The end of humanity at the workplace?

The year is 2030. Robots and Artificial Intelligence have replaced most of us in the workplace and put everyone but a select few out of a job. Only those who had tasks impossible to automate still have a job. Humanity is coming to an end, and all of our worst fears have become reality. Skynet was child’s play compared to this.

Guys, c’mon, I know The Terminator and every other sci-fi movie fuel these kinds of ridiculous nightmares, but that is not how Digitalization, Automation, or AI work.

First of all, Artificial Intelligence will never be able to replace humans. AI is just a tool, which we can use to make our life easier and make time for more important tasks.

Secondly, the definition of artificial intelligence and the hype around it is changing all the time. When navigation systems (Such as Google Maps) were introduced, being able to calculate the shortest or fastest route from point A to B was considered AI. Now it’s just an everyday app on your phone. What I’m trying to say is that all these things happening are just more and more digital tools being created or improved. Thanks to these, B2B companies can now automate and digitize many of their manual processes, such as data entry and document management, reducing the time and resources they spend on administrative and repetitive tasks.

Let’s talk a little about these digital tools.

First off, Chemigate’s supply chain digitalization project Cerveza. This is a project written about in last year’s The Bridge (Go check it out, if you haven’t already!). With Tracking Cloud (the main digital tool of Project Cerveza), we are already reaping the benefits of this by automating some material reception, streamlining our order-supply chain, and creating benefits for us and our partners. Step by step, we are optimizing our resource and time usage, and hopefully making life a little easier for as many stakeholders as possible. All while making sure that we are, in fact, doing that – making things easier, instead of harder. And let’s face it, I don’t think Cerveza will ever lead to anyone being out of work.

Secondly, like every other company, Chemigate also started utilizing Microsoft Teams all the time for e-meetings when the pandemic hit. However, this also opened the door for further utilization of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint. These have tools and features that we have started using for document management, quality processes, project management, and collaboration improvement. Even if most people think of video meetings when hearing Microsoft Teams, the other features and add-ons this software has to offer are quite impressive.

The increased reliance on digital tools (that’s right, let’s continue talking about digitalization and automation for what they really are – digital tools) in the workplace also means increased risks in terms of cyber security. As more sensitive data is stored and transmitted digitally, it becomes more vulnerable to cyber attacks, data breaches, and other forms of cybercrime.

Think of it like this – More data = Bigger consequences in case of a breach.

This is why, naturally, Chemigate also focuses a great deal on cyber security, with the help of some great partners. I interviewed Petri Perämäki, Chief Information Officer at Opsec Oy, Chemigate’s data security service provider, about current trends in IT and cyber security:

“One of the trends in digitization has been to move services to the cloud from one’s data centers. The goal has been to achieve cost savings and reduce the workload of the IT department. It makes sense to make plans far into the future for what you want to keep on your own servers and what goes into the cloud, taking into account the risks and benefits.”

And if you have a lot of data in the cloud, it means the cyber security of the cloud must also be top-notch. “Let’s take Microsoft 365 as an example,” says Petri. “Nowadays, the user base of Microsoft 365 is enormous, and it has evolved from mostly a tool for emails into the likes of Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, and other features. It is now a very attractive target for cybercriminals. In addition, the identification feature of M365 is also used for third-party applications, which is likely to further pique the interest of criminals.”

In many companies, most employees have access to loads and loads of internal data. This gives cybercriminals a large pool of targets, where just one breach may give them access to almost everything. Let’s paint a word picture. A cybercriminal

To summarize:

While digitalization and automation are powerful tools for improving business processes, they are not a replacement for human customer service and value creation. In the end, it’s the human touch that builds meaningful relationships and creates real value for customers. Digital tools can take businesses far in terms of efficiency, accuracy, and speed, but they cannot replace the empathy, creativity, and intuition that come from human interaction. To truly thrive, businesses must embrace both the power of digitalization and the importance of human connection. It’s not an either/or proposition; it’s a matter of finding the right balance between technology and humanity. By combining the best of both worlds, businesses can achieve new heights of success, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

sends out hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of phishing emails to the employees of a company. Maybe they send this email on a Friday evening after work, with an important headline and a cry for help that this needs to be done before the weekend. This email may be written in flawless Finnish and look like it has been sent from inside the company.

One person clicks on the link in the e-mail, it then prompts for login information, and the employee attempts to log in and receives an error. “Whatever, I’ll check it on Monday,” the employee mutters. Just like that, a cybercriminal may have gotten access to loads of important information, with a whole undisturbed weekend ahead before anyone even notices.

Sure, maybe this example is a horror story to illustrate one of the worst things that can happen, but it’s uncomfortably common. That’s why Petri would like to give a couple of pointers for how companies can easily improve their data security:

• Make sure all employees are aware of different data security risks, and how they can recognize them.

• If a colleague sends you a weird email, always give them a call to make sure before clicking any links.

• Use two-factor authentication.

A part of this article was written with the help of another digital tool called ChatGPT, a new and revolutionary Artificial Intelligence chatbot.

ChatGPT is a computer program that can hold conversations and answer questions like a human. It has been trained on a large amount of text data, so it can understand and generate language that is similar to the way people communicate.

Images created with the Stable Diffusion text-to-image AI tool, which was fed the following prompts:

Headline image: Artificial intelligence concept, Photo, Realistic, HD, Beautiful Lighting, trending on Artstation, Maya Model, Detailed Render, Landscape

Images 2 and 3: Arnold Schwarzenegger as Terminator android laughing in the office with ten casually dressed women sitting and A4 paper flying in the air, potatoes, barley, CGI, Digital Art, Photo, Realistic, Dramatic, HD, Fisheye Lens, Beautiful Lighting, Dynamic Lighting, Maya Model, Detailed Render