future of work – Andrew Bolwell

November 29, 2022March 7, 2023

Insights on workforce automation

The lasting impact of remote work results in a reassessment of the IT infrastructure that enables workforce automation capabilities. Worldwide IT spending is expected to reach $4.5 trillion in 2022 as the post-pandemic recovery continues and remote and hybrid work takes an even greater hold on businesses everywhere. This creates a significant opportunity for companies looking to bridge the gap between home and office work, create remote first solutions, automate workplace processes, and create a more seamless experience for employees.

IT spending is expected to reach $4.5 trillion in 2022

A growing market

Digital products and services will play a critical role in these digital transformation efforts, requiring continued investment in remote-first technology implementations and new technologies. Peerbie, for example, transforms how teams work with one super app for everyone and everything needed to get work done.

It’s estimated that 31% of all workers worldwide will be hybrid or fully remote in 2022. The U.S. is projected to harness the trend, with remote workers reaching 53% of the workforce. A hybrid workforce will continue to increase the demand for PCs and tablets. In fact, in 2021, PC and tablet shipments exceeded 500 million units for the first time in history, highlighting the demand across both business and consumer markets. Hofy offers a device pre-configuration service to give IT teams peace of mind–knowing that any devices they provide are set up correctly and securely–and to spare new hires a tedious first-day setting things up.

A hybrid workforce will continue to increase the demand for PCs and tablets.

The pandemic-fueled growth in the adoption of software robots designed to ease routine office work is making at least one task easier for CIOs: selling the idea to their corporate bosses. The technology — robotic process automation (RPA), or software bots — became a critical tool last year during COVID-19 lockdowns and office closures as companies worked to keep their businesses up and running. Many turned to bots to handle tasks like processing payroll data or expense reports and fielding call-center queries. At the height of the pandemic last year, UiPath said it added more than ten corporate customers daily.

The complexity and interdependency of systems today mean that when something doesn’t work between two entities — be it apps, servers, or something else — the effects can be disastrous unless those overlaps can be detected and mitigated ahead of a live deployment or found and fixed quickly even if they are already out in the wild. Gluware has built a platform that aims to do just that — specifically by providing network orchestration and automation tools that identify and automatically fix when something is about to go awry on a network.

Opportunities to automate common workplace processes are everywhere, which is why automation is becoming a common element of every business. This includes providing good customer service, streamlining the hiring process, or managing marketing campaigns more efficiently. As technology improves, more tasks will become suitable for automation.

Opportunities to automate common workplace processes are everywhere, which is why automation is becoming a common element of every business.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence enable new forms of “smart” automation. As the software learns, the more adaptable it becomes. These technologies open the door for the automation of higher-order tasks in addition to basic, repetitive tasks. There’s much focus now on tasks humans don’t want to do, but in the future, automation will not just be about automating those tasks humans are doing today. Still, it will be about realizing potential opportunities. For example, RPA can automate tedious insurance processes as insurers undergo many manual but critical processes involving disparate systems. RPA can help streamline and automate these processes without changing large amounts of legacy code — assisting insurers in cutting costs in necessary departments like underwriting, claims, and regulatory and compliance, as well as expedite policy decisions.

As data sets become more thorough and available, and as software draws on more sources and synthesizes more data sets, contextual information in human decision-making will only improve. Machine learning will serve as a supplement to–or perhaps even an enhancement to–human knowledge. Combine AI capabilities with improved data retention through the Internet of Things (IoT), and the possibilities are endless. Kadence is building an all-in-one solution for desk booking, room scheduling, people, and visitor management. The company’s platform helps transform workspaces into smarter, safer spaces to create frictionless experiences. It also offers workplace leaders to deliver data-driven insights into how people use spaces to work, enabling clients to manage their spaces when work patterns and workflows change dynamically in response to our ever-changing world.

VC and startup opportunities

Workforce automation sectors are becoming a hotbed for venture capital investing. In 2021, HR technology alone received $12.3 billion in investments worldwide. At the same time, global funding to RPA companies hit a record high of $3.5B, driven predominantly by a handful of mega-rounds (deals worth $100M+). And in the first part of this year, we saw Lattice, a start-up making software to help employers fight the “big quit,” tripling its valuation to $3 billion in 10 months. While Envoy, the leading workplace platform that allows companies to reopen safe and flexible workplaces, secured $111 million in Series C funding led by Brookfield Growth. Envoy’s workplace platform is built to solve the problems of flexible workplaces where teams split their time between home and the office.

