From Terminator to Wall-E, mankind has envisioned a future full of robots for a long time. These machines with artificial intelligence should make life and work easier, as automation allows people to do more in less time. The good news is that robots and AI are no longer science fiction. Google is putting the finishing touches on driverless vehicles, and Microsoft's Cortana further resembles the Cortana AI from the video game series Halo with each software update.
Robo-calypse or revolution?
It is literally only a matter of time before automation and robots start becoming everyday facets of the corporate world. In fact, Gartner released its enterprise IT predictions for "2016 and beyond," predicting that by 2018, 20 percent of corporate content will be created by computers and software and 5 percent of all transactions will involve robots and/or machines that think for themselves. Perhaps even more frightening for those worrying about a SkyNet takeover, in the next three years, over 3 million employees will report to a "robo-boss."
Do you think your job as a hiring manager is safe from automation? It might not be.
"Data improves onboarding by 200%."
Big data is the first step toward automation, and as information becomes more plentiful, machines will learn how to make better hiring decisions. Contributing to Business 2 Community, Ryan Mead wrote that data improves onboarding by 200 percent. By identifying trends in how new hires perform and adapt to their roles, hiring managers will have a better idea of who to offer a job. And if machines are suggesting potential employees, will it matter what managers think?
Slowdown, SkyNet
According to CIO, the future might not be so bleak when it comes to robots. The source noted that automation will simply remove the boring and time-consuming manual tasks from the equation. For example, robots might not replace hiring managers, but automated software could comb through hundreds of resumes, only pulling out ones that use specific keywords or mention certain skills. These "collaborative robots" could be welcomed by a professional in any role.
After all, Ali Behnam, cofounder of Riviera Partners, told Mashable that data doesn't necessarily point hiring managers to the exact person that should be hired, but rather, it takes a bit of human intuition to find the best employees. In many ways, the future of robots in hiring involves the pairing of the right people with great automation software.
On the other hand, with robots poised to take over the corporate world, hiring managers will have more free time, as they interview fewer candidates. This could certainly transform the responsibilities of these professionals, but it likely won't cause human resource departments to go extinct.
So, while robots probably won't be replacing employees anytime soon, the onboarding sector should expect automated machines and AI to become part of their daily workflows. This pairing of data with human intellect has the potential to provide enterprises with many benefits, and most importantly, it could be the secret to finding the best IT employees in the nation. Next step: Hire a robot to entice those tech professionals to join the team.