Over the past five years, the concept of digital workers has become more and more prominent, with technology like robotic process automation and artificial intelligence paving the way for faster, smarter work.

Glenn Finch (pictured), global leader of big data and analytics at IBM, is focusing on digital workers so that human potential can extend even further.

“What’s cool is when we get them both to work together: amplifying digital worker potential and amplifying human worker potential to radically change how service is experienced by an end consumer,” Finch said. “That’s really the winner — when you start seeing the end consumer, the end user fundamentally feeling the difference in the experience.”

Finch spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during IBM Think. They discussed how digital workers are helping to change the way humans work. (* Disclosure below.)

Digital workers and human workers collaborate to make tasks easier

While some people are still uncomfortable with the concept of digital workers, the actual truth of the matter is that AI is taking away menial tasks that humans don’t want to do, according to Finch. No matter what, coordination between digital workers and human workers must happen in order to truly make things easier for everyone — meaning that human workers will always be an important piece of the puzzle.

“You can’t just drop in a RPA; you can’t just drop in AI,” he said. “It’s this seamless interaction between digital workers and human workers. We’ve liberated this block of human capability. How do we reposition it? How do we re-skill it? How do we get them to focus on new things? That’s just as important — the human change aspect.”

To demonstrate this idea of how digital workers can help amplify human potential, Finch brought up the state of Rhode Island and how the state worked with IBM during COVID-19. Rhode Island’s Department of Health and Human Services used IBM and AI to help contract trace COVID-19 cases. Once they had accumulated data, they then used AI to help pinpoint where and why hotspots were developing in the state. They were also able to pinpoint important vaccination places so essential workers could move to important areas to help fight and contain COVID-19 using that data from AI.

“We’re never finding the zero-sum game, because there is always something for people to do,” Finch concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM Think. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM Think. Neither IBM, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE