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The other day someone asked me about what I do for phone service when I am travelling in a foreign country.
After about 4-5 minutes, we had discussed the pros/cons of the various options.
Later that day, I was thinking about how people tend to ask their friends for this type of information.
It’s just data which the questioner then will process against his preferences (time, money, convenience) to come up with an optimal solution.
Then, it occurred to me, “well, pretty soon it would seem that we’ll all have the equivalent of IBM’s Watson computer and just be able to say (kind of like Star Trek), ‘I’m going to country X, what’s the best phone solution for me?”
Then, we’ll get the answer and be done.
THEN, I started to think about the nature of work today and how many, many jobs are relaying this type of information.
Having recently finished “Re-Imagine,” the idea of the future of work is very much on my mind.
The conclusion I’ve reached is that we all need to start asking ourselves: “Could Watson do this?”
And, if we see that it’s just data/information and not experience/emotion, then it’s probably something that a Watson will do….
