Robot the boost

The robots are coming, and we'll make sure Yul understand why...

This weekend I watched the 1973 movie Westworld, mainly because it popped up on the BBC iPlayer but also due to my love of old b-movies. I’d misremembered Westworld as “not being as good as its reputation”, but it actually stands up well as a film from its era.

This is the film that spawned the recent remake on Sky, and there are similarities – but it’s a much simpler tale of mankind playing god, getting cocky and its creations going nuts and killing everyone.

The reason why I mention it here is not to remind everyone of my impeccable credentials in the appreciation of old tat, but because after I’d watched it, I remembered that coincidentally this week, robotics and artificial intelligence has been on my radar.

I’m working with the team that is bringing together all the robotics work being done within the organisation I work for. It’s my job to help them communicate out what their objectives are and help the people in the business understand how this technology will be central to us achieving our mission.

We won’t be bringing in robotic gunslingers (fun as that would be), but we do know that people have very real concerns that need addressing as this work goes on.

There’s a simple over-arching message that our robots, working on land, in water and in the air, will be able to do jobs that humans either can’t do or that they really shouldn’t be doing.

It is drones checking the integrity of our buildings, stopping the need to do it using scaffolding and ladders.

It is submarines scouring the nooks and crannies of our legacy ponds.

And it is mini tanks negotiating the narrow entrances to silos that are literally inaccessible to humans, then sweeping up and sorting the waste inside.

And while all this is happening, the people controlling the machines could be sitting metres, or even miles, away.

It is this “removing people from harm’s way” aspect that chimes well for a business where safety is its overriding concern. But it’s also the message that has the potential to upset people who might feel that their job is being threatened. Their role may be at the sharp end of the nuclear industry with the attendant risks that come with that, but it’s what they do, something they feel proud of doing, and something they may even miss if taken away.

Unlike many businesses, ours is not focused on profit but instead has a defined purpose of creating a safe environment for future generations. So if we do move people out of a role, the chances are they’ll be found something else to do to help us get to that end goal. But that doesn’t stop people from worrying, from feeling a sense of loss, and going through that old change curve us comms people are so fond of talking about.

I see it as my job to help people through that, as well as all the other stuff around making sure our stakeholders understand the clear and defined objectives for bringing in all this “shiny stuff”.

If we in the communications department get that right, then all that remains is for someone else to make sure we don’t allow those robots to get ideas above their station.