This article is assuming the title because AI is good at chess? Okay then...
AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers
41–50 of 379 posts
Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers
#42I think this article fundamentally misunderstands the core function of middle management. You can boil it down to 2 key tasks (on the front lines of a very large organization). a) Interpreting: either top->down by explaining and enforcing corporate policy on hourly workers or bottom->up by ensuring workers enter data to be reported on correctly b) "Encouraging": an employee calls in sick, again. Neither firing them o…
In some ways tech can do better. It can constantly monitor many more details than a human can. It doesn’t give you a disapproving look when you take too many sick days but it does calculate a score showing over the month you got less done than your coworkers.
It reads like you are describing reporting. How many frowny faces were sent out at Store 123 last month for attendance? But the reason you need lower/middle mgmt is that the real question is "so what do we do to stop having these frowny faces?"
Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers
#43I think this article fundamentally misunderstands the core function of middle management. You can boil it down to 2 key tasks (on the front lines of a very large organization). a) Interpreting: either top->down by explaining and enforcing corporate policy on hourly workers or bottom->up by ensuring workers enter data to be reported on correctly b) "Encouraging": an employee calls in sick, again. Neither firing them o…
Counterpoint: Who was designated "essential worker" during the pandemic?
sectors and industries were labelled "essential worker", e.g. grocery stores. Do you think management within those sectors stopped "interpreting" and "encouraging"?
Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers
#44Plot twist: This article itself was written by AI.
Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers
#45This reminds me of an argument I got into at a bar with someone who claimed robots would inevitably replace bartenders. I took the view that bartenders would be the last occupation to be replaced by robots because if the goal was to minimize the cost to consume alcohol people wouldn't be coming to bars in the first place.
There's a misconception that jobs with higher pay and more prestige will be the last to be replaced by robots. In many cases I think the opposite is true and in this case I think upper management will be replaced by robots before middle management.
Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers
#46This article doesn't even understand what middle managers do. The functions listed like "scheduling, negotiating, training" are for line managers, who are directly responsible for supervising the line workers actually doing the work.
Middle management is the next layer up the food chain: the managers of managers, responsible for executing strategy coming from up high, but lacking executive power to actually change that strategy.
Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers
#47What does chess have in common with retail middle management? As someone who has managed a retail store and played chess, I can confidently answer: nothing. Remember when Watson beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy? And then IBM saturated the airwaves with ads about how Watson was going to revolutionize industries like energy and health care? Notice how we don’t see those ads anymore? It’s because winning Jeopardy has nothi…
You have succinctly encapsulated my thoughts on AGI.
AGI faces an extrapolation gap.
Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
In some ways tech can do better. It can constantly monitor many more details than a human can. It doesn’t give you a disapproving look when you take too many sick days but it does calculate a score showing over the month you got less done than your coworkers.
It reads like you are describing reporting. How many frowny faces were sent out at Store 123 last month for attendance? But the reason you need lower/middle mgmt is that the real question is "so what do we do to stop having these frowny faces?"
What the system does is the rostering system preferences the workers with the highest scores when assigning shifts. And I suppose makes this number viewable to the workers so they can see why they have to optimise.
Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers
#49What does chess have in common with retail middle management? As someone who has managed a retail store and played chess, I can confidently answer: nothing. Remember when Watson beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy? And then IBM saturated the airwaves with ads about how Watson was going to revolutionize industries like energy and health care? Notice how we don’t see those ads anymore? It’s because winning Jeopardy has nothi…
You have succinctly encapsulated my thoughts on AGI. AGI faces an extrapolation gap.
What is AGI?
Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers
#50What does chess have in common with retail middle management? As someone who has managed a retail store and played chess, I can confidently answer: nothing. Remember when Watson beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy? And then IBM saturated the airwaves with ads about how Watson was going to revolutionize industries like energy and health care? Notice how we don’t see those ads anymore? It’s because winning Jeopardy has nothi…
Hello Human,
If you're not in today, don't bother coming in tomorrow.
Cheers,
-AI