The Future of AI in the Workplace: Opportunities and Challenges

Source: Wall Street Journal

Date: May 15, 2023

Key Highlights:

• AI is transforming workplace ethics, with people more likely to instruct AI to use deception in negotiations, underscoring the need for research into AI's ethical implications.
• AI has the potential to augment the intelligence of older workers, enabling them to leverage their extensive experience and knowledge more effectively.
• Generative AI can significantly boost productivity, particularly for low-skilled workers, potentially narrowing the productivity gap between different skill levels.

Greg's Words

I've been talking about The Great Convergence for over a decade.  It's meant many different things: the convergence of TV, Cable, and the Internet.  The convergence of the internet and business software(the Cloud). Finally, the convergence of generations.

Artificial Intelligence gives every generation access to knowledge simultaneously.  Time will no longer dictate the accumulation of knowledge.  Indeed, artificial intelligence may disconnect wisdom from experiences.

Enjoy.

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Threads Is Doomed to Fail

"Mark Zuckerberg's Threads platform hits 100 million users in 5 days, growing faster than ChatGPT"

This is a farce.  "Threads" is less of a product and more of a 'feel better' gambit for those who cannot see beyond their own, personal biases and shortcomings.

"...the company isn’t going to actively encourage politics and hard news on the platform, but it could end up being the place people go for a conversation-based social media platform..." - The Verge

It's like a bad movie that 'everyone'(Hollywood Influencers) says is a great movie.

A good solution doesn't need a narrative to tell me it is a good solution.

Comparing this to ChatGPT is a marketing parlor trick as old as the hills - positioning.

The numbers are not real, "Threads owes much of its success to its connection with Instagram." and the platform is not sustainable -  “we don’t even know if this thing is retentive yet,...” - Mosseri

It's classic.  There was no problem to be solved.  The decision was politically motivated if not emotionally charged.

Not a good business move.

Resisting the Return: Executives Ditch the Copier for the Comfort of Remote Work

Executives to Corporate: You Can Take Our Office, But You Can't Take Our Pajamas

Executive Bullet Points:

1. Top-tier executives are leading the resistance to the five-day office week, with many willing to trade more than 20% of their compensation for the flexibility of remote work.
2. Despite the push for a return to the office, data shows that office attendance is still below pre-pandemic levels, with employees spending less time in the office than before.
3. Companies are exploring creative solutions to encourage in-person work, including relocating offices to more enticing locations and offering flexible work-from-anywhere policies.

Greg's Words

The battle goes back and forth - but the lines are beginning to solidify.  Employees want to work from anywhere - as the fear of Covid revealed.

But today it seems even the C-Suite sees the value of working from anywhere(#WFA).  No surprises there, but what is remarkable is that the #WFA movement has forces aligned with the most demographic.

Who still resists?  Commercial property management companies, commercial real estate organizations, firms heavily invested in commercial real estate(banks), peripheral businesses,(coffee shops, taxis, tow trucks, food trucks), and mayors(no tax base).

In the end, it just doesn't matter.  The #WFA movement would prevail on lessons learned during the Covid fear alone - but there is more.  Enter artificial intelligence.  Today, AI is allowing two employees to do the work of ten.  AI can be accessed from any connected point on the planet.

The office-work environment has dissolved.

How is the alignment between executive and employee going to impact the resistance to #WFA?

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