Human + AI = New Decision Making Model: Gartner

CIOs need to prepare workers for a future in which people do more creative and impactful work because they no longer have to perform many routine and repetitive tasks, according to Gartner. People and machines are entering a new era of learning in which artificial intelligence (AI) augments ordinary intelligence and helps people realize their full potential.

“Pairing AI with a human creates a new decision-making model in which AI offers new facts and options, but the head remains human, as does the heart. Let people identify the most suitable answers among the different ones that AI offers, and use the time freed by AI to create new things,” said Svetlana Sicular, Research Vice President, Gartner.

People and Machines: A New Era of Learning
Although AI will give employees the time to do more, organizations will need to train and retrain their employees in anticipation of AI investments.

“We are entering an era of continuous learning. People will have to learn how to live with AI-enabled machines. When machines take away routine tasks, people will have the time to do more new tasks, so they will need to constantly learn,” said Ms Sicular.

People will also need to learn how to train AI systems to be useful, clear and trustworthy, in order to work alongside them cooperatively.

“It’s about trust and engagement. People need to trust machines — this is the ultimate condition of AI adoption and success,” said Ms Sicular.

Choose Your AI Teacher Well
CIOs are likely to be the leader or instigator of AI initiatives in their organization. While machine learning focuses on creating new algorithms and improving the accuracy of ‘learners’, the machine teaching discipline focuses on the efficacy of ‘teachers’.

The role of teacher is to transfer knowledge to the learning machine, so that it can generate a useful model that can approximate a concept. Machine learning models and AI applications derive intelligence from the available data in ways that people direct them to do. “These technologies learn from teachers, so it is essential to choose your teachers well,” said Ms Sicular.

“As a CIO, you will shape the future of work by how you invest in technology and people. Today, the majority of the CIOs we speak to find themselves amid a proliferation of “bots” (physical robots and software virtual assistants). Adoption of bots in the workplace is rising as workers become increasingly comfortable working with machines and grow more supportive of them,” added Helen Poitevin, Research Senior Director, Gartner.

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