Content area
Full Text
Abstract
Blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technological innovations are affecting all aspects of our societies and causing some profound changes in human resource (HR) practices in business and non-profit organizations. Critical to these high tech advances is how they will affect employment patterns and the way companies will hire their workforce, influencing HR practices and the way they will manage their employees. This paper, after a short introduction, consists of three parts. The first discusses how blockchain and AI are affecting HR practices. The second looks at hiring practices at firms, while the third discusses employment patterns in the emerging age of high-tech super-automation. There is also a concluding section, discussing the implications of the forthcoming AI on employment (or unemployment) and the inevitable income inequality that is bound to develop and affect our societies.
Keywords: blockchain technology, human resource management, artificial intelligence (AI), disruptive innovation
Introduction
Blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are bringing some profound changes to the way human resource (HR) practices are performed in business organizations.2 Critical advances in these areas have caused overwhelming transformations of our societies and have begun to affect employment patterns and the way companies hire and manage their workforce, influencing HR practices to a great extent. This paper, after a short introduction, consists of three parts. The first discusses how blockchain and AI are affecting HR practices. The second looks at hiring habits, while the third discusses employment patterns in the emerging age of high-tech. There is also a conclusion discussing the implications of the forthcoming super-automation in employment (or unemployment) and the inevitable income inequality that is bound to develop and affect our societies.
There is considerable apprehension and even fear about the impact of automation on our future caused by artificial intelligence, blockchain and related technologies. Recent research was published at the end of 2018 by Forrester,3 one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world, entitled Predictions 2019: Automation and Predictions 2019: Artificial Intelligence. It states that, in 2019, an estimated ten percent of jobs in the USA will be replaced by automation; however, new technologies will trigger the creation of roughly three percent of today's jobs. Forrester also estimated that over 40% of companies will employ robots...