Artificial Intelligence (AI) has undoubtedly emerged as one of the most transformative technologies of recent times. In its rapid evolution, AI has begun to have a significant impact on the global economy, and its influence on the job market is undeniable. In this article, we will explore how AI is shaping the future of work, its implications, and fears, and how companies and workers can prepare for this technological revolution. 

AI is already impacting various sectors of the economy.

In manufacturing, virtual assistants and machine vision systems are optimizing production and quality control. In the healthcare sector, AI is improving medical diagnosis and patient care. In finance, AI algorithms are revolutionizing asset management and fraud detection. Each of these examples demonstrates how AI is transforming the way we work in different industries, and how relevant it is to adapt to these innovative technologies. 

Automation, the key factor

One of the most notable AI-driven developments is task automation, which has been a trend in industry for decades, but AI has taken this trend to a whole new level. AI-driven machines can perform tasks that previously required human intervention, from complex data analysis to customer service. This process has the potential to improve efficiency and productivity across a wide range of industries, for instance, see how we at NTT DATA provide perspective through our experience in consumer products. As most of this is nowadays being praised, it also raises critical questions about the future of work. 

The impact on jobs

One of the most common fears among critics of AI and workers is that automation will result in massive job losses. While it is true that some routine tasks could eventually be automated, AI also creates new job opportunities. As mentioned in an “The Enterprisers Project” article, “companies need skilled professionals to develop, implement and maintain AI systems.” A clear example of this is the current need for companies to have professionals who know how to work with, for instance, generative AI platforms, such as ChatGPT; both on the technical side (connecting to APIs, app development) and on the more specific side (prompts engineering).   To thrive in an AI-driven workplace, constant skills development is essential. Workers must be willing to learn new skills that adapt to the changing demands of the labor market. Continuous training and education will be crucial to stay relevant in an ever-changing work environment. As a company that is always embracing change, this is something that we at NTT DATA take very seriously, having a focus on constant training for our collaborators on AI topics, its use, and its applications in projects where it can be an excellent ally when it comes to automating functions. 

 AI in the workplace, a critical perspective

The impact of AI in the workplace seems to be a topic that only brings benefits, but it also raises some concerns for workers: “will a machine take my job?” “will they replace what I do with the use of some artificial intelligence?” are just some of the questions that arise.

It is important to consider this slightly more negative perspective, to dispel doubts about the role that AI can play in the work environment.  

As stated in the article “Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace: What is at Stake for Workers?”: “workers should be trained to understand the role and function of workplace bots and to know what their contributions are.”

Remarking that it is pivotal to clearly define the roles and functions that AI will have and reassuring the collaborators that they will not be replaced. 

The same article poses and interesting question regarding the topic, and invites to think beyond: “rather than talking about how to implement AI without the risk of death, business collapse, or legal battles, it would make sense to rewind the discussions and focus on the question: will the introduction of AI into various institutions and workplaces lead to prosperous, thriving societies?”   AI is transforming the future of work in ways that are both exciting and challenging. While there are concerns that mass automation could lead to job losses, there are also significant opportunities for economic growth and improved quality of life. Workers and companies that strategically embrace AI by investing in continuous training and adjusting to an ever-changing world of work will be better positioned to thrive in this new era of technology. AI is not only a powerful tool, but also an opportunity for innovation and progress in the workplace.  We invite you to see how NTT DATA is embracing and adapting to this revolution through our potent conversational AI platform “eva”. 

A Inteligência Artificial (IA) surgiu, sem dúvida, como uma das tecnologias mais transformadoras dos últimos tempos. Na sua rápida evolução, a IA começou a ter um impacto significativo na economia global e a sua influência no mercado de trabalho é inegável. Neste artigo, vamos explorar a forma como a IA está a moldar o futuro do trabalho, as suas implicações e receios, e como as empresas e os trabalhadores se podem preparar para esta revolução tecnológica.

A IA já está a ter impacto em vários sectores da economia.

Na indústria transformadora, os assistentes virtuais e os sistemas de visão artificial estão a otimizar a produção e o controlo de qualidade. No sector da saúde, a IA está a melhorar o diagnóstico médico e os cuidados prestados aos doentes. No sector financeiro, os algoritmos de IA estão a revolucionar a gestão de activos e a deteção de fraudes. Cada um destes exemplos demonstra como a IA está a transformar a forma como trabalhamos em diferentes sectores e como é importante adaptarmo-nos a estas tecnologias inovadoras.

Automatização, o fator-chave

Um dos desenvolvimentos mais notáveis impulsionados pela IA é a automatização de tarefas, que tem sido uma tendência na indústria há décadas, mas a IA levou esta tendência a um nível totalmente novo. As máquinas baseadas em IA podem realizar tarefas que anteriormente exigiam intervenção humana, desde a análise de dados complexos até ao serviço de apoio ao cliente. Este processo tem o potencial de melhorar a eficiência e a produtividade numa vasta gama de indústrias, por exemplo, veja como nós, na NTT DATA, oferecemos uma perspetiva através nossa experiência em produtos de consumo . A maior parte destas acções são hoje em dia elogiadas, mas também levantam questões críticas sobre o futuro do trabalho.

O impacto no emprego

Um dos receios mais comuns entre os críticos da IA e dos trabalhadores é o de que a automatização resulte numa perda maciça de postos de trabalho. Embora seja verdade que algumas tarefas de rotina poderão vir a ser automatizadas, a IA também cria novas oportunidades de emprego. Como mencionado num artigo do "The Enterprisers Project", "as empresas precisam de profissionais qualificados para desenvolver, implementar e manter sistemas de IA". Um exemplo claro disso é a necessidade atual de as empresas terem profissionais que saibam trabalhar, por exemplo, com plataformas de IA generativa, como o ChatGPT; tanto na vertente técnica (ligação a API, desenvolvimento de aplicações) como na vertente mais específica (engenharia de prompts). Para prosperar num local de trabalho orientado para a IA, é essencial o desenvolvimento constante de competências. Os trabalhadores devem estar dispostos a aprender novas competências que se adaptem à evolução das exigências do mercado de trabalho. A formação e a educação contínuas serão cruciais para manter a relevância num ambiente de trabalho em constante mudança. Como uma empresa que está sempre a abraçar a mudança, isto é algo que nós na NTT DATA levamos muito a sério, tendo como foco a formação constante dos nossos colaboradores sobre temas de IA, a sua utilização e as suas aplicações em projectos onde pode ser um excelente aliado na automatização de funções.

A IA no local de trabalho, uma perspetiva crítica

O impacto da IA no local de trabalho parece ser um tema que só traz benefícios, mas também suscita algumas preocupações aos trabalhadores: "será que uma máquina vai ficar com o meu emprego?" "será que vão substituir o que eu faço com recurso a alguma inteligência artificial?" são apenas algumas das questões que se colocam.

É importante considerar esta perspetiva um pouco mais negativa, para dissipar as dúvidas sobre o papel que a IA pode desempenhar no ambiente de trabalho.

Tal como referido no artigo "Inteligência Artificial no Local de Trabalho: O que está em causa para os trabalhadores?" : "os trabalhadores devem receber formação para compreenderem o papel e a função dos bots no local de trabalho e para saberem quais são os seus contributos".

Salientando que é fundamental definir claramente os papéis e as funções que a IA terá e assegurando aos colaboradores que não serão substituídos.

O mesmo artigo coloca uma questão interessante sobre o tema e convida a pensar mais além: "em vez de falar sobre como implementar a IA sem o risco de morte, colapso do negócio ou batalhas legais, faria sentido rebobinar as discussões e centrarmo-nos na questão: será que a introdução da IA em várias instituições e locais de trabalho conduzirá a sociedades prósperas e prósperas?" A IA está a transformar o futuro do trabalho de uma forma que é simultaneamente excitante e desafiante. Embora existam preocupações de que a automatização em massa possa levar à perda de postos de trabalho, existem também oportunidades significativas de crescimento económico e de melhoria da qualidade de vida. Os trabalhadores e as empresas que adoptarem estrategicamente a IA, investindo na formação contínua e adaptando-se a um mundo do trabalho em constante mudança, estarão mais bem posicionados para prosperar nesta nova era da tecnologia. A IA não é apenas uma ferramenta poderosa, mas também uma oportunidade para a inovação e o progresso no local de trabalho. Convidamo-lo a ver como a NTT DATA está a abraçar e a adaptar-se a esta revolução através da nossa potente plataforma de IA conversacional "eva".

Facebook has undoubtedly been one of the most important social networks during the last 10 years, with almost 3 billion active users up until this day. With this quantity of users, Facebook makes for an incredible platform to not only promote your business but also, to make a difference and help people by taking advantage of its capabilities. Among the many features that Facebook possesses, one of the most important has to do with Facebook Messenger, the app that allows users to chat with each other and really connect through chatting and video calling. This powerful tool not only works in Facebook itself, but also in Instagram -app owned by Facebook- which is also among one of the most popular apps in the world, with its almost 1.2 billion active users.

