Artificial intelligence and automation are moving faster than governance can keep up, reshaping the nature of work and customer experience. When enterprises deploy tools without a clear strategy, they risk fragmenting processes and undermining long-term trust.
Quick wins in automation often morph into disconnected “random acts” that remove humans too quickly from critical processes, according to Craig Le Clair (pictured), vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc. His recent book, “Random Acts of Automation,” highlights back-office and customer-facing functions where employees and customers alike often feel abandoned, urging companies to incorporate empathy, governance and value tracking into every rollout.
“I have a chapter on customer self-service,” Le Clair told theCUBE. “I call it self-service hell. We’re just driving people off a cliff by just pushing automation at them. You just watch the 80-year-old woman trying to read the four-point font on the avocado to scan it at the kiosk. There are many examples where we’re taking humans out of the process too rapidly, and that’s something that was not predicted.”
Le Clair spoke with theCUBE’s Dave Vellante and Rebecca Knight at UiPath Fusion, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the risks of fragmented automation, the rise of AI agents as co-workers and the skills workers will need to succeed in an AI-driven economy. (* Disclosure below.)
From random acts to real strategy in the automation age
The book provides an insider’s view of a technology culture that has long prized eliminating workers over improving work. Digital elites — those creating the next wave of AI — must temper hubris to avoid deepening divides between the privileged and everyone else, according to Le Clair.
“Most of my career has been in automation, and mostly what automation does is it reduces human effort,” he said. “In many cases, in projects that I’ve worked on and tech companies I’ve worked for, the goal has been eliminating workers. I kind of felt like I would like to do something that might help workers since most of my life has been automating the amount of jobs. I worked for a vendor for years before I got a more honest living as an analyst.”
Organizations also need to rethink roles, skills and accountability in a world where AI agents become co-workers. For example, companies are already merging IT and human resources teams to manage both people and agents under one umbrella, according to Le Clair.
“These AI agents are real and they’re going to be our coworkers,” he said. “I talked a lot about what I call AX, the agent experience, and I isolated six generic roles in companies and said, ‘These are the five skills we need, and it’s not one size fits all.’ Interaction skills are more important for creative types, and critical thinking skills are more important for expert roles. I was interviewing a Brazilian chemical company, and they’re merging their IT department with their HR department because they’re thinking, ‘We’re going to be managing AI agents as well as people.’”
Building worker agency in an AI-driven economy
The book encourages workers to take control of their futures by developing skills that blend human touch with technological fluency. Physical agility, device proficiency and critical thinking are all paths toward resilience in an AI-driven economy, according to Le Clair.
“There is a blueprint there for, depending on what category you’re in, how to stay there or to move up,” he said. “The advice is [to] think about it … and study it .. You can’t ignore it. You have to develop these critical skills, including critical thinking. You have to ramp up your human touch point integrations.”
Device skills and physical environment expertise can also help workers pivot from vulnerable jobs into emerging roles, according to Le Clair. The average high school graduate already has competencies that can open doors to warehouse automation, maintenance and AI operator jobs.
“If you’re working at McDonald’s or in retail food, get out of it, but use your device skills,” Le Clair said. “The average high school graduate has device skills that give them many, many jobs, manipulating flat screens and warehouses, actually maintaining physical robotics in these physical environment places.”
Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of UiPath Fusion:
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for UiPath Fusion. Neither UiPath Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)
Photo: SiliconANGLE