Artificial intelligence can also play a positive role in helping employees remain engaged with their work. Programs can analyse the emails of workers and figure out if they are unhappy with their jobs so that management can intervene and help them get out of the unproductive and negative state. Programs can also analyse how employees spend their time online. It can raise red flags if the employee visits sites unrelated to work. The program can warn management of these unproductive employees, and they can take the necessary action to get them back on track to productivity. On the other hand, the program can also be used to track who is the most productive and efficient with their work and management can give the necessary rewards to achieving certain levels of productivity and efficiency. Celeste O’Keefe, CEO of Dancel Multimedia, uses a program called Veriato to track the productivity of his team. He said, “It has allowed us to be more streamlined and focused on the task at hand. We can see 104 europeanbusinessmagazine.com
what they are doing and guide them in the right direction.” Decisions as to whom to promote can also be made by artificial intelligence. It will remove human biases and may make promotion decisions more effective. The only problem with the potential benefits of artificial intelligence in the world of work is it needs massive data, and so there could be privacy issues and intrusion into private lives which people might not like. One of the key threats that artificial intelligence brings is a loss of jobs, mainly through automation. Artificial intelligence powers robots and technology that can do work more efficiently than humans. Many jobs could be lost, even professional work such as doctors, accountants and lawyers – most roles have the potential to be replaced by robots and artificial intelligence. According to a 2013 study by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne, around 47% of workers in America
had a high risk of potential automation. Those working in transport and logistics, office support, sales and services all faced a significant risk of computerisation. For Britain, the risk was 35%, while in Japan the risk is high at 49%. As such, there has been an increased call for a basic income. In fact, Bill Gates even wants there to be a robot tax if they replace a human being as labour. Former U.S. President Barack Obama said, “If properly harnessed, it can generate enormous prosperity and opportunity. However, it also has some downsides that we are