Automation in the workplace is already well underway. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that up to 50% of workplace tasks could be fully automated by 2055. For employees, this can be a daunting concept, as increased automation in professional settings could lead to job loss on a mass scale.

Yet, automation in the workplace might not be all doom and gloom, depending on how we look at it. Rather than viewing automation through the lens of robots replacing humans, it could be more productive and beneficial to see view increased automation as a great potential for collaboration and growth. In fact, automation could conceivably boost the independent workforce, making the professional landscape more human centric than ever.

Here are some key ways that automation can help us nurture the human side of the workplace, making room for a future that is both efficient and innovative.

More hours in the day

Managing daily tasks can be incredibly consuming, and as many businesses know, ticking boxes and making sure everything is in order can take away from time spent working together. Implementing automation in the workplace can give you more wiggle room, as it can be an effective way to optimize workflow management by helping teams remain on top of tasks and automatically organizing important information. In addition to making sure things go smoothly internally, automation can also help manage and even improve your customer relations. Not only can a chatbot be available 24/7, it can also learn from the information given to them by your consumers, thus becoming more personalized and able to meet specific customer needs in the future.

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Shift focus to creativity

Having the ability to think outside the box in the workplace is a key part of encouraging growth and innovation in any work environment. In a similar way that artificial intelligence can grant us more room to focus on the people that we work with, it can also grant businesses more time to focus on creative output. This doesn’t just mean giving more time to creative projects, but learning how to creatively approach work to make your company culture more human centric. By automating certain tasks such as customers relations management and accounting, those hours that would have been spent going over paperwork can now be transformed into team outings and coming up with new ideas for growth.

Better understand how technology can benefit consumers

A combination of data driven research and emerging market trends have taught businesses how to interact with their consumers in a way that will ensure they have their personal needs met. Learning how to implement strategic data analysis is an effective way for your business to get to know their customer. In addition to better understanding consumer needs, understanding how to make the most of data analysis, like how to use it to predict market trends.

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While automation in the workplace might still seem a bit like science fiction, advancements in AI have proven that we are not far from having an intelligent workplace in the near future. It’s important that businesses find ways to encourage their employees to work in tandem with artificial intelligence. By understanding how to strategically implement artificial intelligence in the workplace based on your human needs, it’s an ideal way to boost innovation and company morale in the future.