Radically Human: How New Technology Is Transforming Business and Shaping Our Future
Paul R. Daugherty and H.James Wilson
Harvard Business Review Press (April 2022)

What could well prove to be “the most radically human hope for the future”

In their previous collaboration, HUMAN + MACHINE, Paul Daugherty and James Wilson suggest that “the key to understanding AI’s current and future impact is its transformation of business processes…To see how we got here, it helps to understand some historical context. The first wave of business transformation involved standardized processes…The second wave consisted of automated processes…Now, the third way involves adaptive processes.” Daugherty and Wilson share the revelations of their research that involved more than 1,500 organizations.

In 1859, Charles Darwin observed: “It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able to adapt to and to adjust best to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”

More recently, Alvin Toffler observed (in 1970): “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Daugherty and Wilson say this: “The simple truth is that machines are not taking over the world, nor are they obviating the need for humans in the workplace.” On the contrary, all manner of research studies stress the importance of human+machine collaborations.

What we have in Daugherty and Wilson’s latest book is a continuation, expansion, and (in some instances) revision of the lessons they shared in HUMAN + MACHINE. I was especially interested in what they have to say about some trends that were just beginning to come into view four years ago — “trends that, like human-machine collaborations, overturn longstanding assumptions about AI and innovation.” Then the virus intervened…

Obviously, new technologies — artificial intelligence (AI); sensors and the Internet of Things (IOT); autonomous machines — robots, cobots, drones, and self-driving vehicles; distributed leaders and blockchains; virtual, augmented, and mixed reality; and connecting everything and everyone: 5G networks and satellite constellations —  are radically disrupting and transforming the global business world and therefore are shaping its future while also transforming what workers do and how they do it.

These are among the other passages that caught my eye, also listed to indicate this brilliant book’s coverage:

o Radically Human — Innovation turned Upside Down [or Downside Up] Pages 5-10)
o The Trouble with intelligence (18-21)
o Generalizing in Real-World Settings (21-24)
o Callingon Common Sense (28-30)
o Giving Machines a Theory of Mind (32-34)

o The Trouble with Maximum Data (38-43)
o How to Do More with Less Data (52-54)
o Three Dimensions of Expertise (60-62)
o Collective  Expertise: Teaching AI Social Contexts (67-75)
o HAzrnessing Expertise in Your Organization (79-80)

o The Cloud Continuum (89-91)
o The New Wave of Frontier Technology (99-101)
o The Evolution of Technology (113)
o Technology-Integrated Strategies for the Age of IDEA (117-132)
o “Talent: Humans and Radically Human Technology” by Charles Smith (141-159)

o Five Essentials of Trust for the Digital Age (162-163)
o Four Types of Radically Human Experiences for the Digital Age (186)
o Empowering Experiences (187-191)
o Rewarding Experiences (192-199)
o The Most Important Differentiator of All (226-228)

When concluding their latest and, in my opinion, their most valuable book thus far, Paul Daugherty and James Wilson cite three “truths” that have emerged with undeniable clarity during recent years: “First, all companies are now technology companies. Second, companies have proved that they can wield technology to innovate and change with unprecedented speed. Third, in the human-technology nexus, the human is in the ascent.” I agree about the first two but not the third because I am convinced now — and expect to remain convinced in years to come — that a superior human in combination with a superior machine cannot be outperformed by either one without the other.

Here’s their final paragraph. “The stakes couldn’t be higher; the opportunities couldn’t be greater. All of the phenomena we examine through this book…make technologies more recognizably human. As these new terms of our relationship with technology unfold, we will find ourselves moving deeper and deeper into reflections about what makes us truly human. In the final analysis, that may be the most radically human hope for the future.”

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Paul Daugherty is an author, business technology futurist, speaker and Chief Technology & Innovation Officer of Accenture. He advises the world’s top technology and business leaders on how to continually innovate in an age of unprecedented technology change. Also, as indicated, he is co-author of HUMAN + MACHINE and Radically Human.

H. James Wilson is Managing Director of Information Technology and Business Research at Accenture Research. Also as indicated, he is co-author of HUMAN + MACHINE and Radically Human.

Both books were published by Harvard Business Review Press.