Digital Transformation: the Organization Challenge
Did you ever ask yourself how the world would be if machines were more intelligent than humans? What would it be like to live in a society controlled by humans and managed by artificial intelligence capable of understanding the human language?
According to Ray Kurzweil, futurist, inventor and Director of the Engineering Department of Google, a future based on Artificial Intelligence is closer than one might think: “the first technology we invented, the spoken word, took hundreds of thousands of years; the written word only took tens of thousands of years; the printed word, hundreds of years. Now we will have changes in a few years. There is an acceleration due to this exponential progress.”
At the “Industry 4.0” Seminar, organized by Argentina’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, Dr. Petra Schaper-Rinkel, a specialist in emerging technology governance at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), confirmed Kurzweil’s statement and was categorical in stating that “a fourth industrial revolution is being envisioned as the motor of the Internet. It has many meanings and brings together multiple technologies, some already consolidated and others in the process of development through disruptive innovations.”
Kurzweil states that the intelligence of a human being is expressed in language and ensures that Google is working to make computers understand natural language. Because “language embodies all human intelligence and there is no way to falsify the human level of understanding of language, it takes a level of human intelligence to do so. If we can master human language, we can master intelligence,” claims the Director of Google.
Revolution with positive prognosis
We are on the verge of a technological revolution that will change the way we live, work, and relate. This paradigm shift raises scenarios with more uncertainties than certainties, but nevertheless generates confidence and optimism in much of the business world. According to the Global Innovation Barometer, a measure published by General Electric every year that collects opinions from more than 400 leaders in 23 countries, 70% of respondees said they have curiosity and positive expectations about the fourth industrial revolution.
Martin Migoya, CEO of Globant, shares this optimism and argues that “we are living during a time when technology, far from replacing human work, is improving it. It [technology] is making it more efficient. Fifteen years ago, we did not imagine the work we are doing now. In the same way, I think that we cannot imagine today the jobs that are going to exist in twenty years, or even ten years from now. So, do not be afraid. Artificial intelligence is like a newborn to be educated”, said the businessman.
The key: to adapt to change
The development of new leadership and the efficient management of human talent will require completely different and innovative skills in the new digital environment; therefore, organizations must be prepared to change and evolve at the speed that this technological transformation requires. Organizations must ensure that all employees have the opportunity to adapt to this new paradigm.
Large multinationals have been immersed in this technological revolution and have had to rethink their business model strategy in order to prepare themselves for the big changes that foreshadow the future of the industry. Gabriela Diaz, Director of Marketing at Ikea, the Swedish furniture retail giant, said: “This change touches the company’s main pillars, such as corporate culture; but also the way we organize, because everything happens in a much more dynamic way. ”
Inclusive Digitization: Have fun to learn
This new digital age directly affects the organization-employee relationship. Consequently, human resources needs a new operating model that allows them to adapt to the new needs resulting from this changing relationship.
Human Resources Specialist Adriana Sclar, People Career Manager responsable for Leadership, Learning & Talent Development at Globant, said: “It is crucial to obtain information in real time that allows us to understand our workers, to know what motivates them, and to understand what aspects of the organization are conflicting with their work performance . The use of technology to generate a more fluid and immediate communication with its collaborators is a ground base that every organization must achieve to face the challenges presented by the new times”.
It is in this context that StarMeUp plays a fundamental role for organizations seeking to adapt to the technological revolution. It is “a platform that allows us to have a daily thermometer on how the organization’s mood is and to promote a very healthy positive feedback that has a lot of development power for people”, said Rafael Bergés, Manager of Organizational Development and Human Resources at Banco Galicia Argentina.
StarMeUp uses gamification to promote employee engagement: it helps to increase knowledge acquisition, allows employees to improve skills already acquired, enhances motivation, concentration, effort, loyalty and other positive values common to all games, in order to generate the maximum possible scope within the organization and to prepare the workers for the challenge of the digital transformation.