Introduction
The world is approaching an era with a new technological structure, where robots and devices powered with artificial intelligence will be extensively used both in production and in personal life. Currently, manufacturers of such devices and machinery are often labeling their products intellectual. However, at the current stage of development, it is merely marketing. Substantial research is needed to make contemporary machines intelligent. Although the technology does not yet exist in its final form, many are already pondering the possible positive and negative impacts of robots and artificial intelligence.
One the one hand, with artificial intelligence and fully autonomous robots, organizations will be able to optimize their spending and increase the speed of development and production of their commodities. On the other hand, employees are concerned that they will be laid off because their responsibilities might be taken away by machinery. Outside of the organizational context, artificial intelligence and robots are likely to provide additional comfort and convenience to people in their personal lives. This paper explores the benefits and disadvantages of robots and AI in the context of business, job market, and society.
Impact on Organizations
Artificial intelligence and robots can bring many benefits to organizations, mainly due to the capacity for extensive automation. However, automation is a vague term, and it is necessary to clearly outline what aspects of organizational processes can be automated. On the contrary, there are concerns with security and ethics. Furthermore, AI development, due to its novelty, continues to stay as one of the most expensive areas of research.
Positive Effects
Customer relationship is one of the most critical areas for every organization. Currently, replying to emails, answering chat messages and phone calls, and resolving client issues require trained personnel. At the same time, companies collect enormous amounts of customer data that is of no use if not applied to solve problems. Artificial intelligence and robots may solve this issue by analyzing the vast array of data and learning to respond to customer inquiries (Ransbotham, Kiron, Gerbert, & Reeves, 2017). Not only will it lead to a reduction in the number of customer service agents, but it may also lead to a more pleasant client experience. That is because while one human specialist can handle only one person, a software program can handle thousands of requests simultaneously.
To perceive any meaning from terabytes of semi-structured and unstructured information, data specialists of companies need to work tirelessly and for considerable amounts of time. Artificial intelligence can automate these data mining tasks – new data is analyzed immediately after getting added to databases, and the autonomous program automatically scans for patterns and anomalies (von Krogh, 2018). The technology may be used to discover insights and gain a competitive advantage in the market.
AI-powered robots may replace humans in some areas of a company’s operations. For instance, some hotels are using such robots to automate check-ins and check-outs, provide more convenient customer experience through 24/7 support service (Wirtz, 2019). Operational automation is also possible in manufacturing facilities where string temperature levels must be maintained (Wirtz, 2019). Stock refilling is a potential use case for stores and restaurants. Although not everything can be automated, a substantial portion of companies’ activities can be run through the use of intelligent robot systems.
Administrative tasks can also be eased with the help of artificial intelligence. For instance, current use cases include aiding the recruitment department (Hughes, Robert, Frady, & Arroyos, 2019). An intelligent software system can automatically analyze thousands of resumes and filter those that are not suitable (Hughes et al., 2019). There are several benefits of an automated recruitment process – a substantial amount of financial resources is saved because there is no need to hire a recruitment agency, and all applications will be considered objectively, with no bias and discrimination.
The recruitment process is not the only human resources department function an intelligent software system may help with. Organizations are often challenged by the need to schedule workers according to workload (Hughes et al., 2019). HR managers also need to consider which workers work well together, and what task needs which employee. Artificial intelligence may automate much of these responsibilities – it can assign more workers to a particular shift when more customers are expected, and choose employees that work together much more effectively than others (Hughes et al., 2019). Both organizations and employees benefit from such functions because companies will have optimized scheduling, and workers will be more satisfied because of more productive relationships.
Adverse Impacts
Despite many benefits, there are also limitations of artificial intelligence and robotics. The technology relies on the availability of data, and often such information is unstructured, is of poor quality, and inconsistent (Webber, Detjen, MacLean, & Thomas, 2019). Therefore, it is challenging for a company with no access to a large pool of data to develop an intelligent system. Currently, only companies like Google, Facebook, Uber, and Apple, that gather terabytes of data each minute have the capacity to build sophisticated and useful AI-powered systems.
Any company that is planning to adopt AI and robotics to achieve new business objectives should be ready for high expenditures. Because of a shortage of skilled professionals that are able to develop and operate reliable AI solutions, the cost of producing a required software system is high. Such a situation makes AI a prerogative of rich companies and virtually impossible for those who only want to try the technology to see whether it is suitable at the moment.
Impact on Employees
Positive Effects
For the majority of workers, their managers and supervisors are the sources of mentorship and advice. A recent study suggests that robots can also serve as guidance because the majority of employees trust robots more than their managers (Brougham & Haar, 2018). The primary advantage of robot managers over their human counterparts is that they provide unbiased and objective advice. Besides, robots are able to work for 24 hours, which allows employees to get answers to their questions much sooner than they receive now.
As stated in the paper before, artificial intelligence and robots can contribute significantly to the recruitment process with unbiased assistance. It is beneficial not only to enterprises but also to employees because they will have an equal opportunity for receiving the job (Hughes et al., 2019). Also, recommendation systems may allow people with little or no experience to be recognized by companies (Hughes et al., 2019). Traditional barriers will cease to exist if hiring managers will start to depend on intelligent systems heavily.
One significant benefit of robots over humans is that they are never physically tired. This attribute can be proven to be especially beneficial if robots are used to aid people with tedious and repetitive tasks (Cesta, Cortellessa, Orlandini, & Umbrico, 2018). However, for this approach to work, companies need to consider robots not as an eventual replacement but as colleagues to human employees. In such a scenario, human workers deal with unpredictable and non-trivial tasks, while robots relieve them from doing repetitive tasks and duties that may have caused physical harm.
