Intelligence augmentation: rethinking the future of work by leveraging human performance and abilities

Abstract

AbstractNowadays, digitalization has an immense impact on the landscape of jobs. This technological revolution creates new industries and professions, promises greater efficiency and improves the quality of working life. However, emerging technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are reducing human intervention, thus advancing automation and eliminating thousands of jobs and whole occupational images. To prepare employees for the changing demands of work, adequate and timely training of the workforce and real-time support of workers in new positions is necessary. Therefore, it is investigated whether user-oriented technologies, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) can be applied “on-the-job” for such training and support—also known as intelligence augmentation (IA). To address this problem, this work synthesizes results of a systematic literature review as well as a practically oriented search on augmented reality and virtual reality use cases within the IA context. A total of 150 papers and use cases are analyzed to identify suitable areas of application in which it is possible to enhance employees' capabilities. The results of both, theoretical and practical work, show that VR is primarily used to train employees without prior knowledge, whereas AR is used to expand the scope of competence of individuals in their field of expertise while on the job. Based on these results, a framework is derived which provides practitioners with guidelines as to how AR or VR can support workers at their job so that they can keep up with anticipated skill demands. Furthermore, it shows for which application areas AR or VR can provide workers with sufficient training to learn new job tasks. By that, this research provides practical recommendations in order to accompany the imminent distortions caused by AI and similar technologies and to alleviate associated negative effects on the German labor market.