The BBC recently highlighted how virtual agents alike Amelia are reinventing human productivity.
Digital colleagues like Amelia automate cognitive and transactional tasks that were once purely the domain of human workers. These technologies also work alongside humans to amplify productivity. Regardless of the scope of deployment, cognitive technologies are making an impact on the human workforce, a development recently highlighted in a feature by BBC reporter Chris Baraniuk.
The feature included commentary from Amelia (formerly IPsoft) CEO Chetan Dube, who discussed Amelia’s impact on today’s workforce, particularly on call centers, but also laid out predictions for more ambitious forms of automation. "I want to be able to have [Amelia] process my mortgage," Dube said. "Can she do a risk analysis for me, can she process my credit card consolidation request?" .
A Look at What’s Next
Moving forward, Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies will continue to evolve and execute increasingly complex tasks. This doesn’t mean that humans will become obsolete. Just the opposite in fact. According to Gartner research, AI will begin creating more jobs than it eliminates by 2020 — a trend that will only accelerate from there.
As machines take over routine (and frankly, mundane) tasks, human employees are freed to emphasize uniquely human tasks such as creative problem solving and soft skills (i.e. person-to-person communication skills). For example, an experienced and knowledgeable customer service representative with high emotional intelligence will be freed from high-volume, low-level customer needs and be able to assist far more customers than would be previously possible. While there may be a transition period in which human workers are re-skilled for new roles, cognitive agents like Amelia will make human workers more valuable.