Additive AI: beyond automation and augmentation, an agenda for the job creation we will need in the coming decade(s), Mark Kennedy

Professor Mark Kennedy
Professor of Strategy and Organisational Behaviour, Department of Management and Entrepreneurship
Director, Data Science Imperial
Imperial College London
United Kingdom

Abstract

As AI became a viable substitute for human labour, forecasts predicted half of all U.S. jobs could be automated, inviting comparisons to the Industrial Revolution. Historically, automation mainly affected lower-skilled work, but AI is re-shaping higher-skilled jobs, too, especially by augmenting tasks within them. Whilst these dire predictions have been questioned, the pace of change is accelerating now as AI is already reducing demand for new hires and transforming work in medicine, law, engineering, business, and research. Nonetheless, the future history of AI will be about sustaining the knowledge sources it learns from, not eliminating the work that produces and illustrates that knowledge. One way to address this is to shift efforts into creating new work, sustainably. To that end, I propose an additive agenda for AI-and for people. Instead of focusing on systems that will replace people, additive AI is about combining the best of human and artificial intelligence to tackle problems that shorten or reduce our quality of life-not just for the wealthy, but for everyone. To make this practical now, we will cover the social forces already propelling additive AI, the solid foundations it builds on, and FIRST, a practical strategy framework for concept ideation. Our aim is to give you intuitions and a framework for sketching service designs that will transform knowledge-intensive work and professional services to extend their benefits to wider demographics.