Organizing for the Future when the Present stinks

The latest in the drumbeat of news about artificial intelligence advances came from Seoul, where machine learning algorithms recently beat the world champion in a game of "Go." A Scientific American article explains why this is so impressive, but the implications run far deeper than a match of wits between man and machine. Soon, our workplaces will be transformed by artificial intelligence, with a wide range of processes and roles becoming redefined as some of the tasks comprising them are taken over by machines. Travelers are seeing early signs of this phenomenon. For example, in many US airports these days, instead of standing in a long line to have an immigration officer eyeball us, we scan our passport at a self-service kiosk, answer a few questions, get photographed, and then hand our photo receipt and passport to an agent who quickly verifies that everything checks out.