Main point: “As the Covid-19 pandemic looks to likely accelerate the rate and pace of technological change, what can we learn from the Industrial Revolution that can help us better face our emerging AI revolution?”
Highlights from the article:
- “…there’s a significant time lag, between the broad acceptance of major new transformative technologies and their long-term economic and productivity growth. “
- “The life cycle of such historically transformative technologies consists of two phases: investments and harvesting.”
- “…transformative technologies require massive complementary investments, such as business process redesign, co-invention of new products and business models, and the re-skilling of the workforce.
- “…The more transformative the technologies, the longer it takes them to reach the harvesting phase when they’re widely embraced by companies and industries across the economy.
- “The time lags between the investment and harvesting phases are typically quite long.”
- “Historically, the way people have adjusted to technological change is by acquiring new skills.”
The modern skillsets will need to include the so-called “soft skills” and certain broad business skills that include the ability to:
- Align objectives from top to bottom
- Integrate diverse organizational functions to accomplish a goal
- Manage the activity to a successful conclusion, which includes measuring progress and results
An unspoken skill is being able to understand systems, a holistic perspective that understands how the different parts fit together.