Santa Claus is Coming to AI?

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Artificial Intelligence  

But this time, you need to take it seriously, because there is an existential threat to Christmas. (I’m not really sure what an existential threat is, but I heard it in a movie and it sounded good.) But anyway, back to the threat. Father Christmas is in danger of being replaced by AI. I know…crazy, right?! (Sorry, I needed some more melodrama, so added that bit in.)

I showed up at the North Pole for my usual sit down with the big guy to talk about what was happening, and to provide the material for the most anticipated (by me) ProjectManagement.com article of the year, and all was not well. The elves were morose (and a morose elf is not a pleasant sight), the reindeer were miserable, Mrs. Claus was keeping out of the way by making (and drinking) eggnog in the kitchen, and Santa? Well, Santa just wasn’t his usual cheerful self. Not even a “ho,” never mind a “Ho-ho-ho.”

I asked him what was wrong, and not only were his first words unpublishable on a respectable site like this, they were not at all Santa like. You see, Father Christmas was worried that he was out of a job. After all these years (and billions of frequent reindeer miles), he was in danger of being replaced by technology. Now, we’ve all heard the doom and gloom about how AI is coming to take our jobs, but unless I missed it, I haven’t seen anything in the …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.