The fear of the future can be a powerful deterrent to change, as shown by a recent McKinsey Global Survey about the spread of automation in the workplace. Almost half of the respondent executives who rated their current automation programs a success nevertheless identified two factors--managing employee resistance to change and attracting talent--as their biggest challenges to adopting automation over the next three years (Exhibit 1). It's a truism that change brings challenges. But it's equally true that change brings opportunities. Automation has huge potential to change the nature of work, most obviously by freeing up workers from repetitive and tedious tasks.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty will be among the company executives who will be joining a Trump administration advisory board set to deal with the effects of artificial intelligence and automation on the workforce. According to Reuters, the panel will be co-chaired by Ivanka Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Board members will serve until 2020. The panel -- which also includes executives from companies including Walmart, Home Depot, Visa, Siemens USA and Lockheed Martin -- was created by an executive order signed by President Trump in July 2018. The order stated that "for too long, our country's education and job training programs have prepared Americans for the economy of the past."

"Touted as the new electricity, AI is the power behind many emerging technology platforms," says the report. Travel websites'learn' how to give more personalised results while chat platforms improve service. Although AI has a long way to go, it will undoubtedly be a huge player in the future, says the WTTC. Connected sensors, devices and machines can create a new form of dialogue with the'real' physical world. IoT has huge implications for airlines but also for hotels where smart home technology can provide some of the largest improvements to the travel experience of the future.

"As president, what would be your approach to workforce automation?" That's an important question that has yet to be raised during the 2016 presidential election race, but the answer could have a profound impact on how trends in automation impact the wider economy. Predictions may vary as to how many jobs the American economy could lose over the next one or two decades. An Oxford study predicts 47% of jobs could be automated by 2033; consulting firm Gartner predicts 33% by 2025. A recent OECD study suggests previous figures to be very much overblown, that the total jobs lost to automation in the next two decades is closer to 9% across 21 countries.

For business environments, many tasks are already being performed through the automated functions of intelligent machines, such as scheduling, report compilations and invoice tracking. Increased productivity is the common goal for any competitive enterprise, and for business, the benefits of automation are clear: allow for tasks to be completed faster in a way that is cost-effective and error-free. AI enables the cost-cutting automation of routine work but can also empower value-adding augmentation of human capabilities. Tasks such as scheduling, allocating resources and generating reports across business sectors have typically been reserved for humans but can now fall within the remit of intelligent processes to execute.

Futurists and science fiction writers have always looked ahead to predict how machines could augment the way people live and work. Still, a future where technology fully replaces physical work is distant, but it's no surprise that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a bit of a buzzword among technology and business circles lately. The topic of AI often generates strong reactions, with proponents who note its boundless potential reach and others who see it as a nadir for the global workforce. However, industries across the board have noted the potential of AI and how it will impact enterprises at the core. According to Narrative Science, 44 per cent of executives believe artificial intelligence's most important benefit is'automated communications that provide data that can be used to make decisions'.

Humans are nothing if not contrary. Technology destroying jobs is something most Americans accept will happen within their lifetimes, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center, just not to their own jobs -- which most believe won't change significantly in the next 50 years. Polling just over 2,000 Americans in June and July last summer to ask about their perception of the risk of jobs being automated, the researchers found a majority (65 per cent) of Americans believe that robots and/or software will "definitely" or "probably" be capable of doing much of the work that humans do now within 50 years' time. But when the robots and the algorithms move a little closer to home – and the question becomes specifically about the future security of their own jobs -- respondents' views are very different, with an even larger majority (80 per cent) convinced their own jobs and professions will remain largely unchanged and will exist in their current form 50 years from now. More than a third (36 per cent) of respondents expressed definitive confidence that their current job or occupation will "definitely" exist in its current form five decades from now vs just six per cent saying their current role will "definitely not" exist.

Twitter turned 10 years old this week. Associations, contrary to some dire predictions back then, have survived the past decade's rise of social media, in large part because not much actually changed about our basic desires for belonging, community, and collaboration. The tools are new, but it's still our fellow humans using them to connect. But what if, in the not-too-distant future, your association's target audience became less and less human? Perhaps then you might have some greater concern.

From self-driving vehicles and semi-autonomous robots to intelligent algorithms and predictive analytic tools, machines are increasingly capable of performing a wide range of jobs that have long been human domains. A 2013 study by researchers at Oxford University posited that as many as 47% of all jobs in the United States are at risk of "computerization." And many respondents in a recent Pew Research Center canvassing of technology experts predicted that advances in robotics and computing applications will result in a net displacement of jobs over the coming decades – with potentially profound implications for both workers and society as a whole. The ultimate extent to which robots and algorithms intrude on the human workforce will depend on a host of factors, but many Americans expect that this shift will become reality over the next half-century. In a national survey by Pew Research Center conducted June 10-July 12, 2015, among 2,001 adults, fully 65% of Americans expect that within 50 years robots and computers will "definitely" or "probably" do much of the work currently done by humans.