Organisations in the age of algorithms

WHEN Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai recently revealed that 25 per cent of the company’s software was now machine-generated, it underscored how quickly artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the workplace.

What does this mean for how we organise and manage? Will there still be room for humans in tomorrow’s organisations? And, what might their work conditions look like? I tackle these questions in my new book Re-Humanize: How to Build Human-Centric Organizations in the Age of Algorithms.

The answers are not a given. They will depend on what we choose to do – what kinds of organisations we design. I make the case that successful organisation designs will have to pursue both goal-centricity (that is, achieving objectives) and human-centricity (that is, creating social environments that people find attractive). A myopic focus on only one or the other will not bode well for us.