We've allowed artificial intelligence into our lives almost without even realising it. Alexa (or one of her competitors) will tell us what the weather will be like tomorrow from a barely distinct command. Netflix's algorithms suggest what we might like to watch based on viewing habits. Health apps are crunching data and drawing conclusions about our wellbeing as we go about our business. The CIPD's April 2019 report, People and Machines: From Hype to Reality, found that – despite the technology being in its relative infancy – 32 per cent of UK organisations had already invested in AI and automation, with 22 per cent introducing software to perform cognitive tasks. Many HR departments are already using text-based chatbots of the kind deployed by banks or retailers to handle customer service queries by mimicking natural conversations.

We hear a lot of scare stories about automation, particularly when it comes to the workplace. Barely a week goes by without someone claiming we're all going to being replaced by robots, with automation making us redundant by the millions. It's easy to see why we – as employees and as businesses – would panic. But, in truth, artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is more of a nuanced topic. "AI tends to suffer from quite a polarised narrative," says Rob McCargow, director of AI at PwC, a professional services consultancy.

The government must fully implement its artificial intelligence (AI) sector deal to ensure that the number of jobs created by AI and automation balance the number of jobs lost, PwC has stated in its latest report. IT organisations in the UK and across Europe are starting to accelerate the move to the cloud. Read more about the key areas in which senior IT managers are planning to invest in over the next 12 months. You forgot to provide an Email Address. This email address doesn't appear to be valid.

A visitor shakes an AI-powered robot's hand at the 5th China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services on May 28. Artificial intelligence or AI is presenting more and more opportunities to compete and collaborate in cross-border environments, and China is likely to emerge as one of the biggest beneficiaries of this trend, said experts and industrial professionals. Denis Simon, executive vice-chancellor of Duke Kunshan University, said the State Council has provided guidance for the development of the AI technology in its longterm plan released in July 2017. It also gave the green signal to the private sector, including small and medium enterprises, to enter the AI sector. "As long as market forces determine which company will be successful, the China market has a great potential for developing a very strong AI capability," said Simon.

The debate over artificial intelligence (AI) in public services took a new turn recently, with the publication of a report by PwC that forecast three waves of implementations and that it could affect a third of jobs in the sector by the mid 2030s. Its title, Will robots really steal our jobs? is bound to prompt some trepidation, but it takes a measured look at the impact across the economies of 29 countries, identifying opportunities and risks with the evolution of the technology. Report author Rob McCargow, AI programme leader for the consultancy, comes across as a cautious optimist, generally welcoming the development of AI, but highlighting the risks and making clear that it has to be applied carefully. "On one hand there is the increase maturity of technology offering solutions to intractable problems; but on the other there are new risks," he says. Perhaps the largest is one that has been identified from several quarters, that the algorithms used in AI to support decision making could reflect the biases of the people who programmed them.

A revolution, it is said, is not an apple that simply falls when it is ripe. You have to make it drop. As AI moves beyond proof-of-concept and sandbox implementation, businesses are looking to recruit top machine learning talent, cultivate AI skills across their workforce, and begin to use this amazing set of technologies for incredible outcomes in 2018. There's still not enough AI experts out there to make this a reality – and a huge AI skills gap is opening up as a result. Last year, 56% of senior AI professionals argued in a recent Ernst & Young poll that the lack of talent and qualified workers is the greatest single barrier to the implementation of AI across business operations.

Much of the focus on artificial intelligence has been on the impact that task automation will have on jobs. While PwC expects that the nature of jobs will change and that some will be susceptible to automation, their newest research, Sizing the prize, shows that AI-driven products and services will also generate significant economic value, offsetting job gains, as well as boosting productivity and average wage levels. Organisations still need to develop approaches to embed AI responsibly into our workplaces and to secure the right talent to make the most of the opportunities created. MARGINALIA spoke with PwC's AI Programme Leader, Rob McCargow (pictured right), to explore the key findings from their new report. McCargow is deeply involved in the IEEE Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems, and so shares important ethical considerations and advice around how to maximise AI efforts in a way that benefit the enterprise, its people, and the society.

Advances in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are going to completely change how we live and work but the UK government is totally unprepared, MPs have warned. The Science and Technology Committee released a report on Wednesday warning that the UK government "does not yet have a strategy" for equipping citizens with the skills they need to flourish in a world where AI is more prevalent. It also has no strategy for dealing with the social and ethical dilemmas that AI advances present, according to the report. Acting chair of the Science and Technology Committee, Dr Tania Mathias MP, said in a statement: "Artificial intelligence has some way to go before we see systems and robots as portrayed in the creative arts such as Star Wars. At present, 'AI machines' have narrow and specific roles, such as in voice-recognition or playing the board game'Go'. "But science fiction is slowly becoming science fact, and robotics and AI look destined to play an increasing role in our lives over the coming decades.