Author: albe@mip.polimi.it

Manufacturing 4.0. The Future is Now

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If there’s a widespread misperception regarding Industry 4.0, then it’s the idea of considering it as a revolution which, although imminent, has yet to happen. Nothing could be further from the truth: Industry 4.0 is now. The transformation is already taking place, and if, on the one hand, many companies are adopting the most innovative technology and are rethinking the frontiers and forms of their business, on the other, there are those that still resist.

“It’s impossible not to embrace this transformation,” said Sergio Terzi, Director of the Management Academy at the MIP and Co-director of the Industry 4.0 Observatory, as he opened proceedings at the round table on Industry 4.0: How companies are evolving. This took place at the MIP Politecnico di Milano as part of MBA Day on 9 March.

Also taking part were Antonio Bosio, Head of Product and Solutions at Samsung, and Ilker Ahmet Kalali, Head of Industrial Engineering and Smart Manufacturing at Pirelli Tyre. The event also took an in-depth look at the various formats of the MIP’s MBA programme (International Full Time MBA, International Part Time MBA and Distance Learning MBA).

Bosio and Kalali both explained how their companies, which are leaders in their respective fields, are reshaping their strategies. They also talked about the new opportunities and challenges that are presented by Industry 4.0. Samsung, for example, is placing a lot of emphasis on B2B2C (business to business to consumer). We are inclined to see the Korean multinational as a company that makes  smartphones and electrical appliances  for the consumer market. “The fact of the matter is that we work with a lot of companies,” Bosio explained. “It’s true we do develop technology for the home, but we then use it for a range of different businesses. This is consumerization. Let’s think, for example, about wearables like smartwatches, which today are seen as gadgets, whereas they have important applications in the industrial sector where they can simplify manufacturing processes and help increase productivity”.

Augmented reality also plays a role: “We’re working in experimenting technology that enables clients to browse through infinite virtual catalogues and to try out different pairs of glasses without having to put them on physically”.

Such technology is, however, also useful in production plants, says Kalali: “Augmented reality provides workers with a guide in real time, by showing them the output of the various steps that have to be taken.”

The concept of personalisation is another cornerstone of Industry 4.0. It’s also crucial for Pirelli Tyre: “Today clients increasingly demand highly personalised products that are designed for their specific needs. This is particularly true for Pirelli in the case of the top end of the market. The company has to be predictive rather than reactive, and in order for that to happen it needs to concentrate on two elements: connectivity and data analysis. These are two tools which, when used alongside a scientific approach towards behaviour  analysis, can produce remarkable results. Above all, they can help create added value.”

This is a major challenge because, as Kalali went on to explain, it cannot be separated from sustainability, a concept that companies must play a leading role in promoting.

According to Bosio, “In order to bring all these elements together, Industry 4.0 needs to understand, innovate and obtain results.” Engineering alone isn’t enough: it needs to go hand in hand with creativity and determination. Or, as Kalali put it, “It requires brain and not just brawn”

 

Why networking and social interaction are so important in digital learning!

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“Boarding completed!” It’s 7pm and I am ready to fly to Milano after a long and busy day in my home city, Tirana. Tomorrow, it’s back to school. We have another face-to-face week, a bootcamp organized at the premises of MIP Politecnico di Milano. I have the chance to meet up with some of my classmates again, but it’s not only this. This is a good opportunity to meet other international students, studying at MIP Politecnico di Milano or at other business schools, as part of the international exchange program between business schools and universities around the world.

In general, there is prejudice toward online studying, based on the fact that learning isn’t just an intellectual activity, but a social one. This is why many people would prefer traditional, as opposed to online learning, for the ultimate reason of avoiding the feeling of isolation and missing out on social interaction during the studying process. That was my concern too, when I first decided to register for an international online EMBA program.

