How companies will change in a post-work future

As artificial intelligence and social robotics begin to replace tasks and jobs originally held by highly-trained humans we are entering the uncharted waters of the fourth industrial revolution, or "second machine age". The new machines are very much unlike their predecessors because of they are able to learn. They can thus evolve over time to become better and increase their performance. Optimists suggest that by taking over cognitive but labour-intensive chores the intelligent machines will free human workers to do more "creative" tasks; and by working side by side with us they will boost our imagination to achieve more, using their power for detail, ability to rapidly analyse massive data, and lack of psychological bias. But what is often missing from the current debate are the social and economic roles of companies as employers.