Boundless

6Autonomy: AI | Learning | Identity

“The illiterate of the future are not those who can't read or write but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

—Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (1970)

In a silo, resources are stripped of all their support systems that they would have enjoyed on the “outside” and are heavily controlled on the inside. The resources become dependent on the silo owner for direction and for support and are there only for their productivity. Compliance and rule-following is rewarded and more highly prized than creativity or innovation.

Boundless entities empower their resources—which in the business world are primarily employees—to make decisions and act in keeping with their unified mission, plan, or purpose and with customer success as the primary goal. They support and empower their customers' autonomy, as well as that of their employees, through their experiences, offerings, and organizational models. And, increasingly, the technology that is available to companies is developing its own autonomy, in large part thanks to the huge advances that have been made, and are continuing to be made, in artificial intelligence (AI).

Once again, then, companies are at a turning point. Do they embrace the autonomy of their customers, employees, and technologies, or do they resist it? In this chapter we want to take a closer look at autonomy and AI and to explore what this means for companies. In particular we want to consider how companies support the autonomy ...