The flip side of not being swayed by “petty emotions” is that emotions are a real part of life that will not be replaced by robots. As good as machines are at analyzing data and helping to make decisions, there are still humans involved in executing a plan and in buying the products and services that companies offer. Saying that a robot will be the best CEO in 30 years is a great headline but it will not happen.

One fast-emerging model for retail marketers is the use of AI (powered by IBM Watson) for planning marketing campaigns. A company called Equals3 has launched an AI marketing planning platform with IBM Watson that can reduce the time and labor to plan marketing campaigns from months with a large staff at the retailer and its agencies to a day or two with one staffer.

Knowing some CEOs today, I’d say a couple could be replaced by hand puppets, but that’s another topic. The great ones are great in part because of their exceptional ability to craft intelligent, strategic decisions based upon available information that their staffs can execute upon. If you simply look at that capability, I could be convinced that AI might be able to pull that off, as the technologies could be “fed” more and more data and learn as it consumes. AI is already positively affecting retail as we speak around the world, with Abof in India and others leveraging the technologies like natural language processing for their e-commerce business.

The evolution and adoption of AI and robotics in retail is going to happen in three stages:

1. Automation — a wholesale replacement of repeatable, manual tasks across the entire supply chain (including in the store) over the next three to seven years.
2. Decision-making — AI guides humans and provides the IQ to make better decisions.
3. Emotional connection — AI develops EQ, and becomes “smart” enough to connect in a completely human way. Until this last step is accomplished, human leaders cannot be replaced.

AI-driven corporations are not 30 years away, they are more like three years away. The first phase of AI will be “augmented” not “artificial” intelligence that complements humans in decision-making and processes.

There are several technologies in place:

• Private cryptographic keys — Bots can create computerized secret keys to perform digital signatures that are legally binding since a corporation is a legal entity.
• Distributed ledgers — several ledgers from accounting, articles of incorporation, stocks and bond assets and inventory assets can be verified by employee-shareholders. Bots can analyze the ledgers to optimize processes and maximize value.
• Natural language — AI can now understand contractual terms as well as business rules in plain English as well as humans.

I’m aware of an AI-driven vending machine project where the employee-shareholders vote with their private key and their private key is their actual stock certificate proof of ownership. No CEO, no board of directors or executive team. Three to five years, not 30 years.

No disrespect Mr. Ma, but how many huge CEOs do you know? Because the ones I know are exactly like computers. So this line, “unlike human CEOs, they will not be swayed by petty emotions” is totally off base. Top CEOs are able to compartmentalize. They keep emotions separate from logic. I know this because my dad is one of those guys. He can take a million things on and not crumble, that is why he is able to run many companies. But you must have some human emotional nature even if it is the tiniest bit.

No robot is ever going to feel that it’s not right to lay off his faithful 77-year-old employee after working for him for 26 years because he knows that this is all he has to live for. No robot is going to have “Bring Your Child To Work Day.” No robot is going to buy the Girl Scout Cookies from their employees’ kids!

We will always need the human factor. 🙂

Put this one in the category of fun to think about, but not all that likely. It comes down to (and somewhat depends on) one’s definition of the primary function of a CEO or other position. For a CEO, one would think, this would center around leadership. Underneath this is a need for charisma, emotional intelligence, problem solving, creative thinking and a host of intangibles. Translating this into a set of algorithms which sort, weigh and interpret the relevant data is no small task. Even harder is translating this in an emotionally compelling way back out. The proof of the Herculean nature of it is the sheer fact that many humans don’t even do it very well. Sure machines can sometime exceed their human counterparts through their tireless ability to repeat a task with no fatigue or emotion, but this would seem to be more complicated. Then again, perhaps taking the emotional element out of being a CEO would improve performance? I guess we’ll one day see whether some of us would rather follow a… Read more »

AI and robotics are poised to take over many jobs in retail over the next several decades and some CEO jobs may be thrown in to boot. There is a lot we need to be thinking about here. But the thought leadership, passion and risk taking that a good CEO provides, those cannot easily be replaced by technology. In light of this, some CEOs may need to be stepping up their games.

For my 2 cents.

Who picks the articles? AI and machine learning have many uses across retail — we all have heard or written enough about this topic. Almost time to toss it and talk about something new.

No, sorry, AI will never advance far enough to replace any critical decision making human. Chess and some marketing (basic performance based marketing decisions) can be handled by AI but not the illogical-at-times human relation-needed decisions. The learning and formula work of AI can only go so far at this time, and likely even in 2030. Math and engine logic have limits.

An area where AI will assist more is in teaching related areas — be it school or retail — for evaluating how well people/kids are learning and where they need more help.

Ease off the AI and keep retail focused on the basics. You need to know the basics before you can enhance them with technology.

“…people will have substantially more non-work time on their hands…” yeah, that’s the concern all right, but of course not with this positive spin attached to it.

Anyway, whatever the future may bring, I pretty sure AI eliminating CEOs won’t be something we’ll be seeing. Why they’ll be more important than ever … at least that’s what we’re always told as compensation rises.

The emergence of information technology throughout businesses all over the world was realized in using it as a tool for the company’s accounting practice. Payroll, A/R, A/P and inventory were the front runners for large scale profit taking system sales. The rest came later at great expense to initial investors as well as the new ventures themselves. In this discussion we are looking to artificial intelligence as a means to save time, reduce errors and perform to optimum levels for making abstract business decisions. While this application seems new to the computer industry, we might get an understanding of what may be in store for us by looking at a couple of markets that have adapted with some unanticipated results. Let us look at human resources and medical diagnosis for a start. In both of these instances, the required input for success has seen information bottlenecks that remove control from ownership reducing effectiveness and delaying the process in its entirety. It is interesting to note that no system designed and in use as an artificial… Read more »