CFOs are planning to implement advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, drones, robots and blockchain, at a rapid rate, according to a new survey by Grant Thornton. For the study, GT and CFO Research polled 378 senior finance executives about the ways technology is transforming nearly every division in their organization, especially the finance function. One out of four of the respondents said they use AI, compared to just 7 percent last year. Significant proportions of senior financial execs are currently implementing advanced analytics (38 percent) and machine learning (30 percent). Within two years, senior financial execs plan to roll out a battery of new technology, such as AI (41 percent), blockchain (40 percent), robotic process automation (41 percent) and drones and robots (30 percent), at their organization.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to amplify and enhance people's ability to the point where they will be able to solve the most perplexing problems facing society today. But that potential won't be realised if leaders in organisations don't demystify AI for their teams and create a world of understanding around the impact and value that technology presents to a modern workforce. This is the view of Paul Shanahan, Cloud & Enterprise Business Group lead with Microsoft Ireland. "There is apprehension around AI and its introduction to the workplace," he says. "On the one hand we have new generations coming into the workforce who have grown up in a society where intelligent technology is widely used and accepted. On the other, we have older generations within the workforce who started working before smartphones and maybe even PCs weren't in common use. For that older cohort it would be very easy to imagine AI as something from the future, something unattainable in today's workplace."

Work is the main source of income, and as such is the main way people meet their material needs. Engagement in paid work marks the passage to maturity that starts back when adults ask a child for the first time what they want to "be" when they grow up. It is, of course, the main goal of education to equip young people with the skills and certifications required to be able to work. During the industrial revolution in the middle of the 19th century, the idea of the working week was born. Although, rather than being the 9 to 5, Monday to Friday existence that people are used to, workers were expected to undertake 14-hour shifts, with only Sunday off to go to church.