On 22 February 2018, Professor Bhimani led a discussion following a lecture by Alan Winfield, Professor of Robot Ethics at University of the West of England, on 'AI Futures: the Societal Impact of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence'. The event took place at the Ismaili Centre in London as part of the Diamond Jubilee Lecture Series. The lecture traced the evolution of the field of robotics. Professor Bhimani in the discussion noted the commercial and societal impact which AI technologies are rapidly making. He mentioned the hundred-fold increase in AI-related product commercialisation which can be anticipated in the next 2 to 3 years and pointed to the ongoing exponential growth of robotics and AI which could contribute a potential 15% additional global GNP by 2030. Alongside this, is the expectation that possibly 850 million jobs could be altered, many disappearing and others requiring extensive modification and therefore retraining. Preparing tomorrow’s workforce will present a key challenge to governments. The transition from the first, to the second through to the third industrialisation phases caused machines to replace physical and repetitive administrative labour producing both wealth and extensive social change. AI which is part of the fourth industrialisation phase is however expected to upend intellectual labour across some industrial sectors and possibly place at a premium jobs entailing technology, adaptive education and social leadership. Professor Bhimani noted the importance of regulatory action to ensure data ethics and digital governance retain balance in the face of AI-based technological changes the world will witness in the very near term.