Are Humans Irrelevant?
Soon after the financial meltdown of 2008, and the collapse of hundreds of companies, I suggested that a recession might be the best time to invest in people – impart new skills, new ways of approaching problems, and new algorithms for value creation. A recent article by Gary Burnison of global HR firm Korn Ferry forces me to revisit the topic. A significant number of CEOs seem to believe that humans are increasingly becoming irrelevant . Burnison notes: “More than two-thirds (67%) of 800 CEOs of large corporations believe that technology will create more value in the future than people . Nearly half think that robotics, AI, and automation will make people “ largely irrelevant ” in the future of work. In a rank order of an organization’s top five assets , humans didn’t make the list at all : technology, innovation, product/service, brand, and real estate were the top five assets listed.” At the turn of the century, mobile phones were not as ubiq