In 2021, HR technology alone received $12.3 billion in investments worldwide.

These are exciting times for startups in this space, and these are a few of the ones that have caught our attention.

EthSign is a developer of a decentralized application designed to revolutionize agreement and signing. The company’s application helps to make comments, edit, and access each version of your electronic agreement without privacy and communication concerns, enabling clients to have a simple and decentralized alternative and helping parties to upload a document with pending signatures.

Seatti is a developer of a flexible working platform intended to bring together your hybrid team. The company’s platform provides Microsoft Teams and Office365 integrated SaaS solutions allowing you to book a workspace in or outside of the office and share location plans with the team.

Namely is a developer of a human capital management platform intended to meet the complex demands faced by today’s HR professionals. The company’s cloud-based platform provides tools across payroll, benefits, human resource information, and talent management, enabling mid-sized companies to focus on developing their people and providing a better employee experience.

Diversio is a developer of a people intelligence platform intended to measure, track, and improve diversity, equity, and inclusion. The company’s platform is created using artificial intelligence to bring rigor data, diagnosis, and analysis to help organizations become more inclusive, develop cutting-edge technology, and eliminate barriers to diversity and inclusion. Their platform enables users to trust a platform that values feedback, transparency, collaboration, and impact.

Planless is a developer of a project and task management tool designed to automate teamwork. The company’s intelligent platform takes care of the planning by finding the people in the team who are the best suited to perform a task depending on their knowledge and availability, enabling organizations to focus on their core business.

TeamEQ can accelerate results through intelligent teams for leaders who no longer want to guess the situation of their teams but instead take their decisions based on actual data. Team analytics and intelligence platform designed to transform any group into a high-performance team that exceeds its objectives. The company’s product uses artificial intelligence to track the impact of a person’s actions. It guides people in real-time with transparent data and predictive algorithms while offering tailored people management strategies and training programs for leadership development, enabling businesses to monitor performance, discover and reduce attritions and boost productivity by promoting collective intelligence engagement and well-being.

TenSpot (Future of Work, HRtech) is a workforce engagement platform that helps companies connect and engage distributed teams to boost employee happiness, morale, and productivity. The company’s platform combines live and on-demand content with sophisticated tools that help measure engagement and sentiment, enabling clients to improve their culture, identify leaders, and create a space that welcomes everyone.

The extent to which automation transforms the economy remains to be seen, but it appears inevitable that we’re headed toward a future of more automation. What this means for businesses, workers and consumers will be the subject of enormous debate moving forward. One thing seems inevitable, however: if it can be automated, it will be.

December 10, 2021

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My top 5 TED Talks of 2021

There’s no question that the past two years have been highly disruptive. Our daily lives look entirely different than they did in 2019, and we’ve all had to adapt in one way or another.

One thing that I’m grateful for, however, is that TED has continued to share inspiring and innovative TED Talks throughout this time to give us inspiration and insight. Watching these talented individuals on the stage has become a favorite part of my week as someone who misses in-person public speaking.

Here are my top five TED Talks of 2021:

“We were looking for bliss in a blah day and purpose in a perpetual pandemic. But languishing is not unique to a pandemic. It’s part of the human condition.” –Adam Grant, How to stop languishing and start finding flow, TEDMonterey, August 2021

The pandemic created a massive shift in our lives, and many of us found ourselves sinking into “languishing,” which Adam Grant expertly explains in this TED Talk. After spending nearly two years living through a pandemic, it feels validating to put a name to the feeling that so many of us were experiencing. Even better are the solutions that Grant provides in his talk.

“On today’s internet, we don’t get paid for the work we do with our minds. And what’s more, the content we upload to these services is trapped there. These services not only make money from our content, they control it. Until NFTs.” –Kayvon Tehranian, How NFTs are building the internet of the future, TEDMonterey, August 2021

NFTs surged into popularity in 2021, and people have been trying to explain them ever since. This TED Talk from Kayvon Tehranian does a brilliant job of explaining what NFTs are, as well as their potential to bring the internet into its next evolution.

“This wouldn’t just be better for chickens and cows and pigs and the people who have to farm them and slaughter them and process their meat. This could be better for the whole world.” –Isha Datar, How we could eat real meat without harming animals, TEDMonterey, August 2021

One of my daughters is vegan, and she’s always making creative meals for us to enjoy (like this vegan turkey). She’s inspired me to look into vegan options, but I have to admit that I love real meat, which is why the development of lab-grown meat is fascinating. This TED Talk from Isha Datar dives into the science behind lab-grown meat, as well as all of the incredible benefits that could result from this new means of food production.

“The future of work is not going to be created with top-down, opinion-driven edicts from senior leaders whose day-to-day realities don’t match those of us dual-career, time-pressed and income-pressed people. Of course, senior leaders want to go back. That worked for them. But they have to recognize that for 18 months now; their people experienced unprecedented agency, control, flexibility, trust, and accountability.” –Debbie Lovich, 3 tips for leaders to get the future of work right, TED@BCG, September 2021

There’s no question that the future of work has changed drastically, and the post-pandemic world is likely to see a somewhat permanent shift to remote and hybrid work. As Debbie Lovich says in this TED Talk, it’s time for leaders to embrace the change and learn new methods of leadership and teamwork.

“It’s not just about your commutes. It’s really about changing everything in terms of how we move people, goods and services, eventually.” –Aicha Evans, Your self-driving robotaxi is already here, TEDMonterey, August 2021

Self-driving cars are not a new subject, but Aicha Evans believes their technology has the potential to shift how our world moves entirely. In this TED Talk, Evans discusses how robotaxis could create a high-tech, sustainable, and convenient mode of transportation.

These were some of my favorite TED Talks of 2021, and I’m looking forward to more educational and inspiring talks in 2022!

Share your favorites in the comments.

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April 2, 2020

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Preparing for Gen Z as a Futurist

As a futurist, my job is to anticipate change and stay on top of current trends. There’s a new generation entering the workforce – Generation Z. Following Millennials, this generation includes those born between 1995 and 2010. While being defined as the most ethnically-diverse and largest generation in American history, Gen Z also grew up surrounded by technology, also making them the most tech-savvy generation.

I’ve previously provided some thoughts on thinking like a futurist and today, we’re diving deeper into the role Gen Z plays in the future. Here are my tips for how to collaborate with Gen Z:

1. Put yourself in their shoes

It’s important to acknowledge the obvious differences that divide each generation. For example, Gen Z grew up in a post-9/11 world with new technology and completely different childhood experiences than those of previous generations. With technology constantly at their fingertips, this generation of “digital natives” have had nearly lifelong access to boundless amounts of information at the drop of a hat. In fact, 97% of Gen Z have smart phones and spend more than 4 hours a day online.

And because they’ve never spent a day offline, they are acutely aware of the issues and challenges happening in the world around them. As a result, they are 54% more likely to say they want to have an impact on the world as compared to millennials. Also noteworthy is their attitude towards work and employers; almost half consider what the company does to make the world a better place as important as the salary.

By becoming familiar with Gen Z, and by understanding the different era and experiences they’ve grown up with, you’ll gain a better understanding of how to effectively collaborate with them. Whether it’s through asking questions, doing research, or understanding current trends, you won’t fully see eye-to-eye with this generation until you put yourself in their shoes.

2. Pay attention to what’s important

In the next decade, Gen Z is expected to cause an influx of roughly 60 million job seekers, effectively transforming the workplace. Concerning their careers, Gen Z-ers are very driven and competitive. Nothing motivates them more than achieving success and being rewarded for their good efforts. They value skill development and appreciate feedback, as they are always hoping to improve their performance. A controversial topic amongst Gen Z is the debate over work-life balance. It can be argued that this generation struggles the most with this – 24% say they feel guilty for taking time off work. On the other hand, 39% view work-life balance as a top priority when choosing an employer. Knowing these statistics as an employer can help foster a healthy work environment for future employees.

When choosing where to work, Gen Z will base their decision on the company’s values. This generation’s passion for sustainability, diversity, and inclusion reflects in their expectations for their future employers. Studies show that 77% of Gen Z believes a company’s level of diversity affects their decision to work there.

3. Stay up to date on trends

As any futurist knows, one of the most important ways to prepare for the future is to stay up to date with the latest trends. This applies to Gen Z trends as well. The more informed you are, the more prepared you will be to work with this generation.

