AI is coming for your overtime and extra shifts, says Nutanix APJ chief Aaron White

Companies are already mulling the idea of using AI and automation to replace staff who work ‘anti-social’ hours.

AI and automation will soon be used to keep systems running at odd hours.

Australian workers could be about to lose their overtime to artificial intelligence and automation, as companies fill skills and labour with new technology.

It will increasingly be deployed to work at odd hours and provide maintenance and management-type support to businesses, relieving workers of being in the office on weekends or anti-social nightshift hours.

That’s the view of Aaron White, the Asia Pacific head of Nutanix, a US cloud-computing company selling software, storage and cloud services.

Mr White said the technology would be rolled out in just about every role where there was a chance of human error.

Aaron White, General Manager and Vice President, Nutanix APJ.

But workers shouldn’t fear losing their jobs to the technology just yet, as most companies were typically considering implementing the technology in a “keeping the lights on” approach.

“Companies are now trying to work out how to get the most out of their IT team,” Mr White said.

“And what we’re looking at as a company is anything that requires people to have hands on a system … we want to automate that and recommend making that action autonomous.”

In the IT field, workers are the number one cause of outages so having technology capable of completing their roles was both more efficient and safer.

“The number one cause of unplanned IT outages is people. Machines will typically always do the same thing but humans can make errors in doing a systems patch or during mundane operational tasks,” Mr White said.

“When less people are hands on with a system, you end up with far less unplanned outages in your business.”

Mr White said using machines to perform low-skilled but important tasks would improve the quality of life for IT workers who would then be tasked to higher-value projects.

“If you spend less time clicking and inputting into a system, you have more ability to enhance your life and spend more time out of the office,” he said.

A robot assistant at a hotel reception.

Less laborious tasks would allow workers to keep up with industry trends and be across new technologies.

Conversations around labour shortages and skills gap were happening regularly between Nutanix and the business’s local customers.

“It’s building up this kind of a technical debt; meanwhile the demands of businesses continue to grow and grow,” Mr White said.

He said Nutanix had already seen a trend where AI and automation were being rolled out to keep software systems running.

Having intelligent infrastructure in place could ensure accuracy and remove unnecessary costs associated with human caused outages.

Originally published as AI is coming for your overtime and extra shifts, says Nutanix APJ chief Aaron White