"Sir robot will see you now"

Robots are coming to business. Hopefully not in a Skynet or Space Odyssey kind of incident, but they are coming all the same. The rampage of automation has been growing in pace since the 1800's and in many ways robotics and artificial intelligence is the inevitable destination. The real question is, what will they do?

There are reports of robots taking over teaching in South Korean schools due to a shortage of qualified English teachers (http://tinyurl.com/5t2na2p) which seems a little strange, although perhaps they offer perfect diction and flawless grammar, and what student wouldn't want that? The military is also increasingly employing robots to tackle more dangerous tasks or to provide additional strategic potential (http://tinyurl.com/688udzd).

IBM have hit the jackpot with their newest creation however, A robot boss. Their newest offering is a mainframe computer which can essentially emulate the function of a finance director, presumably the bad jokes and novelty socks are optional software extras. This machine could essentially replace one or more senior directors in an organisation with subordinate (human) staff taking their direction from the number crunching cyber-boss. I for one would have some reservations about taking orders from a machine, however there is the added bonus of an off switch.

The encroaching of robots on our world and now our offices (http://tinyurl.com/4rvl6bs) has got me thinking, what is that we need from bosses? Could they really all be replaced by machines or would we be calling for a leather jacketed Arnie before the end of the working week? 

Personally I think a good boss should lead by example and be prepared to front a team when the going gets rough. They should be experienced but not stuck in their ways, and consistent with their approaches so as not to impose double standards. They should be readily available all day (and night if you are working!), and should try to be unaffected by emotional influences or politics within the office in order to ensure fairness. This A-Z of managment (http://tinyurl.com/47ydl3f) throws in criteria for solid and logical planning and assertiveness without too much dithering.

Funny that most those are the opposite of human nature, some might argue it is time to let the robots have a crack...

Update 17/2/11: IBMs Watson starts to think http://tinyurl.com/4j3m8u2