Throughout the first three industrial revolutions, humans have learned to leverage machines to automate various tasks. We use machines to augment our limited physical strength, endurance, memory, and computing capability. However, until recently, there were no machines to augment our decision-making capability. Hence, most of the high-paying jobs in the post-industrial era involve skilled labor that requires substantial decision-making. Only the most mundane and mindless tasks are automated by mechanical machines. Yet, many of these machines still require human operators to make decisions, whether it’s as complex as driving a truck, or simply deciding when to switch a machine on and off.
Today, as AI-based technologies become more pervasive, machines can augment our cognitive capacity and automate our complex decision-making processes for the first time. This will dramatically change the way we work, leading to the Fourth Industrial Revolution[1]. Many tasks that were reserved for humans and require some level of human decisions, can be automated as long as we can collect enough data to train an AI to mimic those human decisions and actions.
One of the most significant benefits of AI is the huge efficiency it brings. Since many tasks can now be automated completely and without humans being the bottleneck, they can be executed much faster. Moreover, since AI does not need to eat or sleep, it can work 24/7, leading to further productivity increase. As with any machine automation, AI can eliminate careless human errors, and provide greater consistency in our complex decision-making processes.