Investing in people vs. automation: What do we need to consider?
Session Leader: Max Blumberg
Tuesday January 25, 2022
4:00pm GMT / 11:00am ET / 8:00am PT

Companies are under constant pressure to automate jobs and tasks to save costs. One motivation comes from the perception that investing in machine-based labor increases reliability and endurance. Yet the real challenge lies with the bigger question of how to evaluate investments in “whoever” is going to do the work: people vs. machines.

While machines may offer greater reliability in terms of predicted costs and variation in performance, they also may limit upside potential in terms of ingenuity and innovation. This session addresses the challenges of evaluating human capital investments vs. investments in other ways of doing the work, including the comparisons of:

• Human capital competencies vs. machine capabilities
• Workforce performance vs. machine performance