The combination of fascination and fear, or euphoria and alarm, is something that has greeted every new technological wave since the first all-digital computer,

If you believe all the doom and gloom in the news today, you might think automation and the deployment of AI-enabled systems at work will replace scores of jobs worldwide. Is AI Really a Job Killer? But management and technology experts Thomas Davenport and Steven Miller argue that AI is not a job destroyer -- no matter what other predictions might say. Yes, AI and intelligent technology will take over some jobs, but that will free up workers to do more challenging and important work. Tom and Steven recently completed a book on this topic called Working with AI: Real Stories of Human-Machine Collaboration, and I got the chance to speak with them about their predictions for how AI will fit in with the workplaces of the future.

Kathleen is a principal analyst, managing partner, and founder of Cognilytica, an AI research and advisory firm, and co-host of the popular AI Today podcast. She is a serial entrepreneur, savvy marketer, AI and Machine Learning expert, and tech industry connector. Kathleen spent many years as the Content and Innovation Director for TechBreakfast, the largest monthly morning tech meetup in the nation with over 50,000 members and 3000 attendees at the monthly events across the US. In addition she is a SXSW Innovation Awards Judge and AI / Hardware Meetup organizer. As a master facilitator and connector, who is well connected in the technology industry, Kathleen regularly meets with innovators in key markets and gets the opportunity to see the latest and newest technologies from game changing companies.

The common saying around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is that these emerging technologies are job killers and will or perhaps could ultimately make humans obsolete in the workplace. Well, only the smarter heads know that this is just an overdramatic misconception. Instead of feeding into the doomsday prognostication, embracing the many advantages and benefits of AI & RPA is much more of a level- headed play. These efficient technologies empower employees to be more productive and much more efficient so that they possibly maintain a better work-life balance. Robotic Process Automation helps people grow in their careers and in fact create jobs by creating a peaceful harmony in their professional as well as personal lives.

As a company that helps businesses automate processes using technology called Robotic Process Automation (RPA), we are acutely aware of the real impact that this robot revolution is having on workers. We have seen and heard from our customers at Fortune 500 companies about the ways in which automation is driving change across their workforces, and there's a lot of silver lining to these clouds. Here are a few ways digital workers are positively upending businesses today and improving the workplace for all.

AI brings mixed emotions and opinions when referenced in the context of jobs. If you ask the question "Do you think Artificial Intelligence will be a net job killer or net job creator?" to colleagues, friends, or strangers you're bound to get some very strong opinions on this subject. For sure you will hear an interesting and conflicting set of opinions that range from "AI will destroy all jobs as we know it" to "AI will enable us to work better and do new things we've never been able to do". If you look at various economic and analyst predictions, their assessments are all over the place, ranging from dramatic job losses across most economic sectors to large increases in employment due to dramatic increases in job productivity. Of course, as with everything, the true answer will be somewhere in the middle.

AI and machine learning are already changing the way that businesses operate. In the financial services sector, the technology is being used in everything from customer service to credit decisioning to fighting fraud. Earlier this year research from IHS Markit warned that banks piling into AI could spell tens of millions of job losses but the new IBM report suggests this is mistaken. The MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab used machine learning to analyse 170 million online job postings in the US between 2010 and 2017, finding that task are shifting between people and machines - but the change is slow. The overall demand for tasks that make up occupations are down between 2010 and 2017.

In the small-minded, fear-ridden debate about AI, I think one aspect in particular has gotten short shrift: AI will be critical to the further development of gross domestic product (GDP). The average worldwide growth of 3.5 percent per year is bound to end in the foreseeable future due to demographic trends. Our economies must be transformed. We can do this successfully with the help of AI technologies and a working populace whose activity is not primarily labor-intensive, but skill-intensive, creating value on the basis of qualifications and productivity. Countries or companies who wish to succeed in today's world must make their economies fit for the future.

As companies ramp up hiring to develop AI, workers agree they need retraining for today's in-demand skills. At the same time, global workers -- particularly Americans -- say going back to school is no longer a feasible option, according to a survey by Northeastern University and Gallup. Just 1 in 4 Americans are confident that the higher education system is doing enough to address the need for career-long learning and retraining. Tuition costs are the biggest deterrent, followed by academic programs that aren't keeping up with an evolving workplace environment, according to the survey. Adults have even less confidence in the government's ability to prepare the public for the latest technological revolution.

Amazon announced last week that it will spend $700 million to train about 100,000 workers in the US by 2025, helping them move into more highly skilled jobs. The New York Times observed that with this program Amazon is acknowledging that "advances in automation technology will handle many tasks now done by people." The number of jobs which AI and machines will displace in the future has been the subject of numerous studies and surveys and op-eds and policy papers since 2013, when a pair of Oxford academics, Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne, estimated that 47% of American jobs are at high risk of automation by the mid-2030s. McKinsey Global Institute: between 40 million and 160 million women worldwide may need to transition between occupations by 2030, often into higher-skilled roles. Clerical work, done by secretaries, schedulers and bookkeepers, is an area especially susceptible to automation, and 72% of those jobs in advanced economies are held by women.