OFFICE buzz. Now, a chatbot for #MeToo

After the #MeToo campaign more people are reporting workplace harassment. Yet, many incidents still go unreported. Often people do report – but the feeling is that HR does not take these complaints seriously. Now a new app called Spot using artificial intelligence plans to step into the breach and help out. It is backed by Phil Libin, the co-founder of Evernote.

The Silicon Valley startup launched earlier this month has created a chatbot that will prompt people to recount their experiences about harassment and then create a PDF report. The AI chatbot will then take the report anonymously to higher-ups.

Spot will be available to anyone for free online. But why do the creators think it will work better than reporting to HR? Co-founders Dr Julia Shaw, Dylan Marriott and Dr Daniel Nicolae think their machine learning tool will encourage people to report their experiences more quickly and accurately than they would talking to a human. Talking to a machine takes the discomfort out of reporting a distressful experience.

Also, employees often fear retaliation and hence do not report situations. The chatbot keeps the identity of the reporter private.

Imagine arriving at work to find a robotic dog opening the door for you. This future-of-work scenario may arrive sooner than you think if you look at the development of robotic dog SpotMini. Robotics firm Boston Dynamics has just released a video showing the capabilities of SpotMini, a 25 kg, all-electric creature which can open doors using its extendable neck and jaws. In its website, Boston Dynamics describes the robo-dog as “a nimble robot that handles objects, climbs stairs, and will operate in offices, homes and outdoors”. It’s a quiet robot and can operate for 90 minutes on a charge.

This is the next generation robo-dog from Boston Dynamics which had earlier developed a bigger dog, Spot. But the smaller SpotMini has more capabilities – it can pick up and handle objects and has beefed up sensors.

Although use cases are still not clear, this dog could soon be reporting for work.

Overall, there is good news about the employability of Indian graduates – with a 5.6 per cent increase in capability over the last five years. In 2014, the percentage of employable graduates was a paltry 33 per cent, now it has risen to 45.6 per cent. Key domains where employability has increased are Engineering, B Pharma and MCA. Courses where practical experiences and internships have been made part of the formal course content are faring better. However, there is a drop in employability amongst MBA courses.

The findings are from the India Skills Report 2018 – a joint initiative by PeopleStrong & Wheebox in collaboration with CII. The employability test was done across 5,200 universities and professional institutions in India, and covered more than five lakh students.

A possible reason behind the drop in job readiness of MBA students, says the report, could be the exponential increase in the number of B-Schools leading to a drop in quality of education and talent.

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