How Technology Will Change Management in the Next 50 Years

The rise of deep learning and artificial intelligence will revolutionize how companies are managed, argues the Economist, replacing many of the tasks currently done by humans–especially management consultants–with computer programs. While the first age of mechanization made managers logistical experts, coordinating the schedules of machines and their operators, software will increasingly be employed to analyze complex data, make hiring suggestions, and set payroll incentive levels.

“Some companies have already begun delegating management decisions to machines. Google’s ‘human-performance analytics group’ uses algorithms to decide which interview techniques are best at choosing good employees, and to optimise pay. Deep Knowledge Ventures, a Hong Kong-based venture-capital firm that specialises in drugs for age-related diseases, has even appointed an algorithm to its board of directors. Its name is Vital, and it gets a vote on which companies the firm invests in.”

New technologies will also boost business productivity by “expanding the recycling and reuse of metals,” replacing poor-quality materials with better ones, and by using virtual materials instead of physical ones, such as digital books, notebooks, and medical records.

In his Big Think interview, author Laurence Gonzalez argues that it’s equally important that we manage our technology: