First published in 2018, during my time as MD of Human.

We are living through an industrial revolution and the pace of change is accelerating. Advances in both digital and physical technologies are combining to offer new possibilities for production and consumption of products, services and experiences. There are many ways these changes might affect our lives and work but here I'll focus on automation.

Some are worried that machines and algorithms are going to take almost all human jobs within the next century. Indeed some have suggested that governments need to act to protect jobs and incomes because soon automation will even result in the loss of white collar occupations.

At Human, we value the work which should never be automated: to lead, to care and to craft. These are the kinds of work for which humans are most suited and that it is unwise to leave to machines alone. We believe this to be so fundamental that we have made it our creed.

To lead

Humans should make the decisions that matter, for ourselves, our organisations and our society. Both important and complex decisions are best made using a combination logic and emotion. It's right for people to take responsibility for the direction they're heading in especially because most important decisions involve some form of risk or sacrifice. Only people with real skin in the game, or at least real empathy, should be making such decisions. To lead is also about the ability to have a vision and an ethical compass which holds true to some fundamental shared human values, especially important if we accept that systems might automatically, and however innocently, iterate towards undesirable outcomes.

To care

Care can be specific in meaning - such as when looking after the people around us when they need it or it can be that broader sense of our interactions with other people. Customers build stronger relationships with brands when they feel looked after, when the people they meet understand their opinions, needs and wants. The same is true in our relationships with colleagues. To care in this sense requires genuine empathy and whilst we may be able to use artificial intelligence to achieve a believable version of this in the years ahead - wouldn't we all rather know in every context that the care for us came from another person?

To craft

Craft gets to the heart of what it means to be human. We are all creators. We create new words, new ideas, new products, new games, new stories and new systems for understanding and organising the world around us, and we do it all the time. Whether or not it's in our current job description to do these things, we do them anyway finding outlets away from work if necessary. It's the way we are wired - an evolutionary endowment. We might be able to design machines which one day seem to manifest the same creativity - but we don't believe it will actually be the same. Nor even if those machines were very capable would we want to see humans lose this art of creativity. As humans, we love to consume the creations of others but we love nothing more than to produce, to build and to create something for ourselves. No sooner have we made something than we want to improve on it. We are all artists and and we all have a big stake in craft because it allows us to create the things we crave more than anything else - meaning and purpose.

The value of the work at hand

What of all the work we do that isn't about leading, caring and crafting? I believe the sooner we can automate that work and take it out of the hands of humans the better. When we free people up to do higher value work, individuals will be happier whilst societies will be healthier and wealthier.

Imagine a doctor's surgery without administration, in which all of the human time and attention was devoted to caring for the patients and crafting ever-better ways of preventing and treating illness.

Imagine buying a house in a world where caring estate agents and solicitors spend several weeks getting to know you and the properties you are considering, helping you to make the right choice, before all the paperwork for the transaction is completed seamlessly in a matter of minutes. Many of these professions are seen as intermediaries, earning fees whilst adding little value other than risk mitigation. I see a future in which such professions could be valued more and even paid more because of the wise counsel and emotional support they offer us at the critical juncture.

Some people wonder what everyone is going to do when all of the admin and mundane work has been automated. If you are one of them, I suggest you are not thinking creatively enough. There is no shortage of challenges big and small which need a greater investment of creative thought and effort. Poor mental health services, climate change, housing shortages, lonely older people. Even from this very short list we could start to wonder; why are the organisations working on these problems wasting so many creative human hours on manual administration? If we care about solving these problems then why aren't we automating the low-value parts of the job in order to make the most of the resources we can invest? Indeed if we care about growing our businesses whilst making them distinctive and meaningful then why do we ask our people to spend most of their days acting as routers for information? All forms of admin need to be eradicated through automation so that we can make more of the most precious resources we have - our human attention and enthusiasm.

There is a view that we should protect the employment of people doing easy-to-automate low-value jobs. I believe this is well intentioned, but also deeply patronising. Between the lines, what's really being said is that some people are just not capable of doing anything better than the work of simple machines. But people are usually capable of so much more given the right freedoms and support. Those of us lucky enough to pursue hobbies and interests outside of work tend to show more creativity than we do in our 'day jobs'. When people become parents we usually see them develop or uncover new skills and resilience for the job. To parent well demands high levels of leadership, care and craft - and almost all of us rise to the challenge when called.

As a thought experiment, imagine the situation in reverse. Would you create a job for a person knowing fully that the work could be completed more easily by a machine? Would you employ a person to manually add up numbers for you on paper rather than use a calculator or spreadsheet? I suggest you absolutely would not. You would use one of those technologies to 'do the job yourself'. In fact you probably wouldn't even see it as a separate job - but that the tool you chose to use was merely a support for you to get it done. What if that person knew that the only reason you hired them was to find a way of giving them gainful employment? We should wonder what effect that has on a person's sense of self-worth.

If you win the argument that people should have jobs regardless of the value they generate (whether economic or otherwise), then you've halted all human progress and striving.

Throughout history we have seen that automation frees people up to create ever more complex and rich societies with ever more technological advances creating a beneficial loop of progress. There will always be examples of those who lose out locally and temporarily. While many dock workers around the world struggled to find new employment in the wake of containerisation, that innovation in global logistics resulted in an acceleration of the economy which lifted millions out of real poverty and facilitated wealth which even many of the poorest in society have benefited from.

There's an inception style opportunity in the local and temporary negatives of automation. Those people displaced will be in need of support which will require a lot of care and craft. But we need to decide as a society that we are going to invest in this when the transition comes to their door.

The bigger picture shows us there is much to be done to make a better world and so many who can help. If you believe in humanity then now is the time to embrace high value work for the purpose it gives us and the good it can do.

To be able to believe that automation is a force for good we have to also expect, demand and strive for the values which underscore the positive effects. This is why I will give my support to causes that nurture human freedom, dignity and equality. This is why as a team we are interested in happiness and the quality of the lived experience. Work gives us purpose but it's not the only aspect of a life well lived.

It's time to celebrate what it means to be human. It's time to automate low value activities, to enable ourselves and our brilliant colleagues to go forward, to reach for more. To lead, to care and to craft!