Someone came up with the old phrase the other day “Don’t Do, Delegate and it got me thinking. To whom should I delegate?
Not so long ago I had a secretary. She typed my letters, organised meetings, answered the phone and made a decent cup of coffee. Now I don’t send letters (except very rarely), meetings are organised by Outlook, I try not to use the phone unless absolutely necessary and make my own coffee.
Many of the jobs that were previously delegated or outsourced have just gone away or are on their way out. In the UK the new system of Make Tax Digital eliminates much of the work previously delegated to bookkeepers and basic accountants. Voice recognition and dictation software eliminates the need for secretaries typing stuff, scanners and OCR equipment is eliminating the need for date input of any description. This office is almost entirely paperless and I get very emotional when people send documents by post.
Artificial Intelligence is getting so good that almost every job that can be defined can be done by i.e. delegated to a machine. So now we can operate on the basis of don’t but delegate to technology. Far cheaper and better than people!! Effective delegation to technology is a wonderful thing unless you are the one to whom the jobs were previously delegated.
So should my PA be worried if she is reading this? – Not at all.
When delegating things to a human we want them to be done by someone who is going beyond just doing the job. Things like interacting with customers, implementing new ideas and proactively solving problems are things that AI is a long, long way from taking over. I know that many companies have implemented AI to deal with customer queries and in many cases customer interaction but these are companies who don’t care about their customers. If you don’t believe me find me someone who genuinely prefers a disembodied voice at the end of the phone or a chat bot to a real human.
Interesting and inventive work can now be delegated to individuals who do something remarkable with it. Boring definable work can go to the AI. Delegate carefully.
The only exception is my filter coffee jug which will never be outsourced.
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