I still remember the discussions a year ago among friends and colleagues - but I also remember the sometimes amused reactions, when I asked about "Ethics basics in times of digitalisation". This was the reason for the ARD report and documentation by Ranga Yogeshwar "Der große Umbruch" (https://tinyurl.com/yycqanub) and the question: What is in for us? How will artificial intelligence change our working world and our everyday life?

Some things seem like science fiction, some make you smile in terms of the perceived level of maturity - but the further development is rapid! The "communicator" of Captain Kirk (Star Trek) became reality thanks to Motorola's flip-up cell phone - and the "tricorder" with which Doc McCoy did his medical examinations is already available as a health monitor in basic functions in Smart Watches.

Today, one year later and especially marked by #covid19, it’s a matter of fact: in so many areas the technological possibilities of #digitization are still not used - the big change is still to come... and is even more missing these days! Questions about ethics and morals are equally not the reason for this and the technology has reached a high degree of maturity and is developing day by day.

Rather other factors play a decisive role:

• There is a lack of digital competence and the courage to give room to visions, to qualify experts and to enable change. In every company there are unexpected talents slumbering! Colleagues who can be inspired for change and innovation - they just need to be found in your organization. A motivated team recruited within your own staff, will quite quickly understand the technical possibilities and develop use cases and return initial cost. In almost all areas of business in a company there are many possibilities to reduce manually performed annoyingly dull, rule-based activities to digital colleagues (robots), e.g. via #RPA. From this moment on, you create relief for your employees and space for creativity and higher-value tasks - and you take away the fear of "Colleague robot - the job killer".
• Rigid and hierarchically structured organizations prevent a smooth implementation. Agility is the key to success. The willingness to allow changes is necessary to abandon old, rigid structures. #RPA does not require many organizational changes but is favored by flat hierarchies and courageous decision makers to use the potential at all and to continuously open up new ones. The innovative power is lost, however, when long decision chains are required, to consider about recognize measures and long approval loops are necessary before implementation. 
• "Digitalization" is a collective term with a wide range - just as wide the interpretation of the possibilities thereof. Digitalization is used to describe the conversion of analog information into digital formats. Also often understood as Industry 4.0 or used as a digital transformation, digitalization is the conceptual all-in-one solution. Digital transformation is also driven by a lot of buzzwords #bigdata #IoT #AI #KI #virtualreality etc. ...what really counts at the end is the set goal and the therefor necessary and suitable solutions!
• Uncertainty regarding costs and implementation time and the best starting point. In times of crisis, financial resources may be limited. Not focusing on innovation and further development of the company, causes also missing the opportunities to save costs and to secure the future through and thanks to digitalisation. However, it is not only important to invest in technology, but above all in the greatest asset: your employees. Motivated and constantly developing specialists are the pillars of the company’s success. Change must be made transparent and managed together. Glossy brochures and theoretical case studies are no support here. Training and further education cost time and money - besides the right technology, but they are the most important investments in the course of digitalization.

Coming back to the fairy tale of the job killer: The Institute for Employment Research has dealt with the question "Could digital technologies change your job?" and, as you may know, developed the Job-Futuromat (https://tinyurl.com/yy5ym27j). Let's not nail the automate down to its percentage values when it sees a degree of automation of 45% for the "purchasing manager" and 88% for the "financial accountant", but it shows how many recurring routines are in the roles and how great the support and potential of cognitive solutions is here.

Digitalization will change our working world, develop job profiles further and make certain activities obsolete in human processing, as machines perform these tasks much more conscientiously and around the clock much more appropriately - but digitisation of our business will create many new job profiles and require different and new skills at the same time. Some are even convinced that there will ultimately be a plus of jobs - with just different qualifications and new profiles.

All we need to do is: allow change to take place and thus shape the future - and as we also currently have to learn: to secure our future. Change begins with ourselves!

My conclusion: Let's get the robot out of the human!

Rui Paulo Moskopp