AI will change jobs before it changes job descriptions

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JEREMY MAGGS: Artificial intelligence [AI], I think it’s fair to say, is changing the way we work each and every way. It’s the way in which we do business, the way in which we manage our money.

But while the technology is moving quickly, there is a bigger question about who benefits and whether businesses and consumers are really ready for the changes ahead.

Old Mutual is the headline sponsor of this year’s Singularity South Africa Summit. It’s taking place in Sandton a little later this month, where the focus is going to be on technology, innovation and also, probably most importantly, the future of business.

In that respect, I’m going to talk to Celiwe Ross, who is Old Mutual’s group chief human capital and corporate affairs officer.

Celiwe, welcome to you. We hear so much about the promise of artificial intelligence, as we start this conversation, I wonder if we’re perhaps overlooking sometimes the practical challenges of making it work, something which no doubt will come up at this conference.

CELIWE ROSS: Oh, for sure. I agree with you there are going to be a lot of topical conversations happening at Singularity next week.

And I think the most topical thing that you’ve just raised is that it’s going to reshape areas of our lives in different ways and affect different people differently – because we know that technology, and specifically AI, is already reshaping the lives of our customers, of our employees, and actually the broader economies in which we operate.

So as a long-term institution, as Old Mutual is, we cannot afford to overlook this challenge and look only at technology through the lens of efficiency. It’s not just about that.

Our cause is really to use technology to expand access, to build additional capability, whether that’s in skills or in new lines of business, and also to improve the ability of all people to shape their own futures.

JEREMY MAGGS: I’m glad you use that phrase reshaping lives, because you also argue that tech progress doesn’t automatically translate into human progress. I guess the important thing is to ensure that AI benefits ordinary South Africans, not just large businesses and those who are already digitally connected. Easier said than done, perhaps.

CELIWE ROSS: Yeah, it is. We recognise, Jeremy, that technology just creates possibility. We’ve got to deal with access, with inclusion.

Because of course, technology needs enablement, it needs a phone, or it needs Wi-Fi or cabling that allows people to have access.

So it is just the creator of possibility. It’s actually people and institutions like ours that will determine whether that possibility becomes progress, and that’s about creating access.

That’s a big thing for us at Old Mutual, and we really want to make sure that the outcome depends not just on the choices that we make around access, skills, but there’s also governance, trust, accountability. All of these are enablers to the future that we all seek.

JEREMY MAGGS: Let me come back to trust in just a moment because it’s fundamental to financial services. But before that, what does Old Mutual see as the biggest opportunity that AI presents for South Africa’s economy in the here and now?

CELIWE ROSS: I think for us, the Singularity Summit in and of itself is not simply about sponsoring a technology event.

It’s really about Old Mutual participating in a very important conversation about how exponential technologies can expand both human and institutional capability.

That’s the big thing for us.

We recognise that technology is already changing what is possible, but we also know that progress isn’t automatic, not for everyone.

So we are determined to build the skills, the trust, access and our own institutional capacity that will allow more people to participate. That’s where we believe we have a meaningful role to play.

JEREMY MAGGS: So how then does AI change the relationship between a company and its customers? And what do companies need to do to maintain that trust as more decisions become automated?

CELIWE ROSS: I think that trust is at the base of it all, particularly as a financial services institution, because we trade on trust. People deposit money with us, people pay premiums to us on the trust that when the unfortunate happens we will pay out.

We’ve had to anchor on that for more than 180 years, [which] is how long Old Mutual has existed.

So we just believe that trust is what has allowed us to scale over time, to scale and to endure through 180 years of existence.

It allows us to anchor on innovation and be able to distribute that as much as possible. We believe that people need to understand how technology affects them first, and how their information is being used, and then the fact that there will always be human accountability.

We want to proceed cautiously. We are cautiously optimistic about that technology, but we recognise that our role as an institution and as people in it is to is to make it explainable, is to create accountability to the outcomes that we see.

If we innovate without that trust, Jeremy, we can achieve adoption, maybe in the short term, but we won’t create enduring progress without trust.

JEREMY MAGGS: There is, understandably, anxiety about AI and employment, and that debate is accelerating each and every day. How do you think businesses should be preparing or preparing their people, their staff, for these changes?

CELIWE ROSS: Jeremy, I’m a firm believer that AI will change packages of jobs, so it will change the work before it changes jobs.

There’s a there’s a real inherent understanding we need to develop in what these jobs are meant to do, any job, and what are the composite packages of pieces of work that we do in those jobs.

So as AI changes and automates parts of work, we need to understand and accept that some tasks will disappear. I don’t believe that jobs will wholeheartedly disappear. I happen to be an optimist in this.

I believe that we’re going to redesign roles. I believe that new forms of work will emerge and new roles will emerge. They have to.

So really, we have to double down on the capability and capacity of our leaders to lead this change and not to pretend that there won’t be disruption. There will be. But we need to prepare our people, and that’s through skilling, on some level.

We need to really thoughtfully rethink the design of work and roles and jobs, and then adopt – but adopt in a responsible way.

JEREMY MAGGS: Just finally, and against that very important backdrop at the summit, Old Mutual [will be] showcasing, as I understand it, its Mutual Progress Lab. Very quickly, what can visitors expect and what conversations are you hoping to see or to encourage?

CELIWE ROSS: I hope that people will leave the summit with a greater sense of excitement about what technology will do. We’ll share some of what we’re doing, but a number of the speakers, both local and global, will be sharing perspectives about the future.

I also hope that we ask ourselves some really important questions about what we, as institutions and as people in general across the continent, need to build – what we need to build ourselves, what we need to collaborate to build, what we need to protect that is sacrosanct in our organisations and in our countries, and what we need to sustain around it.

For me, the most valuable outcome of the summit would be a stronger commitment to turning possibility into something that’s more inclusive, something that’s more enduring, that allows us to take a whole lot more people along with us.

JEREMY MAGGS: Celiwe Ross, thank you very much indeed. Old Mutual’s group chief human capital and corporate affairs officer.

Brought to you by Old Mutual Group Communications. 

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