In the early two-thousands, Merlin Mann, a Web designer and avowed Macintosh enthusiast, was working as a freelance project manager for software companies. He had held similar roles for years, so he knew the ins and outs of the job; he was surprised, therefore, to find that he was overwhelmed--not by the intellectual aspects of his work but by the many small administrative tasks, such as scheduling conference calls, that bubbled up from a turbulent stream of e-mail messages. "I was in this batting cage, deluged with information," he told me recently. Why was I having such a hard time?" In the nineteen-nineties, the spread of e-mail had transformed knowledge work. With nearly all friction removed from professional communication, anyone could bother anyone else at any time. Many e-mails brought obligations: to answer a question, look into a lead, arrange a meeting, or provide feedback. Work lives that had once been sequential--two or three blocks of work, broken up by meetings and phone ...

As the war for talent intensifies, HR needs to focus on empowering, developing and engaging employees. Sean Nolan, CEO at Blink shares five predictions on the future of employee experience. Remember when the open office floor plan was an innovative idea? When colleagues were excited about moving email over to chat apps? Or when you only used two or three apps at work each day?

Tomorrow's most effective individuals will combine their personal capabilities with customized digital boosters. This article is part of an MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. Technology now touches and transforms every aspect of personal productivity in the workplace. Mobile devices, bots, and digital assistants are ubiquitous, while managers increasingly use key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards to monitor and measure employee performance. In industry after global industry, effectively collaborating with technology is as important as effectively collaborating with people.

Michael Schrage is a research fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE) and the MIT Sloan School of Management, and author of The Innovator's Hypothesis: How Cheap Experiments Are Worth More Than Good Ideas. Alexa and Cortana are acoustically at your service. Digital assistants and bots undeniably enhance our work lives in myriad ways. They're terrific; your wish is their command. And they literally acquire more "skills" every day.

Generally, when people think of Artificial Intelligence, a sort of ominous, futuristic image comes to mind. Killer robots that are out to destroy all humans and inextricably, the universe. Only Will Smith can save us! Thanks to the invention of B grade Blockbuster films, this public perception is fairly understandable. However, it is not quite accurate.

Tomorrow's most effective individuals will combine their personal capabilities with customized digital boosters. Technology now touches and transforms every aspect of personal productivity in the workplace. Mobile devices, bots, and digital assistants are ubiquitous, while managers increasingly use key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards to monitor and measure employee performance. In industry after global industry, effectively collaborating with technology is as important as effectively collaborating with people. Continually boosting the value of employees in this environment -- especially knowledge workers -- poses a difficult design challenge.