The world is abuzz over new technologies such as driverless cars, drones, and a host of other technology that promises to transform the way we live and how we do business. Yesterday I learned in a Wall Street Journal article an amazing bit of news on this front that is not very well known.
Global companies are rapidly transforming their finance and treasury functions by automating some or all of their finance department tasks to robots. One such company, Statoil in Norway, developed a robot called Roberta who looks around for missing payment information and when she can't find it, she dutifully sends out a reminder. Alas for humans.
The increased sophistication of robots can cut labor and outsourcing costs by almost 35% and reduces human error rates by 66%. So, dumping humanoids Alice and Pete from the payroll will be cheaper, and will produce better performance. Aha, but that is only until Statoil puts Robot Robby on line, and let's see how Roberta performs when she falls in love.
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Anthony J. LoPinto
Tony LoPinto is the Global Sector Leader of Korn Ferry’s Real Estate Practice and founder of SelectLeaders. For the past 18 years LoPinto has been serving his clients with deep knowledge and perspective on talent needs and organizational challenges to public and private companies – knowledge gained from a 25-year career in real estate. Prior to his current position, he founded and served as chief executive officer of a boutique real estate executive search firm, where he oversaw offices in New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He has successfully led several high profile search engagements for chief executive officers, directors and a wide-range of executive level positions across all industries and sectors. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in European history from Loyola University in Chicago.
