Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hotly discussed and debated subject in 2018. From newspapers to world leaders, everyone is talking about what machine intelligence and robotics could and might do for businesses. With all the buzz it is generating, Artificial Intelligence is rapidly emerging as a lucrative technology. By 2035, global consulting firm Accenture has suggested that Artificial Intelligence could add an estimated £654 billion to the UK economy. It comes as little surprise then to see an increasing number of businesses adding AI into their operations.

Paul Daugherty and James Wilson, senior technology leaders at Accenture, argue that robots and smarter computers aren't coming for our jobs. They talk about companies that are already giving employees access to artificial intelligence to strengthen their skills. They also give examples of new roles for people in an AI workplace. Daugherty and Wilson are the authors of the new book Human Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI. SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast, from Harvard Business Review. By now, I'm used to the idea that machines are going to be an ever more present part of work.

AI will augment people's capabilities but won't take all jobs. However, there will be socioeconomic upheaval, warns PwC's authority on AI, Anand Rao. Anand Rao is PwC global leader for artificial intelligence (AI) and is the consulting giant's innovation lead for the US analytics practice. Rao has 24 years of industry and consulting experience, helping senior executives to structure, solve and manage critical issues facing their organisations. He has worked extensively on business, technology and analytics issues across a wide range of industry sectors including financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, aerospace and defence, across US, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Companies can be easily dazzled by their newest workers, the chatbots. They never complain or get sick. And they don't ask for raises. But companies can be just as easily disappointed when customers become frustrated by opaque and time-consuming interactions with the bots. It's not the bots' fault, said a panel of artificial intelligence experts at a recent Executive Roundtable hosted by Earley Information Science (EIS), a leading consulting firm focused on organizing information for business impact.

Accenture, which now has over 50 per cent of its revenues coming from digital, is betting big on Artificial Intelligence as the company feels AI has the ability to enable socio-economic development in India, unlocking at least a trillion dollars of economic value by 2035. In a conversation with BusinessLine, Rekha M Menon, Chairman and Senior Managing Director, Accenture in India, talked about how AI is transforming not just Accenture's clients but also the tech giant itself. People are worried about AI taking away their jobs, and in several instances, bots have in fact replaced humans. Should humans worry about AI taking over? AI is the'alpha' of all technology trends, and someday it will be as pervasive as electricity, truly transforming the way businesses and societies function.

The dominant tech trend in places like Southeast Asia will not be artificial intelligence as a whole, but rather it will be the more specific AI field of machine learning, according to a researcher from Deloitte. "Machine learning is the big one, not AI. AI's a very broad field, we are talking about the very narrow field of machine learning," Duncan Stewart, the director of technology, media, and telecommunications research at Deloitte Canada, told CNBC. Deloitte predicts that the next 12 months will see significant progress in augmented reality, mobile device usage, and increasingly sophisticated chips. But the most dominant trend will be machine learning -- when programs predict or explain using large amounts of data without being explicitly programmed -- according to Stewart.

With robots potentially as not only your coworkers but also your competition, what capabilities and unique talents are essential to keep your job? We asked the co-chairs of IAOP's Global Human Capital Chapter: What skills do humans need to compete with robots? A recent KPMG white paper titled Rise of the Humans states that automation and robotics will transform jobs according to two main dimensions – Cognitive Automation and Cognitive Processing & Robotic Automation. The authors said Cognitive Automation changes fall into two main areas: the Leveraged Professional, which enables the people of lesser qualifications to perform at substantially higher levels, e.g., a paralegal giving attorney-level advice, or allowing a lower qualified professional deliver a world-class output. Second is the Connected Worker, which affords everyone in a specific role to access technologies and the best ideas and knowledge on a topic.

The automation of work, including the use of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), is expected to rapidly increase. In fact, recent research by think tank'Centre for Cities' found that one in five jobs in Britain will fall victim to automation by 2030. These findings are further echoed by auditing firm'PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC)', who estimate more than 10 million UK workers will be at high risk of being displaced by robots within the next 15 years. As the prevalence of automation becomes more common in our day-to-day routines (supermarket self-service tills, air travel self-check in etc.), it's threat towards human jobs only becomes more apparent. Interested in this phenomenon, Reboot Digital Marketing analysed findings from Mindshare, who surveyed more than 6,000 individuals from across the UK to see whether they would prefer robots or humans in eight different occupations/scenarios.

Are you ready to compete as intelligent technology meets human ingenuity to create the future workforce? Ryan Shanks from Accenture has some recommendations. A recent Accenture Strategy report, Reworking the Revolution: Are you ready to compete as intelligent technology meets human ingenuity to create the future workforce?, estimates that if businesses invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and human-machine collaboration at the same rate as top-performing companies, they could boost revenues by 38pc by 2022 and raise employment levels by 10pc. Collectively, this would lift profits by $4.8trn globally over the same period. For the average S&P 500 company, this equates to $7.5bn of revenues and a $880m lift to profitability.

Bottom line: Machine learning algorithms, applications, and platforms are helping manufacturers find new business models, fine-tune product quality, and optimise manufacturing operations to the shop floor level. Manufacturers care most about finding new ways to grow, excel at product quality while still being able to take on short lead-time production runs from customers. New business models often bring the paradox of new product lines that strain existing ERP, CRM and PLM systems by the need always to improve time-to-customer performance. New products are proliferating in manufacturing today, and delivery windows are tightening. Manufacturers are turning to machine learning to improve the end-to-end performance of their operations and find a performance-based solution to this paradox.