The start of a year is a time when people tend to look forward in anticipation with the hopes they have for the newly-minted year. Are you looking beyond this immediate year in your workscape? If you knew what was ahead, what purposeful plans would you make to prepare?

I love to read science fiction, and a favorite author writes about humanity in 11,243 AD/CE – 9,000 years from now! In that future reality, it’s commonplace to have a named AI managing your house, controlling your flying car and personal space yacht, and interfacing with public services. Your personal avatar AI can talk to others after you die, using all known available knowledge of you to recreate a face-to-face conversation with your loved ones (actually, seems like this isn’t science fiction any longer). A future where the boundaries of humanity and tech are blurred both excites me and concerns me. But I’m not willing to shy away from it.

What do you think of the idea that your work as a thinking, choosing, evaluating human being is replaced by an artificial intelligence (or AI)? Not me! – I hear you cry – what I do is so specialised, sensitive, and involves critical human factors and emotions! The reality is that AI is increasingly able to handle the complex decision-making humans have long considered their unique domain. (Read more here for details on how artificial intelligence in general is progressing.)

In China, AI is being used to render judgments in court cases [Link removed as no longer valid as at April 2023]. Does it get more delicate then making decisions about a person’s guilt or innocence, incarceration or freedom? AI is being employed to read X-rays and CT scans with a much higher degree of accuracy than human radiologists – again, making what could be life or death decisions depending on the person’s health.

AI might not replace you, but it certainly might supplement you. Consider a future where an AI is part of your team, excelling at tasks such as decision support, running scenarios or simulations, and spotting complex patterns or trends in data that a human might miss. Imagine writing the PD for the AI change team member – what would you include?

Let’s flip to another perspective: How much technological competency do you, the human, need to better participate in the future workscape? You might learn to use technology as external devices, or you might adapt to make technology an intimate part of you, to give you superior human functionality. You’d probably accept an organ transplant or a prosthetic if it improved your physical existence, but would you accept a cognitive-enhancing bio-device or implant that promised to extend your human faculties? This is the domain of augmented reality.

Technology you might learn to use is virtual reality (VR) – it’s a real and attractive possibility for change work. Instead of hearing or reading about a change from the sidelines, imagine experiencing it first-hand, achieving a fuller sense of empathy. How about a workplace where change engagement included a 45 min full-immersion VR experience rather than traditional methods such as email, town hall meetings, and training session? VR is moving beyond gaming and entertainment into real-world applications such as medical training, and opportunities to adapt it for learning and communication seem endless.

Ideas too futuristic to contemplate? OK – so let’s go for technology you could add to your repertoire in 2017. In the not-too-distant past, specialised individuals used typewriters to translate handwritten notes into a printed document – and that’s how people got their resume and cover letter produced. With advances in technology, the expectation shifted to everyone using a word processing tool to create their own documents. A similar leap in skill and personal capability is here: creating and publishing video content.

Video is now the preferred method of communication for consumers, with Cisco predicting that video will account for 82% of all Internet traffic by 2020. Whether to promote yourself or share the details about a change you are activating, creating video content will soon be as common as word processing skills. The leap from printed page to video might sound daunting, but it’s a skill you can master with basic tools and processes (plus practice, just like typing!) – and your audience is more interested in your story than your technique.

We might not have (yet) reached the technological advances that sci-fi author Arthur C Clarke predicted for the early 21st century (video on YouTube), but there’s much of which to be aware. Consider how you might integrate emerging technology and practices into your plans for personal change. Don’t shy away from technological possibilities like AI and cognitive-enhancing technology because they seem too futuristic to contemplate. As change practitioners we should be change-ready to contemplate and prepare for emerging technologies. And let’s make sure that the human factor is never lost in adapting to a technology-rich future.

Got any examples of how you are embracing emerging tech? Please share in the comments below.

Author
Helen Palmer is Founder and Principal Change Agent at Questo. She’s thinking about ways to help others navigate ideas and assumptions in the organisational change workscape. She dreams of a world where people use their personal power and skill to shape the change they’d like to see in their workscape.