But as this challenging and important journey reaches its end, I no longer have any doubts about the choice I made almost two years ago. The social interaction aspect of  the “online learning” process is not lacking at all, but of course it has changed form, through the use of digital platforms, just as the concepts of learning and knowledge have significantly changed lately. As Barr and Tagg say, “a college is an institution that exists to produce learning” (Barr, Tagg, 1996); it is obvious that there is an evolving shift from teaching to learning, which means more active participation in the gaining and sharing of knowledge among the participants of a learning community.

The first tangible aspect of this online EMBA program was the inclusion of a “warm-up” period at the very beginning of the journey, which helped us a lot in establishing the desired social interaction within our newly created community. The kick-off week in Milano was perfectly organized to support and facilitate the distance learning process over the following 2 years. It was a week full of discussions, emotions, curiosity, building trust through getting to know each other, training in self-awareness and soft skills, necessary for laying the groundwork for new friendships and a great network.

Another positive aspect of this virtual environment is the fact that the learning process is mostly based on working groups, facilitated by the MIP online learning platform. The roles and team members are continually changing for each course, thus giving everyone the opportunity to work with all the other classmates, as well to exercise leadership skills within a team, several times during the EMBA program. Alongside the clips presented by the professors and the weekly Q&A live sessions, in every course of this EMBA program we are engaged in virtual discussions within a team, where everyone must contribute something substantial to the project work: we can acquire information from the others, combined with that which we bring into the discussion based on our backgrounds and previous experiences.

Having said that, we have the opportunity to push our understanding beyond our own limits, by considering the ideas shared by other classmates in small groups. This kind of “learning by sharing” has the attributes of collaborative learning, as everyone within the class is changing their role from performing as an individual to creating knowledge as a group. The size of the group (four or five) is another important element to support collaborative learning in this virtual learning environment. In this way, knowledge creation is socially shared through the participation in virtual teamwork and on several video-forums organized on social platforms, such as Yammer. It means that the professors start to be more and more like coordinators, mediators or tutors in this learning process.

Last but not least, social interaction should be fed continually to stay alive and healthy in a remote environment. Almost every day we have some brief conversations for social networking within the group, trying to keep in touch with our classmates through different communication channels. The WhatsApp group created during the kick-off week in Milano has been kept active all the time, by posting comments, asking questions or sharing personal information to celebrate together, as part of a newly created set of friendships that helps us to motivate each other during this difficult and demanding period in our lives.

As I have already mentioned in one of my previous articles, we had the chance to prove the importance of our network, and the fact that social interaction through digital learning is so relevant and true, when we met face-to-face for the second time, with all the i-Flex students on the MIP International Executive MBA program. Everyone was so happy and enthusiastic to meet up again, but this time in the beautiful city of London. During the week, we had the opportunity to further strengthen our relationships within the group, having the chance to get to know each other better, not only during the day on campus, but also by enjoying the events organized together after school time, such as sightseeing around the city, visiting museums or having fun together in London’s very nice old pubs and restaurants. The positive energy created during that week was our motivation for a long time to keep going through the online learning process, while working and fulfilling family responsibilities.

The future of the labor market is smart working and I must confirm that this online platform was the best opportunity for me to recognize how to communicate, interact and socialize with people online and how to enlarge my professional network through digital means of communication.

 

About the author
 Elivar Golemi

Elivar Golemi is an Albanian candidate at MIP International Flex EMBA. She is working as an Executive Director in the dairy industry, after a long experience in the banking system. Skilled in Financial Analyses, Risk Management and Internal Audit. Nature lover, passionate photographer and mountain climber.

 

 

Luxury in the time of Instagram

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Once upon a time there were glossy magazines. Now there’s Instagram. And luxury brands are taking advantage of it.

With due caution, however, because if on one hand the opportunity to address potential customers directly is huge, on the other we’re talking about a world whose rules are constantly changing.

