Companies must choose whether humans or machines should get the last word on employee performance. Digital tools and technologies are now relentlessly and remorselessly transforming how performance management works. Customized and continuous data-driven feedback is becoming a new normal for enterprises worldwide. This feedback appears both qualitatively and quantitatively superior to its performance review precursors and should lead to better outcomes. But does AI-flavored feedback require a human touch to measurably improve its impact?

IBM wants to keep its employees from quitting. And it's using artificial intelligence to do it. In a recent CNBC interview, CEO Ginni Rometty said that thanks to AI, the tech and consulting giant can now predict with 95% accuracy which employees are likely to leave in the next six months. The "proactive retention" tool -- which IBM uses internally but is also selling to clients -- analyzes thousands of pieces of data and then nudges managers toward which employees may be on their way out, telling them to "do something now so it never enters their mind," Rometty said. IBM's efforts to use AI to learn which employees might quit is one of the more high-profile recent examples of the way data science, "deep learning" and "predictive analytics" are increasingly infiltrating the traditionally low-tech human-resources department, arming personnel chiefs with more rigorous tools and hard data around the tricky art of managing people.

IBM says within the next three years 120 million workers will need to learn new skills as a result of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace. The skills range from cybersecurity and data science to front-end and full-stack developers, according to IBM chief talent officer Diane Gherson. "These are the hotter skills out there in the market right now," she told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday. "You're finding a shortage and every company is going to have to start developing these skills because they don't exist in enough numbers." And, according to Gherson, whether it's banking or industrial, every single company is "tuned into" AI of some kind. What's more, she said if you're not including AI in your business, you'll be left behind.

Today and in the very near future, the guest experience at Marriott hotels will be quite different than in the past. After checking in, you'll use a smartphone app to alert the staff when you'd like your room to be cleaned. You'll use a voice-activated digital assistant to adjust the lighting, temperature and even the digital art on your room's walls. Instead of summoning a staffer, the hotel will send a robot butler to your door to deliver the fresh linens. When you're ready to go out, rather than stopping by the concierge desk, you can use the hotel app to recommend nearby restaurants and nightclubs. Welcome to the brave new world of automation and artificial intelligence.