Robots powered with artificial intelligence have the potential to become effective teambuilders. There are efforts to build a system that accepts responses and commentaries from team members and gives targeted feedback, which may be used to enhance the relationship between team members (Webber, Detjen, MacLean, & Thomas, 2019). The system can also be used at a different stage – when forming new teams, by carefully inspecting the available data, the system may give recommendations on which employees will be the most effective in a team considering their skillsets (Webber et al., 2019). While AI cannot become a replacement for human involvement in team building activities, it can positively influence groups through systematic interventions.
Adverse Impacts
Despite many positive effects, artificial intelligence and robots may serve as the most detrimental agents to human employment. Due to the capacity of being automated, robots and AI may replace humans in many areas of activity. For instance, with the emergence of autonomous vehicles, drivers may lose their jobs. The list of jobs that are under the risk of being diminished by robots is long. It includes support specialists, proofreaders, receptionists, machinery operators, factory workers, taxi and bus drivers, soldiers, and farmers (Brougham & Haar, 2018).
Some claim that, while taking away many opportunities from people, artificial intelligence and robots will create other jobs that humans will need to occupy (Brougham & Haar, 2018). However, skeptics state that artificial intelligence will harm the middle class and increase the gap between highly skilled employees and regular workers (Brougham & Haar, 2018). AI is only an emerging technology, but employees and companies will need to be ready for its adverse influences.
How Society is Influenced
Society has been significantly influenced by technology, and this trend will continue as artificial intelligence and robots get more sophisticated. As progress is made in the field of AI and robotics, the technology will blend into people’s lives, and it will become challenging to distinguish between what is a technology and what is not (Helbing, 2019). This uniform integration has many benefits, such as convenience and comfort. However, because technology is power, some critics claim that people will need to view these advancements from the standpoint of citizens, not consumers (Helbing, 2019).
Artificial intelligence relies heavily on the data people generate in order to train and provide better results (Helbing, 2019). As the sole owners of their personal data, people will need to be able to control how this data is used and for what purposes. In the wrong hands or the corrupt system, this information may be used to influence citizens (Helbing, 2019). Therefore, it is reasonable to claim that, as artificial intelligence and robots get more advanced, society will strive for more transparency in how their personal data is used.
Recommendations
There are three recommendations worth making, and each one of them relates to one potential effect of artificial intelligence and robots. There is a widespread belief that intelligent systems will eventually replace human beings in many industries and jobs (Brougham & Haar, 2018). Not only will it have a detrimental effect on those who will lose their jobs, but it will also harm society’s current structure. One way of mitigating these consequences is to design robots and AI not to replace human employees but assist them in jobs they are performing for increasing productivity.
In the contemporary world, people produce enormous amounts of data, which is collected both by the government and private companies. Current laws require enterprises to use personal data of their customers in such a way that their private information is not exposed to third-parties (Helbing, 2019).
As artificial intelligence gets more developed, current laws may become obsolete. The government should demand companies to be much more transparent in how the data is used. Furthermore, the government should require companies to undertake security measures so that personal information is not used by an intelligent system to impose harm on people. A relatively recent case of Cambridge Analytica shows how the public can be manipulated if personal data results in the wrong hands. Public awareness of AI and robots’ implications should also be increased.
Conclusion
It is already known that artificial intelligence and robotics are the next chapters in the history of digital technology. Present versions of artificial intelligence have partial success in identifying and curing cancer, predicting the weather, analyzing the image from cameras and other sensors to drive a car autonomously, and much more. Organizations and businesses are the first ones to utilize the technology to maximize their profits and minimize their expenditure while keeping the quality of products and services at the highest levels. There are many benefits of the technology, including significant automation in many areas of organizational activity, and employee assistance.
People, however, should also remember the downsides – many people are likely to lose their jobs, and companies need to make substantial investments before artificial intelligence and robots are entirely usable. To mitigate some of the adverse consequences, companies will need to think about using AI and robots to assist employees and not to replace them. The government should also be involved – it must ensure that personal data of customers is safe. Efforts should also be made to increase public awareness about the implications of artificial intelligence and robots.
References
Brougham, D., & Haar, J. (2018). Smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and algorithms (STARA): Employees’ perceptions of our future workplace. Journal of Management & Organization, 24(2), 239-257.
Cesta, A., Cortellessa, G., Orlandini, A., & Umbrico, A. (2018). Towards flexible assistive robots using artificial intelligence. Web.
Helbing, D. (2019). Towards digital enlightenment. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
Hughes, C., Robert, L., Frady, K., & Arroyos, A. (2019). Managing technology and middle- and low-skilled employees. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.
Ransbotham, S., Kiron, D., Gerbert, P., & Reeves, M. (2017). Reshaping business with artificial intelligence: Closing the gap between ambition and action. MIT Sloan Management Review, 59(1).
von Krogh, G. (2018). Artificial intelligence in organizations: New opportunities for phenomenon-based theorizing. Academy of Management Discoveries, 4(4), 404-409.
Webber, S. S., Detjen, J., MacLean, T. L., & Thomas, D. (2019). Team challenges: Is artificial intelligence the solution? Business Horizons, 62(6), 741-750.
Wirtz, J. (2019). Organizational ambidexterity: Cost-effective service excellence, service robots, and artificial intelligence. Web.