Finding a balance between community involvement and preserving one’s status isn’t at all easy. «Luxury has always worked on the idea of exclusive distribution and on a consequent communication», explains Professor Fabrizio Maria Pini, Director of the International Master in Luxury Management at Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management. «Digital media, instead, in the beginning was perceived as something undefined and standardized. In a context in which everyone could create everything, the showcasing of a luxury product, which is characterized by its high symbolic and narrative content, seemed to lose its fascination. There’s a big difference between a digital showcase and a boutique».

The social media landscape is so varied and fluid that it becomes impossible to identify a single strategic model: «Luxury companies can adopt extremely innovative strategies, with which they immerse themselves in the communicative flow of social media, interacting directly with users and potential customers, or to the contrary remain attached to models that are actually still quite similar to the publication of magazine ad campaigns».

However, luxury brands certainly haven’t just stood and watched over the years. «They started late but are now forging ahead» says Pini. And numbers confirm it. In particular, Instagram has shown itself to be the most appetizing for fashion brands. In 2017 a study carried out by L2, a company specialized in digital performance metrics, reported 53% growth in the number of followers. Thanks also to fashion bloggers: Professor Pini defines them as «luxury translators, who in the beginning knew how to take advantage of unchartered social territory. While first they were perceived almost as enthusiastic groupies, today they are perhaps the concrete embodiment of the change of the relations of strength in the world of fashion. At the expense, for example, of more institutional actors that are perceived as being more qualified, like journalists».

«It is precisely the influencers, now, who act as a filter and link between the brand and its potential consumers» continues Pini. «While previously customers followed a brand, now brands must try to break into the conversation, because being found has become more problematic».

The current transition phase also leaves room for experimenting with new production strategies, perhaps with the use of new profiling strategies. The leitmotiv in this case is the same: «Some companies continue to think of collections and lines in a traditional way, younger brands instead start with community involvement».

However, daring also means risking. One false step is enough to generate a reputation crisis, which is much more difficult to manage than in the past: «The rules of conversation are different from those of communication, and icons usually communicate, they don’t converse» reflects Fabrizio Maria Pini. «In addition, social conversations are very rapid, while large and structured companies are necessarily slower to react. To gather the information needed for a response, at times it can be necessary to involve different corporate functions. In the meantime, however, other stories take hold on social networks and become dominant. Thus, there is a struggle between narratives and myths. But sometimes there’s nothing to do but to apologize and admit one’s mistakes. This is also a big difference compared with the past: in other times brands didn’t take into consideration the idea of declaring themselves wrong».

Master Financial Technology with an MSc Fintech Degree

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Business schools are racing to offer masters degree programs in financial technology (fintech), as employer demand skyrockets for professionals who can use tools like artificial intelligence to boost financial institutions’ efficiency, generate new products or services for them, and help the big firms avoid being disrupted by nimbler startups.

And despite knowing that it is risky to offer a course on volatile and controversial markets such as cryptocurrencies (for example), as they could disappear as quickly as they emerged, schools are enhancing their brands with the fintech offerings, as students and employers demand them.

“I think a course in fintech was a must,” says Emilio Barucci, director of the International Master in Fintech, Finance and Digital Innovation at MIP Politecnico di Milano in Italy, in order to maintain MIP’s status as a leading technology university.

[…]

An increased demand for fintech skills

Business schools say the catalyst for the introduction of fintech courses has been high and growing demand among finance employers for trained professionals, who can use digital technologies, such as data science techniques.

[…]

Across the world, financial services firms are struggling to attract talent with a mixture of business smarts and technical acumen. In a recent employer survey by Hays Financial Markets, a recruitment firm, 61 percent said they faced moderate to extreme skills shortages, with technology among the most sought-after skills.

[…]

The demand is global. According to a 2018 report by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), 7,800 jobs were added to the fintech and financial services sectors in 2016-2017 in the city-state, with fintech alone contributing close to 2,000 net jobs, far exceeding a target set by the MAS.

