent that we haven’t even THOUGHT about what that would entail.

Here are some areas of human work we haven’t left any space for so far:

• Imagining
• Connecting with each other, customers and clients and the wider community
• Integrating the organisation with the wider world
• Connecting with themselves (deeply)
• Considering ethical topics (properly)
• Resting and recovering
• Following their sense of purpose and contribution
• Caring about others
• Having wide ranging, rambling conversations that result in insight and enhanced awareness
• Generating ideas that take time to emerge
• Really listening
• Collaborating with non-human employees to see opportunities that are missed when they are working against the clock
• Reflecting on the long-term impact of decisions

This list might not even sound like work because when we imagine work, we imagine busy, stressful, deadline driven, target driven, intense, productive work against the clock. It doesn’t sound like work because work has meant sacrifice of self.  

What would be possible if we let humans contribute in a fundamentally human way?

They never had a chance to explore whether they had the capacity for exploring ideas, reflecting, connecting, diving deeper. So how would we know what they were capable of?

Technology for human liberation

Unless we understand what humans can contribute to an organisation, we can’t use technology properly. 

We think of technology as replacing the need for, rather than liberating, humans. 

We think that tech is doing the same work that a human does. We think tech is the answer.

A new chapter with room for exploration

When I’ve talked this way with business leaders, they’ve often responded by saying: “What about the people who can’t do this kind of work, or who don’t want to? We have plenty of people who just want to come in, do what they are told, and go home. They don’t have the desire or the capability to do what you are describing”. 

To that I say: “We’ve never given them the chance”. 

From the age of three or four we train them to operate like a machine: to attend a tight schedule at school run by the clock, to report to their teacher, to sit quietly, to comply with rules, to minimise their originality and creativity in order to be easier to marshal in an institutional setting. 

They never had a chance to explore whether they had the capacity for exploring ideas, reflecting, connecting, diving deeper. So how would we know what they were capable of?

Many of us enjoy a deadline, a bit of adrenaline, getting stuff done and being hands on. I’m not suggesting there would be none of this left. 

To know what technology can do for you and where best to use it, you need to come to terms with the way we’ve wasted human potential for generations

The liberator of human contribution

If we value humans, we will embrace this too. But does it have to be all day, every day for everyone? 

To know what technology can do for you and where best to use it, you need to come to terms with the way we’ve wasted human potential for generations. 

You need to treasure the untapped potential of people and see technology as a way to protect and enhance that untapped potential, rather than an easy fix to get rid of the difficulty the people present.

Instead of seeing technology as a replacement for human labour we need to see technology as the liberator of human contribution.

If you enjoyed this, read: Generative AI: The implications for L&D