SA needs to prepare as rise of the machines will result in fall in jobs

Entrepreneur Ryan Falkenberg should be smiling. His artificial intelligence (AI) platform has helped a local bank to increase sales of financial products 52% and an oil company’s call centre to resolve nearly all suppliers’ technical issues. But Falkenberg, who runs Cape-based AI developers Clevva, is worried. "I don’t think there’s an acknowledgement of the speed at which human redundancy is going to happen." Much of AI involves machines learning how to respond to certain things without being explicitly programmed to do so. Falkenberg says the full effect of the technology will probably only begin to show in the next generation after it becomes more integrated with big data and the Internet of Things. At the bank, his AI platform helps guide sales consultants through its list of hundreds of financial products. Consultants barely need have any knowledge of the products. Falkenberg says this doesn’t mean consultants are no longer needed, but turns them into super agents able to focus...