Automation took center stage at the Nutanix Inc. .NEXT gathering in Europe this week with the news that the company’s hyperconverged infrastructure platform would be integrated with ServiceNow’s IT Operations Management solution to automate private cloud workflows.

Nutanix also released the results of a survey, which revealed that virtually all information technology decision-makers who responded indicated that automation of IT operations was important to their organizations. Dependence on automation technology has increased as cloud architectures have dictated smaller, complex networks of application services while raising potential conflict as these tools impact job responsibilities.

“Everything is being decomposed into microservices,” said Ray Wang (pictured), founder and principal analyst at Constellation Research Inc. “Large processes are becoming smaller and smaller. It’s really about where we find the difference between augmentation of humanity and full automation, and that’s where the next battle is going to be.”

Wang spoke with Stu Miniman and Rebecca Knight, co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the .NEXT Europe event in Denmark. They discussed the potential impact of automation on jobs and debate over the role and influence of artificial intelligence (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

Reliance on creativity

Part of the battle ahead involves the role automation will play in restructuring the modern workforce. Research by Wang’s firm indicates that high-end and low-end jobs are the ones most at risk.

“Simple tasks go away, super-complex tasks go away, and the middle actually remains,” Wang explained. “The middle is things that are complex which cannot be recreated by math. They’re also areas that require a lot of creativity. Humans make the rules, and we break the rules.”

However, the rise of automation has also led to increased debate around what those rules should be, especially where it involves ethics and design principles for AI. This debate has led some major tech industry figures, such as entrepreneur Elon Musk, to label AI as “humanity’s biggest risk.”

“Musk could be right; the machines might take over,” Wang said. “But if you insert a human at the beginning of the process and at the end of the process, you won’t get taken over.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the .NEXT Europe event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the .NEXT Europe event. Neither Nutanix, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE