Even CEOs will be replaced by robots, Jack Ma predicts

There may be no reasoning with the boss in 30 years — because the chief executive could be a robot.

The tech disruption will reach into the C-suites at major companies over the next three decades, Alibaba founder Jack Ma is predicting.

“In 30 years, a robot will likely be on the cover of Time Magazine as the best CEO,” according to Ma.
The billionaire investor is predicting a robot revolution because the machines are quicker and more rational than humans — and don’t get bogged down with emotions.

Companies that fail to integrate cloud computing and artificial intelligence with their workforce and business models can expect to be hit the hardest, Ma said in a speech in China on Monday.

“Social conflicts in the next three decades will have an impact on all sorts of industries and walks of life,” Ma, chairman of Alibaba, the China-based e-commerce giant, said at an entrepreneurship conference in Zhengzhou.

Leaders who can’t comprehend that should find young people in their companies to explain it to them, he said.

Ma added that, to prevent social upheaval, the world must change its approach to education and establish ways to work with robots to soften the blow of automation.

It was an unusually gloomy prediction from Ma, who typically likes to stay upbeat about the future as he builds Alibaba, the online powerhouse that sometimes is called the “Amazon of China.”

“Fifteen years ago, I gave speeches 200 or 300 times reminding everyone the internet will impact all industries, but people didn’t listen because I was a nobody,” he said.

Nevertheless, Ma also sounded a hopeful note about the relationship between humans and robots in the long run — in contrast to Silicon Valley honchos like Elon Musk, who have warned that artificial intelligence poses a threat to humanity.

“Machines will do what human beings are incapable of doing,” Ma said. “Machines will partner and cooperate with humans, rather than become mankind’s biggest enemy.”