There’s no question that automation and artificial intelligence will profoundly reshape how work will get done. They could be as transformational as the IT era was to enterprise business just a generation ago. But how many jobs will be erased in the process? When a company unleashes AI, does it help or hurt its workforce?
I predict that enterprise companies will always need humans. They’ll always need to optimize productivity, improve job satisfaction, close skills gaps and shrink downtime. And today — not years from now — augmented reality platforms can uniquely solve problems where automation and the workforce intersect. Augmented reality help can help retain, and even create jobs, that automation can never fill. By providing contextually aware information in a convenient and consumable format, workers now have the ability to pair innately human characteristics, such as critical thinking skills, with knowledge-on-demand to train and gain skill sets on the fly, with little to no previous experience.
Fact or fiction: the robots are coming for your job
By now, the fearful reports are familiar: AI will swallow entire categories of careers, from factory jobs to truck driving to customer service and middle-manager roles. So will AI really kill 20 million manufacturing jobs in the next decade, as Oxford Economics predicts?
I see widespread workforce augmentation as a far more likely outcome than wholesale workforce automation. It’s highly possible that AI can create more jobs than some people worry that it might eliminate. And there’s evidence: according to a report commissioned by ZipRecruiter, in 2018 alone, AI created three times more jobs than it destroyed.
Amazon — no stranger to automation and robot-assisted warehouse facilities — recently made global headlines when they announced a $700 million investment to re-train a third of its workforce with technical skills like coding. It’s a massive initiative that underscores how deeply committed they are to automation technologies, they’re also recognizing they’ll need a highly-skilled workforce to run them. Yes, there will be more robots at Amazon, not fewer. But the company is aiming to address skills gaps that will only widen in coming years. And it’s doing so by investing in 100,000 people, not just automation technologies.
This approach to automation is smart, for two reasons. For many employers, there are two key challenges to managing workforce costs: 1) training, ensuring your people have access to critical knowledge that is easy to find and consume in real-time and 2) retention of the workers you’ve already invested in. Replacing a highly-skilled worker can cost 400 percent of their annual salary, according to one estimate.
Your workforce is already changing
Transformational technologies like AI are advancing quickly, and more companies are finding ways to deploy them as they evolve. As businesses look to AI to reshape their workforce, it’s important to remember that the workforce is already changing, in very human ways.
At many U.S. companies, older employees are aging out of the workforce. According to the Wall Street Journal, the labor force is growing far more slowly than it did in decades prior. Overall productivity has also declined. And, older workers are staying in their jobs for years longer. Massive workforce re-skilling is an option, but it has a very real cost. (Just ask Amazon.)
However, losing a highly-skilled subject matter expert (SME) also carries a critical cost. Unilever, an enterprise customer of ours, told us that in the next five years, they’ll lose 330 years of experience to retirement — in a single facility alone. When an SME retires, your business shouldn’t lose a career’s worth of institutional knowledge. Augmented reality offers businesses an easy way to transfer this knowledge that new-hires need to be successful and retain it long-term to help build the next-generation of a skilled workforce.
Augmentation vs. automation: Why AR is the answer?
In industries like manufacturing, uptime is everything. When something goes wrong, it can adversely impact processes down the line. Faults and failures need to be monitored and corrected as quickly as possible. Human error is the source of nearly a quarter of all unplanned downtime in manufacturing, which cost trillions in losses to businesses each year. How can human error be minimized? AI is a long way off from identifying equipment failures and then automatically fixing them.
Augmented reality, at its core, is a new user interface — a way for humans to visualize and interact with data in more intuitive ways than before. Humans evolved to interact with the world with their hands and their eyes — interacting with 2D data like words and spreadsheets is merely an inaccurate abstraction, and underutilizes one of the most powerful parts of the brain – the visual cortex. The visual cortex enables a person to consume, filter and process vast amounts of information about the real-world, and utilizing this power to interface with the power of computers is an amazing opportunity. In this way, we can augment humanity by merging the best of both worlds; we can leverage the near-infinite and perfect memory capacity of networked computing power, along with the vast processing power of those computer systems, with the intelligent reasoning and extreme adaptability of the human mind and body.
