From Humans to Hybrids: Preparing Your Workforce to Thrive in the Future: PHILIPP M DIESINGER

Dr. Philipp M Diesinger has occupied key roles in data science since 2009. His career includes a post-doctoral position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Data Science Consultant at SAP and Head of Global Data Science at Boehringer Ingelheim. Dr Diesinger’s specialisms include Predictica Analytics and machine learning.

Here, Philip considers how the influence of ever-evolving AI and globalisation is prompting a shift from a human-centric to a hybrid workforce. How are workplaces best suited to collaborate with AI, and what benefits does such a collaboration offer over traditional teams?
Consistent and sustainable growth of the world economy will remain critical to overcome the significant challenges that lie ahead of human kind. One of the most promising drivers for economic growth is the creation of new efficiencies in the workforce with AI. The next decade will present the opportunity to move from a human to a hybrid workforce where GenAI technologies support us seamlessly.

Over the next few decades, humanity will face significant global challenges; including the need to transform economic models towards more sustainable growth (not relying on large-scale resource exploitation) and to address global environmental pollution. Meeting these challenges will require significant resources and a sustainable, growing world economy.

History has shown that extended periods of economic growth can not only provide the resources needed to solve urgent problems, but also reduce tensions and create opportunities for global collaboration. Such periods of sustained growth are often based on significant technological breakthroughs that boost workforce productivity across sectors.

The anticipated transition from a purely human workforce to a hybrid workforce, where humans and AI-systems collaborate closely and seamlessly, qualifies as such a technological leap. This new type of workforce will be supported by AI systems that effectively provide every worker with an expert companion for almost every field imaginable, leading to significant jumps in efficiency. GenAI companions will be able to write emails, organise calendars, draft presentations, write code, produce ad-hoc reports leveraging complex data analysis, search through vast amounts of unstructured data and provide relevant information for insightful and fact-based decision making. They will complement human weaknesses by not only providing strong communication skills but also expert domain knowledge where it is needed. This may even turn formerly unsuited candidates into potential hires.

Organisations must begin preparing their workforce to enable a smooth and successful transition to the new way of working. Roles and responsibilities, ways of working, policies, processes and hiring practices need to be adapted for the transition to a hybrid workforce if companies want to benefit from increases in efficiency, robust economic growth and ensure competitiveness.

The integration of human and AI workers into a ‘hybrid workforce’ represents a unique opportunity for sustainable economic growth and addressing global challenges in the coming decades. Urgent workforce transformation is required to enable this transition and to boost productivity; ensuring growth and competitiveness across most industry sectors and professions globally.

The future work model will feature close collaboration between humans and AI systems, similar to having an expert for every field available at all times. AI can handle routine and repetitive tasks, freeing up human workers to focus on more complex and creative work requiring human judgment and creativity. This model is expected to significantly improve productivity and quality.

In a hybrid workforce, tasks can be completed much more quickly while also achieving higher levels of quality. A hybrid workforce is anticipated to convincingly outperform traditional human teams, as AI can compensate for an individuals’ weaknesses and unlock their full potential. This combination of human expertise and AI assistance can result in highly efficient and effective workflows, leading to superior outcomes for organisations.

To successfully transition to a hybrid workforce, organisations must tackle numerous transformational challenges:

Understanding the potential challenges and risks of the transition towards a new work model and addressing these proactively.
Investing in talent and skills and updating roles and responsibilities to encourage collaboration between humans and AI. Investments in training and development programs to build the necessary skills within the organisation.
Understanding the potential impact of a hybrid work model in their respective industry sector and forming a clear ‘hybrid workforce strategy’ to maximise benefits. This includes identifying areas where AI can be most effective and training workers to collaborate with AI tools while ensuring these align with the organisation’s overall goals and values.
Recognise the potential of AI to augment human abilities: instead of viewing AI as a threat to jobs, organisations can recognise the potential for AI to augment human abilities, allowing workers to be more efficient, effective, and creative.
In the future, organisations will likely connect and train existing third-party large-scale AI systems (“LFMs”) with their in-house data to develop unique AI systems that can strongly support their specific needs. To achieve this, organisations must prioritise data collection and management to ensure that they have high-quality data to train such models. Given that AI systems are heavily dependent on data quality, organisations might need to consider establishing efficient data management practices and invest in data analytics to derive insights that can inform decision-making processes. By doing so, organisations can ensure that their hybrid workforce model is built on a solid foundation of accurate and reliable data, which is essential for achieving optimal performance and productivity.
The development of new frameworks will be required to deal with rapid advances in technology in a timely manner. These include: regularity compliance, data privacy and security, ethical considerations and technological considerations.
Seamless and efficient collaboration between human and AI workers requires a culture that values and encourages collaboration and communication. Organisations can promote such hybrid collaboration and provide opportunities for workers to learn and develop together.
As the field evolves rapidly, it is important to foster collaboration with other organisations and share knowledge and best practices. This can include participating in industry groups, attending conferences, and collaborating with academic institutions.
It will be critical to ensure ethical and responsible use of AI as well as transparency and safety. A hybrid work model raises important ethical and social considerations, such as bias and the potential for misuse. Organisations should be proactive in addressing these issues. As AI becomes more integrated into the workforce, it is important to prioritise transparency and ethical use. Organisations can be transparent about how AI is being used and ensure that workers understand and are comfortable with the technology.

Transitioning towards a hybrid workforce is a very significant opportunity for sustained economic growth. The process towards workforce readiness needs to begin now, in order to ensure a smooth and successful transition.