Hard to “undo” those temporary measures.

https://www.bespacific.com/the-boss-may-be-watching-long-after-the-pandemic-ends/

The boss may be watching long after the pandemic ends

Keystroke tracking, screenshots, and facial recognition: “What workers should know about corporate surveillance software as companies consider permanent remote work policies… Workers have little power to control how and when they’re being monitored, especially if they are using work-issued devices. Experts advise workers to assume they are being monitored if they’re in the office or using company equipment and recommend that they read the fine print in contracts. Market research firm Gartner says companies used more surveillance tools during the coronavirus pandemic to keep tabs on employees and monitor work productivity. The number of large employers using tools to track their workers doubled since the beginning of the pandemic to 60 percent. That number is expected to rise to 70 percent within the next three years, said Brian Kropp, chief of human resources research at Gartner…”

Is anyone surprised?

https://hbr.org/2021/09/ai-adoption-skyrocketed-over-the-last-18-months

AI Adoption Skyrocketed Over the Last 18 Months

Digital innovation spurred by Covid-19 has put AI and analytics at the center of business operations. AI and analytics are boosting productivity, delivering new products and services, accentuating corporate values, addressing supply chain issues, and fueling new startups. In this article, we address lessons learned from the pandemic and how they can be applied to spurring new economic opportunity.

Design your business model so even an AI can understand it. Could this be a fool-proof, nearly risk free business?

https://qz.com/2047338/small-businesses-are-turning-to-ai-loans-with-no-human-oversight/

Small businesses are turning to loans that require zero human oversight

… Clearco is part of a growing industry that offers loans to small businesses, particularly e-commerce startups, with virtually no human input. In 2020, Clearco doled out $2.5 billion in funding to 5,500 businesses, relying entirely on algorithms to decide which businesses to give money to, how much to offer, and what the terms of the deal should be.

E-commerce platforms like Shopify and payment companies like PayPal and Square are now offering their own versions of the service, too. These companies have mountains of granular data about their clients’ businesses, allowing them to train algorithms to predict which companies are safe bets to lend money to and which are riskier investments. Algorithms can then adjust the terms of the deal accordingly, raising the cost of capital to account for greater risks. (Clearco says humans never review its algorithms’ decisions, but Shopify, PayPal, and Square employ human reviewers to check some deals above a certain size.)