Using this mix, we can leverage the strengths of both while overcoming the weaknesses of both. AI is far from generalized intelligence (although OpenAI is trying), and robots are far from perfect in actuating and interacting with the world. Augmenting humans with contextually relevant data and insights (potentially from IoT and AI systems) can be an extremely beneficial pairing.
In an enterprise context, AR can help workers alleviate downtime and more accurately assemble, repair or conduct maintenance on complex machinery. AR-assisted workers in manufacturing or field service can access contextual digital overlays and step-by-step instructions. They can access previously recorded support sessions, complete with AR annotations, to see how others solved a problem or completed a task on the exact same piece of equipment on which they’re working. And workers can even initiate a live, AR-enabled video session with a remote expert who can see what they see, and talk them through a task, dropping in pre-built AR instructions or drawing on the worker’s real world view to help along the way. It’s expert knowledge, on-demand, shareable across the enterprise and accessible exactly when it’s needed.
While some worry about the impending automation apocalypse as the ultimate job eliminator, AR can create opportunities to build a smarter workforce that will exist alongside automation tools like robots and AI. It’s an ideal platform for transferring and retaining expertise from experts to those learning new skills, regardless of physical location. It can also be used to bridge your company’s data and your employees in the real world, boosting productivity and minimizing costly downtime. And, when workers are more productive and better at their jobs, overall job satisfaction improves, and that’s a win for everyone involved.
Last month, my team and I had an eye-opening experience at Augmented World Expo 2019 (AWE), the premiere augmented and virtual reality conference. It’s a thrill to see how rapidly AR and other technologies are evolving. And it’s just as gratifying to see just how these knowledge-sharing technologies are meeting the business needs in the marketplace.
Just a few years ago, enterprise AR was an emerging technology. But one thing became crystal-clear at AWE this year: AR for the enterprise is no longer a novelty. It’s not just a wild idea to test out in a sandbox. Companies are using AR to solve real business problems. They’re giving their workforce access to critical, specialized knowledge when and where they need it. After seeing impressive use cases, and talking to the enterprise innovators that now use AR for real-world applications — I can safely say: the emerging-tech phase is in the rearview mirror.
We’ve spent a lot of time talking with executives ready to test AR in parts of their business. They’re typically optimistic, but cautious: I get it — but where do I start, and how do I get my team on board?
There are definitely use cases that AR is better suited for than others in an enterprise setting. In order to ensure you’re choosing the right use case for your organization, here are three mistakes to avoid as you prepare your business for AR adoption:
1) Don’t plan to rewire your entire business. You can’t expect AR to replace a process across your global operations overnight. Start smart. Find a discreet project where you can address a real-world business problem. Ensure it’s a process that can be enhanced by real-time knowledge transfer. And above all, ensure it’s a use case where you can measure and share quantifiable results.
What scenarios might be a good candidate for your business’ first use case? Be sure to consider workflows and teams that would benefit from augmented knowledge like step-by-step instructions, contextual digital overlays, and even live video support from a remote expert. For instance, imagine how impactful on-demand expertise – by way of real-time remote assistance or pre-built guided instructions – could be for a field service team or remote workers managing highly-specialized manufacturing tasks.
2) Avoid complexity and embrace efficiency. From the outset, it’s important to understand where AR will most benefit the people and processes that are the lifeblood of your business. You need to make sure it brings instant expertise and context to the task at-hand. You don’t want to add another layer of process; you want to ensure workers can access knowledge from subject matter experts or resources, wherever they are and whenever they need them.
Some questions to ask along the way:
What direction or communications do your remote workers need most while they are in their workstream?
Where can real-time expertise help them complete tasks most efficiently and effectively?
What tasks in physical space — such as locating repair points, modeling, assembly or QA — could benefit from real-time guidance or visual, intuitive instructions?
What situations might benefit from live assistance or access to a support recording of the same scenario, versus specialized standalone training?
What do your senior-staff subject matter experts know that new hires don’t — and can AR-enhanced support, communications or replays help bridge the gap?
3) Don’t lose sight of business realities. At the end of the day, if your first AR use case fails to provide ROI, you might not get a chance to kick off a second one. Ensure you’ve allocated ample budget to complete a project successfully. But don’t burn budget on proprietary hardware or a closed software platform. You likely can build out an initiative with an agnostic AR platform that extends across devices and operating systems your team already uses. Creating a smart budget will help you more quickly achieve ROI.
