A new report by AI expert Dr Catriona Wallace and ServiceNow reveals Australia’s post-pandemic future, with AI-powered digital colleagues or ‘machine-mates’, new-look employee and customer experiences, and significant cultural shifts

Australia, meet your machine-mates: the software or robot ‘colleagues’ that will make our lives easier.

Leading artificial intelligence (AI) expert Dr Catriona Wallace predicts AI-powered ‘virtual colleagues’ will be a key part of business teams by 2030, helping to combat skill shortages, as Australia undergoes a significant post-pandemic digital transformation. She forecasts that in the next decade, AI will be so widespread that we will interact with it hundreds of times a day, including when we’re sleeping.

ServiceNow, the digital workflow company, has partnered with Dr Catriona Wallace to explore Australia’s Digital Gold Rush: the technology trends and cultural shifts set to influence work and life in the next 10 years, and why AI will be at the heart of nearly everything we do.

The report, which included insights from meta-analysis, primary research, and interviews with business executives, highlights 2022 as a turning point for digital investments, with corporate spending on technology increasing by 65% compared to 2020¹, and advances in AI making it cheaper and more widely used². At the same time, the pandemic has changed how people think about and engage with technology, providing the catalyst to transform the nation’s relationship with all things digital.

The report reveals four societal trends, including the emergence of ‘machine-mates’ (human-AI teams), the rise of hyper-personalisation for both employees and consumers, the ethical considerations that will drive AI-adoption, and the notion of issues diversity, where businesses will be more active in managing employee disagreement on some of the nation’s most divisive issues.

Human-AI teams - meet your ‘machine-mates’

Perceptions of AI will move from tools to teammates, with widespread virtual assistants' helping people complete every-day tasks and work. Digital employees will be considered intelligent, valuable co-workers. And it’s coming soon: by 2025, machines will spend more time completing tasks at work than humans³. AI will also enable employees to be understood and treated in a similar way to customers. Businesses and society will reap the rewards, with increased productivity and well-being, as work is spread more evenly and effectively between humans and their ‘machine-mates’. Officeworks is one company already embracing this trend, with its AI virtual assistant ‘Penny’, helping employees resolve requests, faster.

Be yourself, know me and my digital identity

People will prioritise self-care and take ‘me time’ more frequently. Employers will be expected to know their staff better, appreciate them more, and help them find balance, for example by using AI-tools to identify overworked individuals so managers can divert work to avoid burn-out. This trend will further demand for flexibility and see more people pursue opportunities and passions outside of their day-to-day work roles. Brands and employers will be expected to support this. Both employees and consumers will expect experiences designed specifically for them. Post-pandemic, two distinct tribes are emerging, divided by how much, and when, they see tech as useful. Digital Experiencers will embrace new technology with few limits, while Organic Experiencers (up to 25% of the population, according to Dr Wallace) will demand more choice, rejecting digital-only models and preferring to pick and choose between analogue and digital touchpoints. Businesses will need to find a middle ground to be truly successful in delivering personalised services to all customers, employees and stakeholders.

Ethical considerations will drive AI adoption

AI ethics will move from an academic discussion to business strategy. Currently, just 22% of Australians trust how organisations are implementing AI, yet 96% of Aussie executives say it is becoming pervasive⁴. In coming years, regulators will step up pressure and take stronger action against irresponsible operators. Employees and customers will choose to work with brands that demonstrate, not just talk about, ethics, accessibility, and fairness. Transparency will be integral to business, sustainability, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) strategies. Responsible use of AI will increasingly be required by law, with voluntary guidelines like the Australian Government’s Ethics Framework replaced with minimum required standards.

Issues diversity will redefine team success

Two in three Australians (61%) think people are incapable of having constructive debates about issues they disagree on⁵. To bridge this, employers will embrace a “divided we stand, united we work” mentality. ’Agree to disagree’ will become the norm for societal issues like vaccinations, climate change, pandemics, and technology. Managers will need to focus on finding value in divergent perspectives. Creating policies and tools to bridge conflicting opinions will strengthen teams and create new organisational structures. AI-based applications will help businesses navigate the divide with ‘pulse checks’ of employee sentiment.

Dr Catriona Wallace said each of the trends would be underpinned and enabled by the rapid development of AI: “Over the next decade, AI will become even more widespread in life and work. It will improve every-day activities, making tasks faster, smarter and simpler. Today, the average Australian interacts with AI around 100 times per day through simple tasks like answering questions online, using digital maps to navigate, receiving recommendations for products and services we might be interested in, or interacting with virtual messenger bots.”

“What many people wouldn’t expect is that in the next decade, our interaction with AI will allow people to be more ‘human’. Technological progress will give people more time to focus on what they value, what they enjoy, and better tools for businesses and society to manage resources more productively and sustainably. It presents a golden opportunity for Australia.”

ServiceNow Chief Innovation Officer Dave Wright said embedding AI strategies within the workplace would be a priority for executives over the next 10 years: “How organisations plan and respond to this digital gold rush will make or break their future success. With just 16% of executives saying they have a clearly defined strategy for digital⁶, and when the benefits from technology investments are increasing, the opportunity is clear.”

“Executives have to consider the evolving attitudes and technological advances when investing for short, mid-term and sustained growth. As they invest, organisations must consider how systems, operations and people are working in harmony, or customer and employee experiences will suffer. Done right, it will deliver substantial benefits to people, society and our economy,” continued Mr Wright.

The full report can be accessed: https://www.servicenow.com/workflow/it-transformation/ai-australia-digital-gold-rush/ here, including: :

• Predictions on how the trends will impact work and life

• Personas showcasing what the employee and customer of the future will look like

• Executive recommendations for connecting the technology strategy to the business strategy.

Research Methodology

This report was conducted by Dr Catriona Wallace, Executive Director of the Gradient Institute (Responsible AI) and Adjunct Professor at the Australian Graduate School of Management. As one of Australia’s leading AI entrepreneurs and experts, Dr Wallace has distilled insights from meta-analysis, interviews with business executives, primary and secondary research.

About ServiceNow

ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) makes the world work better for everyone. Our cloud based platform and solutions help digitise and unify organisations so that they can find smarter, faster, better ways to make work flow. So employees and customers can be more connected, more innovative, and more agile. And we can all create the future we imagine. The world works with ServiceNow. For more information, visit: www.servicenow.com.

1^ Digital Investment Index - EY-Parthenon, 2022