It was a very hot summer day in 2019 when I entered the venue. I was about to speak in front of all the attendees of an event. It was a technology event that attracted people from all fields of expertise. After a quick chat with some of the people from the organizing company, I was handed that day’s program. It read: “1:00 pm. Ferry Hoes: Help, the robots are coming”. The title was created by the organizing party and apparently spoke to a very real fear within the crowd because I could hear people actively chatting about the topic and confirming their concerns. I personally hated the title. As soon as I stepped on stage, I said: “Before I start this talk, I wish to address the topic of today. It says “help, the robots are coming”. I will make sure that, after my talk, you will say: “the robots are coming to help”.

“…technology should be used to aid us in these tasks. Help us do the heavy lifting, run our processes while we’re occupied (doing human things), and run tasks we are not perfect at.”

Here are 5 reasons why I changed that title during my talk:

We have many jobs that focus on hard, physical labor, or repetitive actions. Humans aren’t particularly built for that type of work. Our bodies can only last so long doing hard physical labor and our minds are developed to discover and seek, not to be in low-operating mode performing repetitive tasks. Machines have their strong suit in these areas. They are robust, sturdy, and have no sense of time, feeling, or purpose. We don’t thrive in doing things that don’t really challenge us, machines honestly don’t care. Therefore, technology should be used to aid us in these tasks. Help us do the heavy lifting, run our processes while we’re occupied (doing human things), and run tasks we are not perfect at.

“….talking, connecting, creating, thinking, debating, loving, and much more. All of these things are human traits.”

2. We love doing what technology isn’t made for

Of course, if there are things machines are better at (see item 1), there must be things that we are much better at. In fact, there’s a ton of things technology isn’t made for. (Disclaimer, if there IS technology made for that specific purpose, it might be sub-par or worse). I’m talking about the things we — humans — are superior at. We love being humans. We love talking, connecting, creating, thinking, debating, loving, and much more. All of these things are human traits.

There’s nobody, not a thing better at it than we are. We’ve built the world around us. Technology has helped us get there, but it’s not going to replace us in those areas. We’re uniquely great at all these soft skills that make humans, humans. Chatbots can reply, but they won’t truly understand us. Smart speakers can talk friendly to us, but they won’t care about us one bit. Self-scanning devices can help us during checkout, but they won’t wish us a good weekend. All of these human traits are the fundaments of our jobs. We can replace processes with machines, but we can’t replace humans traits with them. Organizations are built by people, run by people, and ultimately grow on people’s efforts and input.

3. Humans need Humans

If the global pandemic has taught us anything, it’s how much we long to belong. Human interaction, seeing other people, working together with others in the same room….it’s all part of human nature. People do business with organizations they trust and that’s based on human efforts. Creative marketing, EQ, Customer service, caring….those are all part of the mix that attack and keep customers, but also employees. Nobody wants to do business with organizations that are created, run, and exploited by machines without any form of genuine care for the people interacting with them. We love doing business with humans and we can only build and grow businesses with human input. And for that reason, you — a human being — will be needed in business for a very long time. It may not be for the job you have now, but there will be tons of opportunities where humans cannot be missed.