[…]

However, financial institutions’ automation of some activities, has raised concerns that jobs could disappear as a result. A Citigroup report forecasted that fintech could cost almost 2m bank employees their jobs over the next decade.

So far, displacement has mostly affected staff in banks’ brick-and-mortar retail branches, as banks do more online and cut branches, and staff in “back office” functions, such as those working in settlements, who make sure that payments are processed.

Technology could free up “front office” workers, such as investment bankers, to do more interesting jobs. For example, several investment banks use AI to help determine the best way to execute big trades by reading market conditions. The AI comes up with the trading optimization strategy, but it’s validated by humans. In one case, the method achieved annualized returns that outperformed a benchmark index.

[…]

How MSc Fintech courses are keeping pace with the industry’s rapid change

But what exactly should be taught in fintech masters programs and who should teach it? With the field evolving so quickly, how are academics keeping pace with market developments?

[..]

MIP uses case studies in its fintech masters program that were developed by companies such as Aviva, Deloitte and IBM. “The companies help us in updating the course according to the evolution of the industry,” says Barucci.

 

Gianluca Spina Memorial Scholarship

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Again this year, MSCPM, MEM, MPAM and International Full Time MBA students have the chance to apply for the Gianluca Spina Memorial Scholarship, provided by the Associazione Gianluca Spina. The scholarship is named after Gianluca Spina, who was the Dean of MIP Graduate School of Business and Full Professor in Business Management and Supply Chain Management at the Department of Management Economics and Industrial Engineering of Politecnico di Milano.

For further information about call and deadlines, please write to infomasters@mip.polimi.it

From chief accountant to strategic enabler: the evolution of the CFO

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«If the pilot of a company is the CEO, the role of co-pilot is undoubtedly filled by the CFO». This statement from Matteo Rinaldi, CFO of Sandoz Italia and former student at MIP Politecnico di Milano Graduate School of Business, expresses well the central role financial directors now play in corporate organizational charts. In the last five-six years the Chief Financial Officer has undergone a very rapid evolution and is increasingly involved in decision-making processes.

Matteo Rinaldi recently spoke about the role of the CFO during an online presentation of the International Part Time MBA of MIP Politecnico di Milano.

The four main functions of the finance department of a company can be seen like a pyramid at the base of which is data processing and, as you climb, reporting and control, up to the summit that consists of decision-making support. «Until a few years ago the first three functions were preponderant. Recently, instead, participation in decision-making processes has taken on an ever-increasing weight, at the expense of the other three» explained Matteo Rinaldi. «Data processing, reporting and control have lost weight not only in proportion to the business partnership but also in absolute terms. Indeed, a good part of these activities has migrated towards centralised services at a corporate level. This means that in multinational companies the financial teams in each country are numerically smaller than in the past and that the activities of CFOs are now more focused on the business».

Today the Chief Financial Officer measures his or her success on the basis of the impact he or she has on the business, rather than on the simple accuracy of figures and reporting.  This evolution shouldn’t be understood as a simple shift from one model to another, but as the addition of new functions to the original ones.  «In Sandoz we summed up this process with the phrase ‘We drive the business to create value’. The basis of our work remains the ability to read data, but now we must also be able to interpret it to make strategic decisions. The first step is the accuracy of data, an aspect that’s not trivial, if it’s true that, according to research by the Harvard Business Review, about 47% of data collections contain at least one critical error. Secondly we must ‘connect the dots’ of the organization, taking advantage of the cross-cutting role of the finance sector with respect to other corporate functions. Alongside hard skills, soft skills are also extremely important, necessary, other than for managing people, also for negotiating and for understanding all aspects of one’s company».

