At the moment the news sites and blogs are continually proclaiming loudly about all the jobs that AI (artificial intelligence)and technology are going to replace. They talk about how so many of the jobs your children will do when they leave school don’t even exist yet, and how even quite high-level roles – like lawyers – will be replaced by Artificial Intelligence. There’s a lot to take in, a lot to think about.
Well, I am getting in first and being replaced by a machine. An iPad. Yes, not even a high level supercomputer running Deep Thought, I am superseded by a $400 tablet purchased on Trademe.
It’s part of the efforts we’ve been putting in to work around the Auckland traffic. At OutSource IT we have always held very high the value of face-to-face communication. In an age where our competitors are doing everything remotely and only sending engineers onsite when there’s an emergency, we have continued to give our clients the benefit of regular site visits so that they have a friendly face to talk to, someone who gets to know not just their systems, but their staff and the way they work.
It’s the same in the office. We’re a technology company, our helpdesk team could work from home, our engineers could work from home when they’re not visiting clients, and our management could work from home. But we are inherently social primates and we like to talk to people we can see. I frequently wander around the office keeping up with what people are doing.
So this iPad that I am being replaced by is actually sitting in a cradle on something that has become known as “Bossbot”. It’s a telepresence robot, it looks a bit like someone has stuck an iPad on the handle of an upright vacuum-cleaner. I’m not going to do it all the time, but I can now stay in my home office up in Silverdale and still wander around the office in Symonds St talking to people. More to the point, Bossbot can sit there on his little charging stand and people can sit down opposite and talk to me as though I was there (I keep the connection live, like a Skype session that never closes.)
I don’t know at this point whether this is something that will be worth doing long term, or how it may spread into the way we deliver services to clients, but I do believe that it’s worth being an early adopter and spending a few evenings researching available products and getting one to set up and experiment with. It is part of the way we keep on top of technology so that when it gains popularity and functionality and our clients want it we have the knowledge needed to set it up. Telepresence is certainly growing and becoming very cost effective and I think we will see more Bossbots (and other communication tools) in common use over the next few years.
Bossbot has caused some great laughs around the office, too. I was experimenting with how fast he could go and managed to tip him over so that he was lying on the carpet on his side. No damage was done, but one of my lovely team crouching down next to the stricken robot and asking “Have you been drinking again?” was a lovely moment!
Philip Adamson, Managing Director, OutSource IT
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