Humans and Machines: Planning for Our AI-Augmented Future

Our work of tomorrow is going to look vastly different from the work we do today. Artificial intelligence (AI) is augmenting workers in certain roles, and soon this trend will expand to the vast majority of the workforce, allowing humans to do the work that matters and, in the process, vastly improving workforce productivity and effectiveness. 

Rather than being concerned about a jobless future, organizations are now called upon to prepare for work that’s enhanced through the collaboration of humans and machines. To better understand the augmented workforce, Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work analyzed industry-leading case studies, interviewed industry experts and closely examined the extensive literature on the subject. 

Key insights from our research include: 

• The job of identifying where to embed AI into the workplace is a new discipline for global business leaders. Organizations will need to think beyond the purely technological factors required and address changes across the organizational and cultural realms. 
• Job roles need to be considered as a collection of tasks that are shared by human workers and AI systems. Based on our research, we’ve developed a “task master model,” which can help organizations view jobs as a collection of individual tasks with varying levels of relevance for AI vs. human work, and optimize the capabilities of both. 
• Human resources will be a key player. HR will need to help leaders navigate the shift to an augmented workforce, as well as assess its own transition to AI-human symbiosis. Certain job roles in the HR department will disappear, some will be enhanced, core functions will remain, and new ones will emerge. This is the beginning of a new era for HR.

Download the report below to learn more about the research findings.