Dru Smith, Chief Geodesist of the National Geodetic Survey stands near a measurement device used to survey the height of the Washington Monument in 2017.Susan Walsh/AP This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Cuts made by the Trump administration are threatening the function of a tiny but crucial office within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that maintains the US framework of spatial information: latitudes, longitudes, vertical measurements like elevation, and even measurements of Earth's gravitational field. Staff losses at the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), the oldest scientific agency in the US, could further cripple its mission and activities, including a long-awaited project to update the accuracy of these measurements, former employees and experts say. As the world turns more and more toward operations that need precise coordinate systems like the ones NGS provides, the science that underpins this office's activities, these experts say, is becoming even more crucial. The work of NGS, says Tim Burch, the executive director of the National Society of Professional Surveyors, "is kind of like oxygen. You don't know you need it until it's not there."

Three of every four companies have reported talent or labor shortages and difficulty hiring–a 16-year high. Profound social, economic and demographic changes have created unmet demands for workers in industries ranging from hospitality to logistics to healthcare. Executives across sectors are struggling to attract and retain talent and it's likely that labor shortages will remain a critical issue for many organizations moving forward. However, the rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to significantly disrupt labor markets. Leading organizations are using AI technologies to reduce the impact of labor shortages and improve their competitive position, while also saving on costs. Here's how they're putting AI and big data to use: Some say a non-supportive and unpleasant work environment is the reason their employees quit, creating labor shortages.

One of the more persistent consequences of the COVID crisis has been the so-called "Great Resignation," a development that has been unfolding over most of the past two years. We've seen a steady flow of employees leave the workforce, many doing so after taking stock of their lives amid a rapidly changing world. The insurance industry has by no means been immune to this. Companies in our industry rely heavily on the institutional knowledge of experienced employees, so as the pandemic has served as a catalyst for early retirements, these organizations have been especially hard hit. Employees are an organization's most valuable assets.

This article first appeared in IndustryWeek. As manufacturers begin to integrate AI solutions into production lines, data scarcity has emerged as a major challenge. Unlike consumer Internet companies, which have data from billions of users to train powerful AI models, collecting massive training sets in manufacturing is often not feasible. For example, in automotive manufacturing, where lean Six Sigma practices have been widely adopted, most OEMs and Tier One suppliers strive to have fewer than three to four defects per million parts. The rarity of these defects makes it challenging to have sufficient defect data to train visual inspection models. In a recent MAPI survey, 58% of research respondents reported that the most significant barrier to deployment of AI solutions pertained to a lack of data resources.

Not only do you have to convince other people that you can and should lead, but sometimes you have to convince yourself. That's not always easy for women, given that leadership has long been defined by how men act. Finding a style that's authentic and resonates with others requires reflection and patience. We talk to two leadership coaches about what distinguishes a leader, how to know if you're ready to be one, and how to best make the transition. Then our hosts discuss their own leadership journeys, and the Amys share tips with Nicole that they've learned along the way. Amy Jen Su and Muriel Maignan Wilkins are the founders of the executive coaching and leadership development firm Paravis Partners. They co-wrote the book Own the Room, and Amy is the author of The Leader You Want to Be. Sign up to get the Women at Work monthly newsletter. Our theme music is Matt Hill's "City In Motion," provided by Audio Network. AMY BERNSTEIN: I remember the first time I was really challenged to stop being, you know, a follower and be a leader. A colleague saw me in a context where I was supposed to be leading, and I evidently wasn't because she came up to me afterwards and she said, what are you waiting for? Who are you waiting to say, and now Amy is the leader? AMY BERNSTEIN: And you were, you were given every opportunity, and you just blew it. AMY BERNSTEIN: And she was so right. I mean, I felt like crap when she said it. But you know, that prompted a lot of soul-searching. AMY GALLO: And what did you do differently? AMY BERNSTEIN: I looked for opportunities to steer and to offer guidance. And instead of asking a question, I would offer my view, here's what I would recommend. It was really sort of a -- I had to switch the channel from being, you know, I guess I viewed myself as just one of many people on the team to taking ownership and recognizing that if this thing we were working on failed, I would be the one to blame. And it was really like that self-generated thing, where you realize that it's up to you to make it work. Making the transition from being one of many on a team, an individual contributor, a follower -- however you'd like to think of that role -- to being a leader is a process. It's a process of not just convincing other people to see us as leaders, but also of convincing ourselves that we can and should lead.

This country has something of a love/hate relationship with government jobs. We hate that most government workers are guaranteed overtime and coffee breaks when not working strictly 9-5. But then who wouldn't love being well paid, with early retirement and congressional-level benefits for such effort. Thus, for those of us in the private sector it might seem a bit of career karma that a recent federal study finds automation can eliminate five percent of all government jobs and 30 percent of the work the remaining employees do. I'd like now to offer the perspective I've gained over three decades helping build an industry-leading company designing the information technology systems now automating those government jobs and workloads.

Even after years of experience, senior underwriters can still spend a large part of their day doing the administrative tasks that they were taught early in their careers. AntWorks, a global artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent automation company, can transform the way they spend their time. "All the rules and learning are completely discoverable, addressing concerns often held about AI and RPA technologies." "In your first weeks of work you may have been trained to recognise insurance slips and documents that brokers might present to you as an underwriter," said Mike Hobday, AntWorks' senior vice president for Europe. "You would be trained to understand the data you need to extract, to think about the standing of the broker and the nature of the risks. You might even make some calculations and underwrite the offered risk by entering data into the core systems of the business. "As a very senior and experienced underwriter, there might still be a large part of your day spent doing the administration you were taught in those earlier days.

Time is a critical context for understanding how things function. It serves as the digital history for businesses. When you think about institutional knowledge, that's not just bound up in people. Data is part of that knowledge base as well. So, when companies can capture, store and analyze that data in an effective way, it produces better results.