If you want to beat the bots, be more human – Says Project Management Institute

If you want to beat bots, be more human – Says Project Management Institute

If you want to beat bots, be more human, says the Project Management Institute

Hollywood usually portrays artificial intelligence as evil. In the absence of funny movies like Wall-E, the robots of the reel world are relegated to the antagonists to destroy humanity. These tropes are seen in movies like Terminator, 2001-A Space Odyssey, Ex Machina etc.

While the movies give us a glimpse of what to expect from AI, the plot is inspired by Mark Twain’s words, “don’t let reality get in the way of a good story.” But we may be closer than you think. Blake Lemoine, a software engineer with Google, claimed last year that Google accidentally created a sentient AI chatbot system called the Language Model for Dialogue Applications. He claimed in a media interview that he found some evidence of his sentiments. He was acquitted and the claim was quickly refuted.

There is still a long way to go before robots match the basic skills of humans. However, in the past decade, AI and robots have entered our homes and workplaces, and invaded our factories. Automation is predicted to replace 20 million manufacturing jobs by 2030. Globally, by 2020, there will be 3 million industrial robots in operation – a 10% increase from 2019.

Technological advances add pressure to an already saturated job market. According to Trading Economics, Ghana’s unemployment rate remains unchanged in 2020 to 2021 at 4.70 percent. Data from the Institute of Statistics, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, has revealed that only 10 percent of graduates find work after the first year of completing school. While fewer jobs are being created each year, a lack of soft skills in many graduates is holding them back. More than once the job market has complained about half-baked graduates so opting for technology as a place-filler.

So where are the safe places in Africa? In Kenya, for example, having a bachelor’s degree can protect you from losing your job by at least 21%. According to Zipia, estimates show that at least 50% of the work done by those without a college degree can be automated with existing technology.

“Whether you are an architect, a project manager, or a software developer, your job also affects your stakeholders and delights your customers. Hybrid and WFH mandates demand collaboration in other functional areas. These and other soft skills such as communication, emotional intelligence, and empathy is an ability that AI cannot replicate and that must be honed,” said George Asamani, MD, Sub Saharan Africa, PMI.

“That’s why we call it power skills. As humans, we are (still) better than computers in many of these creative and relationship-based activities.

Soft skills indicate future job performance more than hard technical skills. He brings people’s instincts and passion to the work and people to the surface. A study by Deloitte states that soft skill-intensive jobs will grow 2.5X faster than other jobs, and in 2030 soft skills jobs will make up 63% of all jobs.
Asamani added, “There is a gap between business demand for soft skills and their availability in the workforce.”
The majority (92%) of talent professionals and recruiting managers surveyed by LinkedIn say that soft skills are more important in recruiting than hard skills. Less than 90% say that bad employees are usually those who need soft skills. The research also shows that while hiring managers have specific demands for hard skills and experience, soft skills are critical drivers of success.

As Elon Musk and others move the needle on the technological singularity, whether ordinary humans will be overtaken by AI or cognitively enhanced biological intelligence, it becomes more critical than building soft skills.

As AI and automation continue to advance, tasks that humans do today will be done by machines. This means that jobs available to humans in the future will require creativity, problem solving, and emotional intelligence, which are difficult to automate.

On the contrary, as AI finds more applications in other industries and becomes increasingly complex, there will be a demand for people who can work with and manage these systems, and soft skills like communication, teamwork, and leadership will become important.

As AI and automation continue to change jobs, PMI recommends that people master skills in How to Work, Power Skills, and Business Acumen to prepare for the future.

“To defeat bots, it’s time to look again at humans,” Asamani said.

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