In summary, in the past the CFO was above all an accountant: the typical approach to the job was descriptive and to look the past. Today the CFO has become a business partner, who must have analytic expertise and adopt a predictive approach, thus facing the future. «The next step is represented by becoming a strategic enabler. That is we need to make increasing use of digital technologies, to adopt an agile operating model. And to transform the company into a ‘data driven organization’: today we deal with a large quantity of data, but many people don’t know how to use it.
Sandoz, in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano, is using Artificial Intelligence instruments to construct a forecasting model that allows it to produce with greater precision the right quantity of each of its 800 products».

 

GEMOS: here are the new features of our next edition

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GEMOS, the Executive Master dedicated to supply chain professionals, developed in partnership with EADA, has been updated with lots of new content and an even more flexible format!

This means that starting from the next edition of the programme, students will also be tackling major current issues such as sustainability, innovation and big data & data analysis.
This evolution enables us to keep pace with a world of work in constant flux.

So if, on the one hand, the study of theory is important, on the other, putting into practice the concepts learned is even more so. This is why students will have both the chance to test themselves with a Business Game in which supply chain and finance intersect, and to gain first-hand knowledge at the international level on supply chain-related topics through a series of company visits.

Finally, the format is also changing, as a distance learning component is being added. In addition to the one long weekend of lessons on campus every two months, we will in fact be holding live digital-learning sessions to provide a better response to the family and professional needs of our students, who come from all over the world.

 

Today’s Project Manager at the crossroads of  technology, experience, speed  

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New technologies, Big Data and international dimensions are some of the factors that must be taken into account by today’s Project Manager, an often underestimated figure who, in the face of increasingly complex and fluid situations, takes on growing importance. We talked about this with Mauro Mancini, a professor of Project and Programme Management at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano.

«It’s good to be clear that project management is the management of people and information, and the era of digitalization we are going through is changing approaches and methods of interaction and communication between people – Professor Mancini explains –. The more a company is able to equip itself with project management tools that can benefit from all this, the more it will be able to effectively handle the continuous changes in its operating environment».

In this sense, Artificial Intelligence (AI) should be seen as an ally rather than a threat. «The quantity of data we must manage today is clearly higher than in the past. A Project Manager must be able to very quickly understand the situation, gather the greatest amount of data possible, verify its quality and process it to develop a tactical or strategic plan. Artificial Intelligence will be increasingly important for a Project Manager, who more and more will face unforeseen situations». But according to Mauro Mancini, the more qualitative part of work will remain the prerogative of man: «Artificial Intelligence carries out simulations based on the rules supplied by man, but it can’t predict the future. Who must manage a project needs for everything that respects past rules to be managed ‘automatically’, and in this AI is very useful, but the winning card as far as innovation or creativity is concerned will always be, in my view, in the hands of human intelligence».

The emphasis the society we live in places on speed, and the possibility, often offered by technology, to quickly experiment with solutions, is leading to the spread of the approach known as the “culture of failure,” whose sense is summed up in the English expression “Fast fail, cheap fail”. «It’s an approach that I totally agree with – says Mancini –. In some cultures, in particular the American one, if you’ve never failed, you’re not suitable for leading particularly complex and innovative processes, because never having failed means never having risked. Obviously a project needs all types of people: those who risk and conservatives. And the Project Manager must have the ability to understand those areas in which it’s right to make mistakes in order to learn quickly and others in which you need to be more careful».

The question of speed is also tied in part to another much debated issue in this period, that of the right mix between soft and hard skills in managerial positions. Rapid changes in scenarios – in the market or a single project – require adaptability and learning, while at the same time the specialized skills required of those who work (especially in hi-tech) are also changing quickly. «One of the tasks of the Project Manager – explains Mancini – is that of understanding very quickly the technical expertise necessary for a specific project (hard skills). Soft skills, which I prefer to call behavioural skills, right now are the subject of great attention in Europe. Also in this case there’s the time factor: they are skills that, for the very reason that they’re ‘soft’, are stimulated daily from an early age. Industrial sectors are characterized by different degrees of technical complexity, but in order for a Project Manager to know how to judge the correctness of the answer to the fundamental question ‘how much time is needed to do this activity?’ independently of the fact that it is asked to internal or external human resources, it’s necessary that he’s done this activity himself or, at least, has all the elements to rapidly verify (often in real time) the correctness of the response.
For a Project Manager, having technical expertise doesn’t mean knowing how to design a component, a system or an organization, but knowing and/or quickly assimilating the rules of the game of the context in which he finds himself».

