We hear a lot about how AI is progressing well these days and how it will help companies with all kinds of efforts from assisting pleasant customer experiences to implementing massive automation efforts. Well, it looks like AI will make it this time and there is a low probability that there will be another AI winter coming. So now we all have to deal with living with AI. I have been contemplating working with AI in my life, so I question how will AI help me and how do I work with it? Will AI be like other technology that I have to learn to for life success or will it be more like a person that I have to get along with to thrive in the future? Will AI make our lives better or should we be practicing for those apocalypse scenarios I keep reading about? I think the answer will vary by roles in life that we play and where AI will add value to our lives. I think AI is evolving but in a good way.

As an employee, we are asked to do all kinds of work tasks. Some are fun, some are necessary, and some are just distasteful or boring. In some job roles, the tasks can be plain dangerous. In the case of unsavory tasks, I see AI in software or physical robots stepping in and freeing us to more fun creative and fun work. Even these fun tasks will likely require vast amounts of information, knowledge and even wisdom that AI can help with in the future. I see AI giving us an edge in boosting our ability to consume and leverage knowledge on a grand scale even outside of our native skillsets, culture bases, and language capabilities. This borders on super mental powers for certain kind of work tasks and outcomes. I am optimistic that we will be safer, smarter and more engaged because of AI. While AI will displace, it will also skill assist those that are replaced. I think we will have to learn how to collaborate with AI and optimize the interactions to desired outcomes. Consequently, we may have to learn how to better communicate with AI better and leverage it along the way to feeling comfortable with AI, all while optimizing our collective productivity.

As consumers, we all want an experience that gets us to our goals in the most pleasant fashion all while being informed transparently. While there may be many hidden complexities in dealing with organizations as a customer, we expect that our goals are being attained optimizing around our time, information needs and efforts. The reality is that organizations were initially built to maximize their outcomes and profits. With the advent of customer journeys, combined with AI, the complexities and company needs can fade in the background while customer needs are being represented within organizational systems, interfaces, and constraints. In fact, AI can help consumers with picking the right organization to work with initially by digesting large amounts of social and legal data, usually represented by textual comments and suggesting best-fit approaches to a specific consumer, prospect or existing customer. This puts the power back in the hands of the consumer before the sale. Once a consumer becomes a customer, AI can help future servicing interactions with emotion detection and emergent responses to the mood of the customer (damage control in some situations, upsell in other cases).  

Most of us are all trying to become better people and even better citizens. AI can also play a role in helping us in everyday lives. In the case of multi-cultural interactions, AI can help us with language translation and avoid subtle cultural missteps. AI can also help us with interactions with people that are in our network by giving us advice on the proper way to behave or respond in context. If I am talking to my boss or my significant other AI can help me with framing my answers in context. I imagine AI whispering into my earpiece with that perfect suggestion. Also, I could take an inventory or a set of tests for AI to suggest steps for self-improvement. For instance, if I wanted to be a better artist, AI could recommend video training based on looking at my completed art projects. In the same way, AI could suggest some better writing techniques based on ingesting a number of my blogs. AI as a personal trainer of sorts on any number of topics for which I have set some stretch goals makes sense to me. In some cases, AI will assist those that have to overcome physical or mental challenges. You see AI assisted prosthetics emerging today. The potential for self-help is high and emergent.

While there is always the possibility that AI will go wrong, particularly in the hands of evil people, but I believe AI will add value to our lives over time. Will the robots ban together to wipe out humanity? I don’t think so, but the reality is that the military will use it for defensive and offensive purposes. Just like any technology, AI can be used for good or bad. I think AI will help us in ways we haven’t imagined yet. How will it help me? In so many ways and some ways, I don’t see coming.