Brad Keywell is the Founder/CEO of Uptake Technologies, the 2019 EY World Entrepreneur of the Year, and a co-founder of seven technology companies.
Humans need not worry about AI taking over their employment, as the technology is actually expected to help increase job opportunities in the future.
Artificial intelligence is a complicated technology that poses complicated questions for the economy and society. But for human workers worried about losing their jobs to software and automated machines, AI comes down to a rather simple set of choices, according to Brad Keywell. Keywell, of course, is no ordinary worker. Founder of successful companies like MediaBank and Groupon, Keywell is also the founder/CEO of Uptake, a fast-growing industrial intelligence startup that uses data analytics and machine learning to improve productivity and reliability for industrial companies around the world. Uptake, whose customers include Berkshire Hathaway, Caterpillar, and the U.S. Department of Defense, recently raised capital at $2.3 billion valuation. AI and machine learning are at heart of Uptake’s technology. But Keywell is far from believing AI will completely replace humans. In fact, the emergence of AI means companies will need human ingenuity more than ever.
“Disruption is a widely used term, often deployed improperly or without precision. To me, the essence of disruption is an orientation towards possibility and refusal to accept the limitations of status quo.”
AI might offer compelling insights from data, but it will be up to humans to interpret and apply those insights to solve problems and harness the insights to explore new innovation. “We do not believe in the concept of autonomous human-free industry,” Keywell explained. “Our focus is to power, and empower, human-operated industry with actionable insight, enabling humans to do more, achieve more, and become more impactful.”
Disruption vs Opportunity
AI will likely cause significant change in the economy. According to a study by McKinsey consulting firm, about 60 percent of all occupations today consist of human activity in which at least 30 percent of that work could be automated.
But, as Keywell noted, technological advancement has always caused mass disruption in the job market. In the 19th century, the emergence of factories during the Industrial Age prompted workers to leave agriculture for better paying jobs in the cities. Mass production also displaced skilled trade workers.
Yet, fears over automation may be overstated. From construction and retail to trucking and railroads, companies today are facing severe labor shortages across the country. Ironically, those are the very same professions most at risk from automation, according to a study by Oxford University. So while some fear robots will take jobs, humans don’t seem to want those jobs in the first place.
In any case, while technology has eliminated industries, it also has created new opportunities. The origins of computing technology was a human “creation (consisting of) zeros and ones,” Keywell said. “Of course, when creating technology, we cannot comprehend its full possibility and potential—only now (we understand we) can take this byproduct of our ingenuity and put it to work in service of humanity by increasing industrial productivity.”
Technology Shift
In the past, technology was about organizing people to make incremental improvements to operations. With AI, he believes companies can solve bigger problems with bigger solutions.
“The First and Second Industrial Revolutions were defined by organizing people, shuffling people around to stand in the right place, do the right thing in relationship to a machine,” Keywell explained. “As we move into the Fourth Industrial Revolution—defined by massive amounts of data, AI, and machine learning—we need to use everything that can be possible as our guide, versus let’s just improve a little bit over what we used to do.”
And the sky is the limit when it comes to the future of AI. Even our concept of what’s possible, Keywell asserted, will change in 10 years. Indeed, humans will have a different orientation towards possibility, a requirement he believes that is needed to solve global environmental and sustainability issues. Ultimately, he thinks that AI will offer humans greater faith in being able to solve what has yet to be solved.
But, for all its promise, AI is not a magic solution; rather, it’s a tool that empowers humans, according to Keywell. To solve problems, the technology still needs two things that only humans can provide: curiosity and ingenuity.
“We have faith that technology will solve the major problems of our time,” he said. “That faith, I believe, signals the history of humanity in which human ingenuity has consistently advanced to make our brains more capable of conceiving and deploying solutions. I believe the power of AI and machine learning is one of those pillars of ingenuity that elevates our brains to do more, see more, and achieve more.”
