I’m not about to be replaced by a machine. Are you?

By Guest Author: John Brown (Head of Engagement – Hotwire)

John Brown looks at machine learning and how communications professionals will still be here in years to come. Well, the good ones will be.

I’d love to automate a great deal of my life. Handing over to a machine to do repetitive mundane tasks. Like cutting my toenails or getting angry with the Daily Mail.

Without the burden of these tasks, I’ll be able to fill my day with stuff that I truly find meaningful, sampling ale or exploring what makes a good sausage.

What I am not prepared to accept, however, is that one day a robot will be doing my job. No. No they bloody won’t be.

So, imagine my joy when I watched Anthony Goldbloom’s fantastic TED talkon the jobs we’ll lose to machines and those jobs that can’t be outsourced to HAL.

Goldbloom absolutely nails the point. Machines are best suited to ‘Frequent High Volume Tasks’. Humans are always going to be doing jobs that require ‘novel thinking’.

Looking at the communications industry, there is an awful lot that fits the bill of being frequent, high volume and dull. Coverage reports, social media analysis and, importantly, spelling, have all benefited from a level of automation and machine assistance.

So, if we automate the mundane and the high-frequency tasks, what will we be left with?

The answer is; the good stuff.

The moment of genius when we come up with an elegant and powerful creative theme. The change in tone of voice that turns a poor message into a useful one. The strategy that pivots based on a sudden shift in the media climate.

We won’t be out of a job, far from it. We’ll be doing a job that we love. But, as Goldbloom concludes, the onus is on us to stay ahead of the game and keep our minds sharp.

If you’re not prepared to invest in your greatest asset, your brain, then you’re either going to be out of a job or proving that you can give me a better pedicure than my robot beautician.

Blog was originally posted on: http://interactive.hotwirepr.com/uk/blog-uk/opinion-uk/im-replaced-machine/