MIT Technology Review 8 4.Human capital and AI Tremendous change is imminent in the profession of human resources n addition to compiling senior executives’ In his view, this not only heightens anxieties for views about AI’s impact on the Asian business talent managers within enterprises but influences Ienvironment, we surveyed two dozen senior human government policy makers as well. “Asian governments resource executives in Asia—HR directors, recruiting are particularly suspicious of the threat AI poses to consultants, and talent acquisition heads—to their efforts to transform skills in the labor force,” understand their views on AI’s potential to disrupt he says, noting that “governments should be more talent management. focused on ways to retrain displaced workers” rather The results revealed an assumption that than defending existing jobs from disintermediation. tremendous change is imminent in the profession of The views of the industry professionals surveyed human resources: 70% of respondents feel that AI suggest that enterprises may soon be shifting and robotics will lead to substantial job losses in Asia their practices in human resource management to over the next five years, underscoring a long-standing achieve that focus. Nearly all respondents felt that anxiety that many in Asia feel when considering their professions would be significantly altered with the impact of new technologies. “The pace of work the advent of AI. However, they also felt that these displacement in Asia will be at a much faster rate, changes would be positive. Rather than the HR because of the relatively higher percentage of function narrowing as robots replace workers, the low-skilled jobs in the labor force relative to more majority of respondents thought that it would be developed economies” says Tak Lo, a partner at Hong expanded to oversee the management of both human Kong–based AI accelerator Zeroth.AI. and machine productivity. Figure 4: Human resources Will advancements in AI and robotics lead to substantial job losses in Asia over the next five years? (% of respondents) Yes (70.8%) No (29.2%) Will these technologies have a major impact on the role and function of the HR chief? (% of respondents) Yes (87.5%) No (12.5%) How will the role of the HR function change with advancements in AI and robotics? (% of respondents) HR will be tasked with managing overall productivity, HR will keep managing people, and therefore both man and machine (66.7%) and only people (33.3%) Source: MIT Technology Review © MIT Technology Review, 2016. All Rights Reserved.