In terms of the future of smart machines, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI), it more or less comes down to “Like It or Not, This Is Happening.” The quoted statement is a section in the first chapter of the book What to Do When Machines Do Everything from Cognizant Technology Solutions.
The authors do not sugar-coat the inevitable future. In chapter one, they state how this next stage of technology and business is the same as what we have experienced in the past. Just as “the First Industrial Revolution was powered by the invention of the loom, the second by the steam engine, and the third by the assembly line, the fourth will be powered by the machines that seem to think—what we refer to in these pages as “systems of intelligence.”
What is needed for many business leaders, managers, and engineers are guidelines on how to navigate their focus, products, and labor force in this emerging market. What to Do When Machines Do Everything walks the reader through the next stages of the fourth industrial revolution. It includes covering our past, the effect this will have on jobs, the new smart tools to be used, how to use data as our new oil, automation, digital instrumentation, and how to innovate the future.