Beyond planning for cost, you’ll need to navigate another business reality: you’re rarely in it alone. Your AR project will need buy-in from two additional critical sets of stakeholders: your leadership and your IT department. An advocate inside the business can help make the case to leadership for the investment, and ensure they see the hard-cost savings potential in the unprecedented levels of knowledge sharing that AR allows.
Just as critically, however, IT needs to be on board, as early as possible. IT can help you clear hurdles around security, governance or other compliance protocols, like limited-access to intellectual property you might need to share over an AR platform. Approach your AR use case with IT as a full deployment partner, so you’re integrated with the existing systems and infrastructure that knowledge and communications already flow through.
From conversations with business leaders, I know it can seem daunting to get an AR project deployed. With the right use case, you can unlock expertise, share knowledge and add value well beyond the objectives of your initial project. Ready to get started? Download our free eBook, “Building the Perfect AR Use Case” for a step-by-step guide to launching an enterprise AR initiative.
At Augmented World Expo 2019 (AWE), the premiere augmented and virtual reality conference, we unveiled our upgraded version of WorkLink, a comprehensive AR platform built for the enterprise. WorkLink is the industry’s only knowledge platform that can deliver real-time AR content and work instructions, as well as live video support simultaneously in one application.
With today’s announcement, we’ve made it easier than ever for anyone to become an expert with the support of AR. WorkLink previously allowed users to quickly create AR content and connect to the knowledge they need with step-by-step work instructions and live support. With the addition of session recording to WorkLink, workers can now easily document their experience too. This ensures that the expert training and support delivered during live video calls isn’t lost when a user hangs up, but instead become shareable, repeatable assets for your whole organization to leverage. Why? Your workforce gets critical and accurate knowledge faster — which is particularly essential in scenarios like equipment repairs or maintenance, to ensure rapid diagnosis and minimal disruption to a production line. Subject matter experts and trainers can spend less time covering the same support scenarios and more time adding value to your business.
Check out our announcement for all the new details.
So why should your company be looking at an AR platform like WorkLink? Why shouldn’t you look to a custom-built solution from an AR vendor — or a made-from-scratch deployment developed in-house? Here are three reasons:
1. Platforms are delivery agnostic. They extend across all major AR ecosystems so you’re not chained to a single vendor or OS in a rapidly-evolving landscape. Imagine if you built the AR use case for your business on one of the first pairs of AR glasses. As many of you will see at AWE 2019, our industry is now generations beyond that in terms of performance, experience, and usability. You don’t want to get locked into a single ecosystem. Find a platform that extends across all major headsets, mobile devices and operating systems so that today’s AR content can be projected on tomorrow’s devices.
2. A platform can ensure critical knowledge won’t be lost. You want to ensure training and support sessions become sharable, repeatable assets. Shared knowledge shouldn’t be a one-off conversation or session. If a technical assembly session helped one field technician, the odds are very good it could help everyone else doing that task. It’s no longer solely an AR-enhanced support or training scenario. Our new session recording functionality transforms real-time knowledge into a reusable asset that can be accessed and shared by your teams across the globe. This is particularly important in an seasoned workers where employees with a career’s worth of expertise are retiring and walking out the door with valuable knowledge.
3. A platform can help you build a knowledge repository. Institutional memory carries tangible value for your business. The expertise held by your company’s career engineers and master technicians needs to reach your new-hires. You need to invest in knowledge management to ensure that the expertise that steers your business is not lost when someone leaves — or when the robots join your builders on the assembly line. Start building a knowledge repository that gives you the ability to capture and share the expertise specific to your business. AR is ideal for teaching someone how to perform specialized tasks or solve complex problems virtually hands-on. Find a platform that helps you create content (either pre-built or on the fly) and establish links between your experts and your future workforce.