Combine these two apps and you have an amazing platform to make your business notice.

Facebook connects businesses with their customers

But these users are not only trying to connect between themselves, they also want to reach the companies and brands that they use every day, hence the need for creating chatbots that can help these users in a range of requests, so they don’t have to move from their houses, something that we have become accustomed to. Nowadays there is a demand for fulfilling requests from home, especially in those business areas where the use cases allow this type of interaction.

How to create chatbots in facebook messenger?

For this instance, we consulted Enzo Norambuena, Sales & Marketing Leader at NTT DATA, a company that has been recognized by Everest Group as Major Contenders, on how to create a chatbot on Facebook Messenger and the importance of it for companies. Regarding the importance of having it as an available channel, Enzo tells us:

Expanding the communication channels makes a company to be always connected with the customer. Facebook Messenger is a good strategy for this, as it allows you to have communication with people of any age range any day of the week, 24/7

When it comes to creating a chatbot, using eva it’s the fastest way.

Step by step

• It is always recommended to start based on use cases, once we define those, we can create the flow that will represent each use case.
• Once we have defined this, we can take the flow to eva - our enterprise conversational AI platform - there we can visually create the flows, with its corresponding cells (answer cells, intention cells, etc).
• For our flows to work with Facebook, we must select a “Channel”, in this case it will be the Facebook Messenger channel, connector which was developed by our team and helps to link the flow created in our platform with the Facebook Messenger or Instagram apps.
• Once we have linked eva with these apps, we have a functioning chat bot with its own case uses and that works for both Facebook and Instagram, since both apps are part of the same conglomerate, Meta.

As you can see, having an available chat bot in Facebook Messenger/Instagram, your company can reach billions of users and help them get through some of the simplest use cases, which will benefit both parties and will improve the user experience and the value of your company. Also, creating a chat bot while using eva and its connectors it’s simple and effective, try our products and check by yourself how easy it is!

Virtual assistant have been taking on a relevant role and have positioned themselves as one of the main services offered by companies to users. The onset of the pandemic came to accelerate certain digitalization processes that companies had been developing for some time with respect to their sales and customer service processes, virtual assistants, chatbots have gained relevance.

But what is a virtual assistant?

Some of the meanings we can find online refer to a person who offers administrative support services through some digital means, but in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), this is not the definition we are looking for. For AI, a virtual assistant is a type of support software, oriented to provide help to users to perform certain tasks, automating them. In addition, this type of assistant requires an interface to interact with users, the most common ones being in text and/or voice format. These assistants are 100% customizable, being able to edit multiple of their characteristics, including their personality, voice type, gender, the type of message they deliver, etc. all of this to make it possible for each chatbot to adapt to the needs and particularities of each company.

The important question is: Why do companies need virtual assistant?

Virtual agents have positioned themselves as a valuable resource for companies, which, being a versatile product, can deliver different services to customers in processes that can be automated, and that can be solved on the spot. It is for this reason and more, that the benefits that AVs bring to companies are varied, the main ones being time and money savings.

With the time savings

It is possible to delegate processes and tasks that are usually entrusted to a human agent, mainly from the customer service area; with an active virtual agent, other processes that may require more time/availability can be assigned to the human team, leaving the AV to take care of them through its various services and connections, either to databases or APIs, which reduces the waiting time for the user in general.

Saves money:

Using this type of technology opens the door to solve the most common doubts that customers may have, without requiring the intervention of a physical agent, which leads us to the other benefit mentioned, saving money; this mainly because by not needing several human agents for the processes, a substantial saving of the budget dedicated to pay for several human agents is generated; just paying for a virtual assistant.

Multichannel

In addition, another advantage of virtual assistants is multichannel, companies can implement them in different virtual channels for the benefit of their customers: in applications, on websites, and even in "digital terminals" located at certain points of sale, for example; companies can choose the channel that best suits their needs.

Improving the experience

This also leads to improve the perception that users may have of companies that have this type of technology, since it generates a positive appreciation of the value proposition that they offer, giving a current image and that they are up to date with the latest technologies that seek to improve and expand the user experience. There are several benefits that an AV can generate to a company. Large, medium and small brands are opting for this tool. It is important that the virtual assistant you implement in your company is really great so that you can visualize the benefits. Do you know how to create a good virtual agent? We tell you here