Columnist Bethan Blakeley I The art of automation great inventions when used correctly but pilots arent allowed ts something that has been around for a while and isnt to leave the cockpit when the plane is flying itself. There is going anywhere and yet it always manages to divide the always a need for human interaction or, at the very least, human room: automation. As with all things, theres clearly a supervision or understanding when it comes to automation. huge scale, with some extremes. A few are terrified that Heres another anecdote: a friend of mine works in a hospital robots will shortly take over the world, and fear for our jobs. pharmacy, and they use a robot to dispense medications, among Some dont believe in automation; its the root of all evil, and other things. This robot is several times faster than a human, everything needs to be done the proper way, like in the good much more accurate, and so on. Except that, recently, it broke. old days. Others feel automation is incredible, and use it at Sta werent able to override it, they werent able to log in and every possible moment, claiming it makes their lives easier, and find out which drugs had been dispensed and which hadnt, and makes boring processes faster and, well, automatic. they werent able to look at the patient records to do it Although Im frequently told Im not one to sit on the fence, themselves. theres definitely room for some middle ground here. Lets get Panic ensued and the hospital ended up being put on a code one thing straight from the outset: the robots are not going to red (I dont know the details, but it didnt sound good). Sta take over the world any time soon. Ive written, spoken and had to re-do a lot of the records on paper and revert to the old ranted many a time about how artificial intelligence (AI) is method of DIY a huge, expensive, painstaking process that neither artificial nor intelligent. As my childhood friend keeps took a lot of time and could have put lives at risk. telling people: As long as the self-checkout at Tesco cant work Moving on from near-death out when Ive put my shopping in the experiences and back to research, bagging area, we have nothing to my point is this: automation is there worry about. to help you, not to do the work for I get on well with my friend but I Its us the humans that you. Theres little point in having a dont know if I wholeheartedly agree add the expertise, the knowledge, make segmentation button if you with her here. I dont think we have the context, and all the other good dont understand what it does, what nothing to worry about. stu. That is why clients pay us it needs, how it runs, or what it will Im not talking about artificial give you in return. In fact, its not world domination. Im talking about only unhelpful, but it could be the small things; the things that seem damaging. I wince when I see yet another program touting how unimportant and, yet, can make a big dierence, particularly in anyone can run your own analytics and your own projects our industry. The market research world is fast-paced, without the skills or the detail needed, in half the time. ever-changing and, sometimes, just feels a bit non-stop. It might just be me, but I dont think thats the way we should Automation can help us navigate that. be going. I wouldnt want to hand over my data to a computer, There are small examples of automation in our work lives that and then stand up in front of my clients and present what the you may not even recognise because they are so entrenched computer has told me, with no questions asked. computer documents automatically saving or Microsoft Oce Its us the humans that add the expertise, the knowledge, correcting your grammar. Others are fewer and further the context, and all the other good stu. That is why clients pay between, such as your conjoint simulators, your automatic text us. By all means, get the computer to do the boring bits of your coders, or your social media scrapers. Im not, by any means, job so you dont have to but understand what its doing, check saying the second group of applications is the bad or the ugly in with it, ensure that youre happy with the outputs, and make of automation. What I am saying is that it has the potential to time to understand them. turn bad or ugly and its our job to stop that from happening. Like I said, autopilot is brilliant but Id still be a bit nervy if Lets step away from market research, just for a second. Pilots the pilot came and sat next to me for a nap mid-flight. flying on autopilot or cars driving on cruise control are both 46 Impact ISSUE 39 2022_pp46-47_Bethan Blakeley.indd 46 26/09/2022 10:50 SEGB_