Workers in human resources, customer service, marketing, and other business functions are increasingly consigning repetitive tasks to automation and complex data processing to AI. The future of the workplace is becoming even more tech-driven than it already is. Despite the projected slow growth of the global economy, companies around the world continue to invest in technologies surrounding automation, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence to improve overall efficiency.  

Technological trends in the workplace 

In the human resources industry alone, the global HR management solutions market is expected to grow by 12.8% up to 2030, according to a Grand View Research report. These HR solutions involve predictive analytics and automation features spanning recruitment, hiring, learning and development, and employee engagement.  

IDC’s Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide notes that spending for artificial intelligence in the Asia Pacific region (except Japan) will grow to US$49.2 billion (SG$65.3 billion) by 2026. This includes investments in AI-based software, hardware, and services. 

Tech companies are rapidly developing their own AI products, especially after the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT which was released in 2022. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced it was investing US$10 billion (SG$13.3 billion) in OpenAI to integrate the technology into its Bing search engine. Google also launched its own AI platform, Bard, back in February, and the Chinese search company Baidu launched Ernie Bot a month after. 

New workplace technologies, just like any other shiny, new tool, are only as effective as the people using them. Mastering the use of these technologies is just one part of the equation in building a future-ready organization. It will also take a lot of creativity and cognitive flexibility to maximize the use of technology and scale the business further. 

You need creativity and cognitive flexibility 

Even as machine learning and predictive analytics solutions get better every year, it is still up to the human professional to make technology work smarter and harder for the desired results of the business. For this, you need creativity. 

The future of the workplace requires all executives, managers, and employees to be savvy enough to understand patterns, find opportunities, solve problems, tap into different perspectives, and devise new ways of optimizing. This is what it means to be truly creative. Technologies are simply tools toward this end. 

Aside from creativity, the future of the workplace also requires cognitive flexibility or the ability to adapt your behavior to a variety of environments. New technologies mean new changes, so the future of work will involve rapidly evolving situations and priorities that require you to learn how to learn. 

This involves changing strategies when they no longer work, improving product designs that lead to better customer experience, or simply synthesizing ideas gleaned from different departments.  

Having creativity and cognitive flexibility allows you to ponder on the best courses of action, make informed yet innovative decisions, and develop a confident mindset amid uncertainty.