Among behavioural skills, intercultural ones are destined to become increasingly important. «We increasingly find ourselves dealing with projects in which the people involved come from completely different cultures. In different countries, relational capabilities can leverage off technically instruments that are diametrically opposed to one’s own culture. So we must increasingly be able to interact with ways of thinking and behaviours that are very different from ours, that can hide values that are equally diverse».

 

 

 

 

Manufacturing 4.0: man at the centre

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The future of manufacturing is digital and is shaping up in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Small and medium enterprises, like big ones, must equip themselves in order not to be left irremediably behind. Yet, in a fashion that is only apparently paradoxical, Industry 4.0 relaunches the centrality of man and themes such as training and social inclusion.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the world’s future equilibrium depends on the manufacturing sector. Convinced of this is Marco Taisch, Professor of Advanced and Sustainable Manufacturing at the Politecnico di Milano School of Management: «Manufacturing in the future will have a bona fide role of peacekeeper. Thanks to its evolution and its diffusion, we’ll see a decrease in migratory phenomena and an increase in levels of wellbeing. In other words, we’ll enjoy greater social stability, due also to the positive impact manufacturing has on other sectors of the economy; for example, for every euro generated by manufacturing, at least another two are generated in related services. Provided, of course, that the necessary skills are gradually acquired, without which sustainability at all levels is unthinkable».

During World Manufacturing Forum 2018, Marco Taisch, scientific chairman, presented a report with ten recommendations for the future of manufacturing. The issue of skills and training is among those seen as most important: «It’s necessary to invest in people, in addition to technologies. Training has a more than linear impact: without it, technologies can’t deploy their full potential». There’s a caveat, however. Unlike other sectors, manufacturing above all needs specific skills: «Cross-cutting expertise is always useful, but in this case digital and hard skills are more important than in other sectors».

It’s for this reason that there’s a need for change in the world of training. If on one hand analysts concur that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will lead to a negative net impact on employment in the short term, on the other Professor Taisch affirms that this will become positive in the medium-long term: «Provided, however, that there is a change in the way of communicating about manufacturing, a sector still associated with a ‘dirty’ image, that scares off families and pushes young people to pursue courses of study that then won’t find an outlet on the market».

Universities are gearing up. Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management, for example, offers an executive programme in Manufacturing Management that aims to make clear the potential of a future manufacturing system that is new, advanced, intelligent and sustainable and introduce the constituent elements of the modern industrial revolution.

An opportunity to be seized, therefore. Also by adopting a framework of inclusivity and diversity: «For a long time manufacturing was the prerogative of the male gender, for trivial issues of physical strength – continues Taisch –. The 4.0 technologies shift the centre of gravity from muscles to the brain, and thus more towards women. And then I am personally convinced, and with me many other experts, that companies can see a great advantage from the hiring of a diverse workforce in terms of gender, religion, ethnicity. It’s an issue of competitiveness, other than ethics».

On the other hand, fears are not lacking, and often are expressed by companies themselves or by those who are already in the workforce, scared by the idea that a machine can shut them out of the productive process: «In reality it’s not like that. The 4.0 technologies are enabling. They’re not alternative to people, but increase their capabilities and productivity, further strengthening them», explains Professor Taisch.

Another element that leads to diffidence, especially among SMEs, is cybersecurity: «The cloud scares people. Many companies ask us: ‘Where are my data?’. The fear arises first from a lack of understanding, and secondly from an overestimation of the risks that technologies do indeed entail.
Companies lose data much more often because of a faulty backup, than because of the cloud. The truth is that a company that positions itself outside of the Net is destined to disappear in a few years, and that today data should be considered for all purposes as a raw material».

What Jobs Will Survive Artificial Intelligence?

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“We want to bring intelligence to everything, to everywhere, and for everyone”. The person who said it is Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, the company that recently launched the “Zo” chatbot that can construct sophisticated human-machine dialogues. And it’s through Microsoft artificial intelligence (AI) instruments that the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano developed FLEXA, an innovative and revolutionary digital platform of personalized and continuous learning, a digital mentor able to identify and select specific contents, useful for the path of study of each user.

«This project, but the idea applies to Artificial Intelligence in general, began from an awareness: we had identified certain needs and technology could help us to satisfy them – says Federico Frattini, Associate Dean of Digital Transformation at MIP Politecnico di Milano and creator of FLEXA –. Specifically, our Masters students wanted to know each other better, also from a comparative point of view, to then pursue ad hoc training programmes, while our alumni, our former students, asked us for effective continuous learning solutions. We reasoned on the basis of these inputs and the result was FLEXA: on this platform it’s possible to carry out an assessment of one’s soft, hard and digital skills and declare one’s career ambitions; once all this information is processed, FLEXA provides all the indications to fill these skill gaps through events, courses and training programmes on the basis of the needs indicated. And it doesn’t only provide contents from Politecnico di Milano: we have agreements with Gartner, New York Times, Financial Times, MIT and many other prestigious groups. With FLEXA, it will also be possible to have a mentor recommended, create a matching system with startups and companies, create new contents».

One of the points on which the debate is understandably most heated involves the impact artificial intelligence will have on employment. In addition to more mechanical and repetitive jobs, such as those carried out by assembly line workers and, as already mentioned, driving cars and some activities in restaurants and supermarkets, automation is also entering the field of services. According to some studies, for example, by 2030 there will no longer be “human” call centres, while in Japan many robots are already operational in assisting the elderly.

On the other hand, artificial intelligence has limits that in many cases prevent it from substituting human jobs. At the same time, the role technology can play in supporting and strengthening humans in carrying out some higher-skill activities may be underrated. The renowned Chinese artificial expert Kai-Fu Lee, a businessman involved in this very sector and the author of the recent book AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, identifies four weaknesses of AI for work performance:

  1. AI cannot create, conceptualize or manage complex strategic planning;
  2. AI cannot accomplish complex work that requires precise hand-eye coordination;
  3. AI cannot deal with unknown and unstructured spaces, especially ones that it hasn’t observed;
  4. AI cannot, unlike humans, feel or interact with empathy and compassion; therefore, it is unlikely that humans would opt for interacting with an apathetic robot for traditional communication services.

Given this premise, Kai-Fu Lee draws up a list of ten professions that will be immune from the robotic invasion, at least in the next 15 years: psychiatry, physical therapy, medicine, AI-related research and engineering, fiction writing, teaching, law, computer science and engineering, science, and management. In all these professions AI can be of help, but only in a collaborative sense for the management of certain technical details.

 “There’s no doubt that the AI revolution will require readjustments and a great deal of sacrifice” affirms Kai-Fu Lee, “but despairing rather than preparing for what’s come is unproductive and, perhaps, even reckless”.

And then he concludes: “We must remember that our human knack for compassion and empathy is going to be a valuable asset in the future workforce, and that jobs hinged on care, creativity, and education, will remain vital to our society”.

«I believe that the best way to approach artificial intelligence is to tie it in with theories explaining innovation and entrepreneurship – says Federico Frattini –. We can define it as an accelerator of processes of creative destruction determined by digital innovation, taking inspiration from what the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter said about the big changes that had an impact on the economy and on society: new opportunities are created, new companies and new professions are created, others evolve and still others, inevitably, disappear. We certainly can’t oppose the creative forces that have changed society over the centuries».