Artificially Human by Robert Whiteman

Author:Robert Whiteman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, AI
Publisher: Better Future Publishing

Mental Model #8 - Like Us

The line between humans and machines blurs over time. Machines are becoming more like us, and we are becoming more like them. Convergence adds fuel to the automation fire while offering a potential lifeline in the race against AI.

Story: Hitting the Slopes

Growing up, I loved downhill skiing. I did not care that the closest “mountains” to my house were landfills masquerading as slopes. Racing down the icy inclines was thrilling. It was not until a trip to Colorado that I realized there was more to skiing than making the same 30-second run until my legs went numb.

Imagine my excitement when a colleague asked me to meet with the executive team of a ski resort operator. The company was looking for ways to automate its operations. Labor costs were rising, and seasonal labor was unreliable. Humans were expensive, and good workers were difficult to find. Maybe machines were the answer.

As we started the meeting, I asked the client to describe the automation efforts underway at the company. Like most organizations, the team was building accounting bots in Finance and resume screening algorithms in HR. I find those applications interesting, but you would be hard-pressed to find a leader who thinks competitive advantage emanates from Accounting.

One example caught my attention. The company installed scanners and scales at the bottom of each chair lift. The scanners made sense. Visitors could scan passes at the bottom to gain entry to the lift. The scale had me puzzled.

The CFO explained that the scanners were installed the prior year and worked well. The chair lines moved faster, and less labor was required. The problem was that visitors realized they only needed a valid pass to enter the lift. The passes were easy to exchange, allowing people to “cheat” the system.

The solution was to install scales. Linking pass data to weight information allowed the resort to verify the same skier was using a pass each time. Initially, I was impressed with the ingenuity. The example sparked a conversation about other opportunities, from automated checkout in the ski shop to robotic food service in the lodge.

After batting around a few more ideas, I paused. Did it make sense for the company to sink millions of dollars into these projects? Was the problem the cost of human labor? The company was quite profitable. Saving money on labor would have added to shareholder returns, but was that the highest and best use of capital?

If you believe the analog and digital worlds are converging, you need to consider the implications for your organization. Ski resorts are analog businesses. My phone does not even work at the top of the mountain. It is a digital desert.

The threat to ski resorts is not escalating labor costs. It is the merging of the analog and digital worlds. Skiing is a sensory experience. The thrill of the landscape rushing past. The feel of snow hitting your face. The sound of skis cutting through the powder. There is no way to recreate those experiences using VR, but that need not be the case forever.

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