Here are some resources for futurists to better understand Gen Z:

We can all benefit from learning from one another. As this new generation enters the workforce, preparing through a lens like this will allow us to better understand and support them in their journey as they embark on this new chapter.

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March 4, 2020March 19, 2020

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Why Robots Aren’t Our Competition

In 2016, I wrote an article titled “Robots Aren’t Taking Our Jobs, They’re Transforming Them,” in response to a flurry of articles I read about robots taking over the workforce in the coming years. Now, nearly four years later, we see the same headlines.

While innovation is happening at an astonishing rate, we’re still nowhere near a Westworld-esque future where robots and automation rule. Robots have come a long way, but still need human expertise and skills to function. Therefore, the outcome is less likely a replacement of humans, but rather a reskilling.

There is a valid concern over the possibility of increasing inequality in our automated future. Once robots enter the workforce fully, most highly-skilled, educated workers are likely to experience a smaller shift in responsibilities than their less-skilled, educated counterparts. In order to adapt, those with fewer skills and education will likely have to expand their abilities to either empower them to work with robots or fall within the realm of abilities that robots currently lack, such as emotional intelligence and creativity.

For those that adapt to work alongside robots and automation, most will experience an increase in job quality, or even safety. For example, customer service professionals have been using AI chatbots for a few years now, and chatbots like bold360 allow the AI to answer the simpler questions, giving the humans more time to focus on complex customer issues. For example, HP’s virtual agent helps its support team sort through nearly 600 million technical support requests each year. There are also bomb disposal robots that use VR to allow soldiers to pilot them while disarming bombs from a safe distance.

It’s predicted that, despite disruption, there is still a net positive outlook for jobs. In other words, though 75 million current roles may be displaced by technology, 133 million entirely new roles may emerge simultaneously. These roles will likely be of two categories, one that deals predominantly with emerging technologies, like IT Services or AI Specialists, and one that provides the exclusively human touch, such as Designers or Human Resources.

Other reports, like this one from Brookings Institute, find that approximately 25% of US jobs are likely to be affected by automation. At face value, this number can seem concerning, but it’s important to remember that the process of implementation will still take time.

In the time it takes for the world to fully implement robots and automation in the majority of work systems, humans will be able to adapt and learn new skills, especially if they are empowered by their employers. Some are calling this the “Skills Revolution,” which refers to the fact that the skills required in the workforce are changing at a rapid pace. In the face of this, workers must embrace continuous learning opportunities, and employers must provide ongoing training to future-proof their employees.

To do just that for your employees, consider the following steps:

Pay attention to trends

As a futurist, I am constantly on the lookout for new Megatrends and patterns that may affect our future. This skill has served me and many others well over the years and has helped HP prepare itself for the years to come.

When it comes to future-proofing yourself in the face of automation, pay attention to new careers and job opportunities. It’s predicted that 65% of the jobs that Gen Z will perform don’t even exist yet. If you are able to spot a job trend and properly prepare for it, you could help usher in an entirely new career field.

Embrace lifelong learning

Gone are the days where you could learn a set of skills, perform them for the rest of your life, and earn a living. Nearly all careers require the occasional training or upskilling, but soon it will be necessary to dedicate time to learning on an ongoing basis. For some, this could mean improving their existing abilities and adding complementary skillsets, but for others it could mean learning an entirely new skill. It’s predicted that 42% of required skills will change by 2022, requiring the average worker to adapt to new tasks such as analytical thinking and negotiation. To adjust to these new skills by 2022, employees will need 101 days of training on average.

Thankfully, there are plenty of resources that will help, like Coursera and Lynda, as well as an emergence of recognized online higher education.

Maintain a growth mindset

How do you cope with challenge and difficulty? Do you give up when you feel that something is out of your range of abilities, or do you accept it as a learning opportunity? To maintain a growth mindset, you must learn to embrace challenges and failure as opportunities for growth, rather than letting them stop you in your tracks.

Read “The Power of ‘Yet’ – Developing a Growth Mindset” for more information!

When you develop a growth mindset, you’re able to have the confidence to push through challenges, and this persistence will help you prepare for our automated future. Whether this is a small shift in your career or a larger transition to an entirely new field, a growth mindset will help you see things through a positive lens.