What is the Biggest Change You've Seen in Your Lifetime? A Perspective from an 87-Year-Old Londoner.

My mum has been given a delightful book by my son full of questions for her to answer about her life. She told me about one of them last night: what is the biggest change you’ve seen in your lifetime?  My mum is 87 and grew up in London during the war. She’s seen televisions appear in homes, the advent of computers and then the internet. But her answer? Artificial Intelligence! Mum recognises this as being the most impactful change to our lives. There’s a reason it’s called the 4th Industrial Revolution and the changes it brings to the way we work are likely to dwarf those brought about by the previous Industrial Revolutions.Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already being successfully applied in many diverse ways, from detecting fraud and managing traffic flows to detecting crop disease early and predicting maintenance needs of aircrafts. Microsoft is in the process of rolling out AI into its Office products. I gather that soon we will be able to create eye-catching and engaging PowerPoint presentations in just a few minutes by providing the text on the topic we’re presenting and letting AI do the rest.And most of us already use it daily in our homes. Hello Alexa, Amazon, Netflix and Facebook.She’s switched on, my mum; knows this is big. Organisations that don’t want to be renowned for the same reasons as the likes of Blockbuster, Kodak and ToysRus need leaders who get it too. AI will change both the physical and cognitive capabilities of the workplace. People will need to develop skills that complement not compete with AI. There are still things that AI cannot do. Imagination, risk assessment, understanding context, judgement, planning and curiosity are all areas that benefit from humans skills. It’s a little unnerving but I think it’s exciting too. Anyone else?