What Amazon’s decision to retrain a third of its employees means for the future of work

What Amazon's decision to retrain a third of its employees means for the future of work

Amazon’s announcement that it will invest US$700 million to retrain 100,000 employees – a third of its U.S. workforce – in new technologies is the latest reminder that the much-heralded future of work is well underway.

Policymakers, analysts and scholars trying to discern the retailer’s motives and objectives chalked it up to a public relations move or the natural result of a tight labor market . Others deemed it standard retraining and investment .

Lost in the reaction, however, is what it means for the rest of us workers. As an expert in technology disruption , I believe the main message […]

DTI chief says retraining could offset job losses due to automation

DTI chief says retraining could offset job losses due to automation

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 22) — Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez on Monday allayed fears that millions of Filipino workers may lose job in the next few years due to automation.

Lopez said the use of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, among others, will not “kill” jobs but will pave the way for new employment opportunities.

“Yes, we will lose jobs but it’s also a replacement.. in other words renaming of functions, there’ll be new functions, there’ll be affected.. those repetitive, low-skill types of of jobs that esentially they just have to […]

Are Robots Coming for Our Jobs? Careful, It’s a Trick Question

Are Robots Coming for Our Jobs? Careful, It’s a Trick Question

The robots are coming, and they’ll probably take your job when they get here.

Oh wait—have you heard that recently? As recently as, say, yesterday? In the news, or from a coworker, or in a sinister dystopian movie, maybe?

Sounding the alarm about job losses to automation has become commonplace—in fact, it’s more of a nonstop siren these days. Multiple Democratic presidential candidates are featuring their plans to combat Big Tech and solve technological unemployment as talking points of their campaigns. Dread of a robot-dominated future is mounting.One of the most widely-referenced and panic-inducing figures on the topic came from a […]

Will Agricultural AI Become the Future of Farming?

Will Agricultural AI Become the Future of Farming?

Welcome to Thomas Insights — every day, we publish the latest news and analysis to keep our readers up to date on what’s happening in industry. Sign up here to get the day’s top stories delivered straight to your inbox. While artificial intelligence is commonly employed within customer service, manufacturing, and retail, one sector that may not immediately spring to mind when one thinks of AI is agriculture. Nevertheless, farmers are increasingly relying on this technology to produce their crops.

Although America is in the lead when it comes to AI in agriculture , many farmers all over the world […]

Why you don’t hear Trump or Farage talking about the tech revolution

Why you don’t hear Trump or Farage talking about the tech revolution

This week’s nightmare is the arrival of Boris Johnson; the autumn brings the Brexit watershed. Soon after, the 2020 US election takes shape, compounding the sense that politics everywhere is in a state of complete unpredictability. All that is clear, perhaps, is that the forces gathered around Brexit, Donald Trump and the various brands of European populism still think things are going their way .

For some people, everything comes down to the failures of neoliberalism and its inbuilt globalisation, and the long aftershocks from the crash of 2008. Others, with very good reason, focus on racism and bigotry, and […]

How Automation Makes Life – Not Just Work – More Human

Robotic process automation (RPA) is one of the most transformative technologies of the century, allowing enterprises to eliminate tedious tasks, freeing workers to focus on the higher-value, strategic work that only humans can do, and dramatically increasing efficiency and reducing costs in the process.

Businesses have long recognized the potential of RPA to transform the future of work, with the global market emerging as an estimated $100 billion opportunity according to KeyBanc Capital Markets. Gartner further estimates that by 2020, 40 percent of large enterprises will have deployed RPA software.

However, why should the benefit of RPA be confined to the […]

What Amazon’s decision to retrain a third of its employees means for the future of work

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Scott F. Latham, University of Massachusetts Lowell(THE CONVERSATION) Amazon’s announcement that it will invest US$700 million to retrain 100,000 employees – a third of its U.S. workforce – in new technologies is the latest reminder that the much-heralded future of work is well underway.Policymakers, analysts and scholars trying to discern the retailer’s motives and objectives chalked it up to a public relations move or the natural result of a tight labor market. Others deemed it standard retraining and investment.Lost in the […]

How artificial intelligence will do our dirty work, take our jobs and change our lives

How artificial intelligence will do our dirty work, take our jobs and change our lives

Fifty years after the moon landing, a new Irish Times series looks on what the future holds for us and the next generations. Here, part 1 explores how artificial intelligence will change our lives in the next half-century

At its crudest, most reductive, we could sum up the future of artificial intelligence as being about robot butlers v killer robots.

We have to get there eventually, so we might as well start with the killer robots. If we were to jump forward 50 years to see what artificial intelligence might bring us, would we – Terminator-style – step into a […]

Episode Summary

On this episode of The Digital Life, we discuss workplace automation and the technologies that will make it happen — from robotics to artificial intelligence (AI) to machine learning. The McKinsey Global Institute released a new study on the topic this month, “A Future that Works: Automation, Employment and Productivity”, which contains some interesting insights.For instance, almost every occupation has the potential to be at least partially automated, and it’s likely that more occupations will be transformed than automated away. However, people will need to work in conjunction with machines as a part of their day-to-day activities, and in […]

Could Automated Jobs Increase Homelessness?

Could Automated Jobs Increase Homelessness?

Nobody can predict the future. Many have tried and failed. But for the world at large in 2019, we needn’t hassle ourselves with educated guesses or calculated estimations regarding what might exist beyond our scopes. We needn’t attempt to predict the future at all, because we are already living in it…

Just yesterday, while wondering down the abandoned aisles of my local grocery store, I came face to face with an ominous looking employee who stared me down with synthetic eyes and a painted smile that immediately conjured images of Chuckie. The silent creature followed me, expressionless, with wheels […]