Many pundits have long predicted the automation of managerial tasks. A transformational technology-fueled wave is poised to transform business as we know it.
The advent of what some are referring to as “The Second Machine Age” is well underway. As a result business management as an industry sector is likely to shed a significant number of workers who will be replaced by artificial intelligence.
Don’t conceptualize this shift as a brilliantly designed mentation from a science-fiction story. Instead picture a living, breathing, much smaller staff dedicated to managing productive activity but not people, per se. It is the dawn of the age of the technician in American industry.
Imagine the disruption that is just around the corner. Applying increasingly complex algorithms to optimizing staff inevitably leads to the specter of a shrinking need for middle managers. After all computers are relentlessly efficient with a take-no-prisoners approach to eliminating all but absolutely essential tasks.
As in most rapid technological changes, it’s hard to predict with accuracy exactly how business managers will contribute to fostering ROI in the coming years. Yet this major push towards science-based management will drive the change. The search for greater efficiency in business processes will likely take the world by storm.
Yet we humans are incredibly adaptable. We will create more efficient work structures, but at the same time, we must keep a humanizing element in place. Technology will never replace intuition, wisdom and experience: three qualities essential to business management.
Prepare for disruption. Yet also look forward to an age of greater efficiency, which will eventually translate into a managerial environment in which managers have more time to solidify productive, enjoyable working relationships between management and staff.
Yes, it’s a brave new world, but one that we will soon inhabit. It’s time to prepare for a new age in business management.