If IBM sets the template, then employees will get appraised not only on their past performance but on their predicted ability to deliver in the future. And this capacity analysis will be done by AI after plotting a graph from available data. In short, technology will decide what no human can even now assess, what he can or cannot do in the future. Using
artificial intelligence, Watson Analytics looks at an employee’s experiences and projects to infer the potential skills and qualities each person might have to serve IBM in the future. Not only that, it will even rationalise an employee’s worth by assessing if he has acquired new skills on the job. Managers then take Watson’s assessment rating into account as they make bonus, pay and promotion decisions.
While IBM claims its
AI set-up has a 96 per cent accuracy rate compared to HR experts, the bigger question is can machines ever map the imponderables like the human mind and individual willIJ Most importantly, they ignore the swing factor called human innovation and adaptability. Humanity is immeasurable and the very idea of technology taming the vast sea of possibilities into silos and algorithms is absurd to say the least. A human is considered a resource, simply because its potential is unlimited. And AI in the end is a human invention. To let it master us would reduce every employee to an android-like efficiency and sameness without the capacity that
IBM ad campaigns have taught us to believe in——imagination. And with a future scenario imposed on employees, they would not be encouraged to challenge new frontiers. Don’t we need motivation to excelIJ Or will AI be our limit of excellenceIJ