Will machines replace humans? This fundamental question has been debated for over 100 years since the time Henry Ford first introduced the moving assembly line, which eliminated wasteful steps and made it possible for four employees to do the work of six.

Back then, fear spread through the streets of Detroit in a similar fashion to the way it’s doing today in Tokyo, where employees are being made redundant by IBM’s Watson Explorer AI.

By utilising a machine to do the work of people, Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance believes it will increase productivity by 30 per cent and sees a return on its investment in less than two years. The use of artificial intelligence will drastically reduce the time needed to calculate Fukoku Mutual’s payouts, but it will also replace the jobs of 34 workers.

Even Johann Rupert, Chairman of Richemont (owner of Cartier, IWC, Montblanc, and other luxury brands), has warned that changes in industrial processes and the rise of AI could leave many people unemployable. His solution is a universal income.

In the past, some jobs have disappeared: electric washing machines transformed clothes cleaning from hours-long tasks into something accomplished with the push of a button. Power tools made construction immensely more efficient, and computers eliminated labour-intensive, by-hand calculations and writing.

Artisanal skills were replaced by factory work when industrial-scale manufacturing took over in the 19th century. Then, by the 1980s, many of the Industrial Revolution-era assembly line jobs had themselves fallen into the figurative hands of machines and computers.

It’s natural to be concerned about future employment, but this is missing the crux of the question. Why did Henry Ford introduce the moving assembly line? No, it wasn’t to make employees redundant, it was to speed up the manufacturing of the Model T.

This new process revolutionised production and dropped the assembly time per vehicle from 12 hours to about 90 minutes.

This productivity improvement also decreased the price of the Ford Model T and increased production tenfold to around 300,000 cars. That’s more than the company’s 300 competitors built with four times the number of employees. Critically, however, Ford’s increase in productivity also drove a rapid growth in the business that created more jobs and almost doubled wages. In 1914 Henry Ford raised the average pay in his factories from $2.54 to $5 per day. Thanks to the moving assembly line, more people worked and made more money.

A century later, Ford employs over 200,000 people, even with all the automation and machine assistance.

The same argument spread around the world during the rise of the computer era. Again, onlookers speculated that the adoption of the computer as a work tool would lead to the elimination of jobs. Indeed, some roles were eliminated — it’s hard to find typesetters and darkroom attendants today. But other jobs were created and the fact remains that the world now employs more people than it ever has.

Will AI in all its forms, including robotics and machines working, replace jobs? Yes! Machines always have and will continue to modify the types of jobs we rely on.

But at the same time, when used as a productivity tool the ultimate number of jobs should increase because companies naturally pursue growth. They will just be different jobs.

We can’t sweep the jobs conversation under the rug, but the focus of this conversation needs to shift from whether or not AI will replace jobs, to the actual benefit of AI — productivity improvement. When you leverage the productivity benefits in the AI era, you can retain and retrain your employees as productivity agents.

Instead of debating about the role of computers, robots, machines and AI in the job market, ask the right question: How could they make you more productive?

When I hear the conversation about AI replacing jobs, it makes me wonder: What does or will AI and robotics do that the human worker doesn’t? Is it stronger? Smarter? Faster? Cheaper? Hidden in that question is your productivity benefit.

When you’re able to answer the question about what AI can do for you, you will be unlocking your productivity advantage. That is, how you can produce more whether through your existing employees or future bots.

The writer is a CEO coach and author of “Leadership Dubai Style”. Contact him at tsw@tommyweir.com