AI gives access to jobs for those excluded from labour market

This was one of the main messages of the keynote address delivered by Gartner group vice president Dr Brian Kropp (pictured) at the global research and advisory firm's ReimagineHR conference at Westminster's Park Plaza hotel yesterday. With nine in 10 organisations investing in AI or having plans to do so, Kropp called on delegates to not just focus on the challenge posed by AI creating or eliminating jobs but to look at how AI can create access to jobs. Kropp gave the example of a café in Japan, which has created jobs for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease that causes the death of neurons controlling voluntary muscles. ALS sufferers can control a robot from their bed, who then commutes to work on their behalf and serves customers. "Think about that for a second," Kropp told delegates.