I’m ecstatic to announce that Scope AR has raised a $9.7M Series A! This follows a strong year for Scope AR and we’re on track to have an even better 2019. We’re so excited to have the resources we need to grow and to take advantage of the amazing opportunity that lies before us, which is nothing less than transforming how people perform work in the heavy industries. We’re just at the beginning of the journey with augmented reality-enabled applications, and we have a clear and expanding vision of what is needed to become the global leader in workforce knowledge management.
When we built our first augmented
reality project back in 2012, we were blown away by the market
opportunity that presented itself, and today is another milestone in
enabling front line workers to receive the information they need to do
their jobs more effectively. It’s only a matter of time before this
technology is in the hands of every blue-collar worker, and it’s
extremely exciting to be on the front lines of this world-changing
technology, particularly with the recent advances in hardware which are
finally allowing our dream to come to fruition.
In 2018, Apple and Google both got
into the AR game with ARKit and ARCore, and Microsoft made a big push
with their Hololens headset. With the support of these hardware players
and billions of devices ready to take advantage of this amazing
technology, AR seems ready to take off, and Scope AR is poised to take
advantage of this changing landscape. The core ethos around the company
is knowledge transfer – getting knowledge into a worker’s hands as soon
as possible, enabling them to have the knowledge they need, when they
need it. We have accomplished that goal in a couple of core
capabilities:
Remote AR (Remote Assistance), the
first AR-enabled remote assistance app, which allows a front-line
technician to obtain knowledge and collaborate with someone who has that
knowledge in real time, with the enabling technology of augmented
reality providing that key communication medium that you just don’t get
with FaceTime or Skype.
WorkLink,
the first no-code authoring platform, which allows non-technical users
to create intuitive, visual work instructions for virtually any worker
to receive intuitive, visual guided instructions for the purposes of
training, maintenance, or assembly.
And we aren’t done yet! Stay tuned for some great announcements in the next few months.
Continuing to look ahead, Scope AR
will use this round of capital to grow our sales and marketing teams, as
well as our development teams. We have an extensive roadmap to build to
become the global leader in workforce knowledge management. To help
guide us in this journey, I’m extremely happy to welcome Wayne Hu of
SignalFire and Krishna K. Gupta of Romulus Capital to the board of
directors.
I’m very excited about the future and what we’ll be able to achieve with these additional resources. And if you’re looking to join a rockstar team with huge ambitions to change the world – we’re hiring!
On September 16th, Marc Benioff’s keynote at the Dreamforce conference spoke strongly to the theme of innovation. Attendees got a number of exciting glimpses of the future as seen by Salesforce, a company that has proven to be an industry in itself, and no stranger to innovation.
As the finishing touch of this look into tomorrow, Mr. Benioff presents a technician of the future working on Cisco server equipment, being walked through diagnostics and repair by advanced augmented reality software. Futuristic and innovative without question, but this technology is very real–and we provided it. It’s powered by Scope AR and we are putting it in the field every day for organizations on the enterprise scale right down to small scale service support.
Scope AR technology allows users to overlay expert assistance directly onto their view of a live situation in the form of 3D graphics and animation, text instructions, and reference material. Whether delivered on an inexpensive smartphone, high tablet, or display enabled smart glasses, this kind of real-world assistance is truly game-changing, and we are having a great time changing the game right now.
Building on the success of our step by step instruction, we have recently introduced Remote AR, which brings our powerful Augmented Reality interface to the live support call. This has to be experienced to be believed; the frustration of not having your knowledge where you need it is now a thing of the past.
And of course we aren’t finished innovating with our
step-by-step instructional support. In response to customer demand we
are constantly evolving the software suite we use to create our
solutions, and we will be making announcements on some exciting new
developments in that area shortly.
We are seeing a drastic shift in the way that expert knowledge is captured and shared. We see the impact this has every day with our clients. Printed manuals and company experts traveling around the world are already becoming a thing of the past, but within a few short years the impact will go far beyond training and maintenance. It’s no exaggeration to say that communication of our knowledge and our experience is what civilization and society are built around, and we are unquestionably witnessing the evolution of a new medium for that information transfer.
So as we join our friends at SalesForce in looking towards
the future, we at Scope AR are very excited to continue pushing the
boundaries of what’s possible. We are inventing the tools that will help
the next generation of our society work in more ways than one.
Innovation is at the heart of our business, and we wouldn’t have it any other way!
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