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I’m struggling. On the one hand, I want to believe in a utopian future of two-day working weeks and five-day weekends, with AI taking on the heavy lifting of our jobs. On the other, IBM is selling a compelling vision where the busyness of business stays the same – it’s just that we’ll have a bunch of AI assistants to help us be more productive.
It’s all about digital labour, which is set to become a huge part of our working lives. So which way will it land? Robots feeding us grapes or will AI-enhanced humanoid workers be driving our hamster wheels at ever-faster revolutions?
First, let’s get our heads round what we mean by digital labour. In reality, it’s been here for years. It’s Gmail pushing your most important emails to the top, it’s the autopilot taking care of cross-Atlantic journeys, it’s any moment where you delegate a task to a computer.
But the term is becoming more defined. If I head to IBM’s definition of a digital worker, I see “software-based labour that can independently execute meaningful parts of complex, end-to-end processes using a range of skills”. A sentence so ugly that it reminds me of the old quote that a camel is a horse designed by a committee.
Fortunately IBM goes on to give an example of an “accounts payable digital worker” who could help a real-life customer service representative “complete an order to cash process”. In short, the human employee delegates the “basic tasks like collecting documentation from customers or generating reports” to the digital employee.
And digital labour is important. Not only could it fill a recognised skills gap but we humans are fallible. We don’t share knowledge, we forget stuff, we get colds. If organisations can supplement their human workforce with digital workers then it makes absolute sense that those organisations can achieve more.
Perhaps it would help if I gave you some background. Last Tuesday, I spoke to a fascinating guy called Patrick Willer, the founder of Innovation Network, who describes himself as a tech philosopher. At an iiyama event, he told me that “literally within ten years, I don’t think anybody has to work anymore”.
To paraphrase, he sees the abilities of AI increasing so quickly, so exponentially, that humans won’t be able to keep up. And now, he believes, companies need to prepare for an existential change, starting with a new member of the C-level suite: the Chief AI Officer.
“I think it’s a very good idea to have a Chief AI Officer [so] you have somebody that really presents a different way of working across all these departments [such as HR, sales and marketing], because not only service will be replaced, sales will be replaced as well.”
He added: “Over time, I don’t see any significant role for sales anymore in large organisations. Neither do I do see that for marketing.” And that’s the point at which Patrick suggested that within a decade no one will need to work anymore.
Travel with me now to an interview I did later that day with Michael Conway, IBM Consulting’s UK & Ireland AI Lead (it was a busy day). He also believes that AI will transform the way of work, but when I mentioned Patrick’s line of thinking he read the tea leaves in a different way.
“That’s the Marxist school of thought,” he said, drawing on his days as a Philosophy student, “that if you live in a world of plenty you don’t need to work and everyone is looked after. I think what we’ll we see, if we’re living in a world of plenty, is that that will raise the floor.”
In particular, he believes that AI will create new ways for people and companies to compete. “I think everyone will be way more productive and x-hundred per cent better at their jobs, and we will have new jobs that we haven’t thought of before.”
Michael managed to resist predicting his own version of the future, drawing us back to the much closer reality. One where IBM Consulting is already preparing itself for a world of digital labour – including ways that it is enhancing its own staff.
“We are of the deeply held belief that we are at the cusp of an industrial revolution, and it is an industrial revolution at the scale of the brain,” said Michael. “Previous industrial revolutions were at the scale of strength and might.”
That’s why he believes the consulting industry, an industry based purely on intellect, will be “severely disrupted” by AI. “We have invested heavily into a platform that we call IBM Consulting Advantage, ICA, and what that does is give all of our consultants the ability to scale themselves.”
In short, Michael promises, when an IBM Consultant walks through your door they are armed not merely with their intellect but can access the experience and hard-fought knowledge of what has gone before. All accessible as digital assets for employees to draw upon.
“We see the 160-odd thousand people we have in [IBM] Consulting turning up to clients with ten assistants each. So our 160K workforce becomes a 1.6 million workforce.”
Then, two days later, I chatted to Dave McCann, Managing Partner for IBM Consulting in EMEA (it was a busy week). He also sees a future where digital labour grows in importance, where AI agents help us in our jobs by making suggestions and even taking decisions. But he throws another factor into the mix: ethics.
“Every mature enterprise and government is thinking about where is truly the value of a human versus the value of technology,” he said. Until now, he adds, the discussion has been about the type of human required to be in a role. But now the question has moved on to “what type of human with what type of digital labour could actually work?”
But here’s Dave’s killer point: “I don’t think there’s a day that I can see realistically that we will feel ethical about [allowing] technology to do everything. Because to get to that, we would all just be sitting around watching technology deliver GDP and then the government’s getting involved and paying [people via] some simplified equation.”
He added, rhetorically: “Do you think that humans will let technology do everything for that to happen?” After all, he pointed out, most people aren’t even willing to let AI drive their cars – and how would you feel about a robot cleaning your home?
So now we come to my private fear. This isn’t something mentioned by Dave, Michael or Patrick, purely my own inner paranoia.
Here goes: digital labour could actually mean that we all have to work harder.
That seems illogical, I realise, but history is always our lesson book. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, we saw a boom in technological tools – domestic and commercial – that were supposed to free up time. Do we really think we work less now than we did five decades ago?
Or go back further to the famous example of the vacuum cleaner. This was meant to lift the load of housewives (it was a very different time), but all it really did was reset expectations of what a clean, well-maintained home looked like¹.
Likewise in business. Email is a huge time-saver in terms of a single, one-on-one communication, but that has meant we each now send dozens of emails each day rather than one or two well-drafted letters. Let’s not even talk about Slack and Teams.
But one thing is for sure. Just as no modern-day business can get away with a typewriter, no business in the future will operate without digital labour. That future is inevitable; the only thing in doubt is what form it will take.
“Jobs will 100% change,” said Michael, simply. “Those that are using AI will replace those who are not using AI.” And the earlier we all accept that and work it into our future plans, the better.
1. If you don’t believe me, read this 1985 book by Ruth Schwartz Cowan: More Work For Mother: The Ironies Of Household Technology From The Open Hearth To The Microwave
