News & Media

The work of the future is Human Work.

Download the slide deck to present the concepts from Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines.

As America continues to emerge from the pandemic’s grip, several economists — including Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell — anticipate a wave of job creation in the second half of the year, and some expect the U.S. economy to achieve a level of growth we haven’t seen in 30 years.

It’s Global Skills Day 2021, a worldwide virtual gathering of hundreds of speakers from 25 countries—from nonprofits, educators, nonprofits, jobseekers, and more—all focused on creating strategies for learning crucial 21st Century skills in a post-pandemic world.

The American economy is powered more and more by smart machines—automation that has greatly boosted productivity and built industrial and individual wealth. But, as we know, the digital revolution has come at a hefty price. As well-paying, blue-collar jobs are replaced by technology, too many of the jobs left are of poor quality and low pay.

Think about utility poles, Mohan Tatikonda is saying. He’s a professor of operations management at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, and for over 30 years his research has focused on how firms can most effectively design, develop, introduce and improve products, services, and organizational processes.

There is no question that rapidly evolving technology is shaking up our workplaces, with many worried they will lose their jobs to robots. But those fears are unproductive. If we instead focus on expanding our notion of work, we can find greater opportunity and contentment in our daily roles, according to Lumina Foundation President and CEO Jamie Merisotis.

Author Jamie Merisotis sits down with hosts Jim Ludes and G. Wayne Miller to discuss his recent book, “Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines.” Merisotis postulates that in a future driven by Artifical Intelligence, the role of the modern-day worker must evolve to operate alongside machines to do that which only humans can.

The word “adjacent” is enjoying a popularity spike. It has transcended its literal meaning of “next to” (“the parking lot is adjacent to a hair salon”), morphing seemingly overnight into something figurative and, at times, positively buzzy—as in “wellness-adjacent” products and “tech-adjacent” companies. However trendy this new semantic shift, the word is more relevant than ever.