Balancing human talent and intelligent automation

BUSINESSES in Singapore have hit a productivity plateau. According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry's 2016 Economic Survey of Singapore, the nation's labour productivity - measured by value added per worker - increased by only one per cent last year.

Singapore is not alone. The recently published OECD Compendium of Productivity report shows a slowdown in productivity growth in many of the world's economies over recent years. This indicates that it is becoming increasingly difficult for organisations to get more productivity out of employees using traditional optimisation approaches.

However, the emergence of artificial intelligence technologies - notably intelligent automation - will take human capabilities to levels far beyond anything we can currently comprehend. Intelligent automation will go beyond enablement and actually augment the human workforce, opening new avenues for productivity as machines process data and surface insights beyond the capacity of humans.