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Are Administrative/Executive Assistants (EA)/Personal Assistants (PA) already living in the future as new technology hits the workplace?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most disruptive technologies affecting today’s business environment. Explosive developments, funding and support for increasing the role of AI in all sectors, and across all job roles seem to be a key driver of the future of business. The impact of AI over the next decade is expected to completely transform the landscape, and no industry, or job, will be left untouched.

Jobs are among the chief concerns whenever the topic of AI is mentioned. Most people have by now heard that “robots are coming” for jobs, and that mass unemployment is “inevitable” in our collective future. But, some jobs could be transformed for the better with the rise of smart technologies making routine work easier, allowing people to focus on the job elements that they can really add value to. For that reason, we suggest that the Administrative/Executive Assistant (EA)/Personal Assistant (PA) of 2025 will not be replaced by technology, but rather, enhanced by it.

In many ways, the future is already here. Though

The upcoming volume, After Shock, features 50 of the world’s most renowned futurists reflecting on the 50-year legacy of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, and looking ahead to the next 50 years. Seven of the contributors have been guests on Seeking Delphi This is the second in a series of repeats of these podcasts, which will lead up to panel discussion with some of the authors, on the book and the Toffler legacy.

Dr. Cindy Frewen is a futurist and architect living in the Kansas City, MO area. She was formerly board chair of the Association of Professional Futurists, and was one of my instructors and mentors in the University of Houston’s graduate foresight program. Here essay in After Shock is titled Cities in Crisis: What Toffler Got Right and Wrong.

The upcoming volume, After Shock, features 50 of the world’s most renowned futurists reflecting on the 50-year legacy of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, and looking ahead to the next 50 years. Seven of the contributors have been guests on Seeking Delphi This is the first in a series of repeats of these podcasts, which wwill lead up to panel discussion with some of the authors, on the book and the Toffler legacy.

Apple has reportedly paid $200 million to acquire Seattle-based artificial intelligence company Xnor.ai, which specialises in edge-based AI.

The purchase is one of many for Apple, which has become adept at vacuuming up tech startups, but it also gives us a glimpse into the company’s thinking when it comes to future devices.

Xnor.ai’s work on hyper-efficient, low-power AI that doesn’t require powerful processing or a connection to the cloud (processing locally on-device instead), neatly slots into a few areas Apple is currently working on.

Google’s parent company Alphabet ($GOOG) is now the fourth US company to hit a market cap of $1 trillion. It hit the number just before markets closed on Thursday, ending the day’s trading at $1,451.70 per share, up 0.87 percent.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai took over as CEO of Alphabet in December, after Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin relinquished control of Alphabet. It’s been a bumpy couple of years at the company that included allegations of sexual misconduct by executives and a 20,000-person Google Walkout employee protest.

Alphabet is slated to report fourth-quarter earnings on February 3rd, and Wall Street analysts are expecting it to report revenue of $46.9 billion, a year-over-year uptick of almost 20 percent.