Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

In the age of AI, learning and development will protect the workforce

In the age of AI, learning and development will protect the workforce

Image credit: >Depositphotos Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to transform our lives from the way we work to the way we live. It has already found its way into many domains and will continue to permeate every aspect of life, society, and work. Microsoft believes every business will rely on AI in five years.

If you ask employees, however, they are concerned about job security.

In a recent Docebo report , three in five people expressed concerns that AI technology will impact how they perform their job or daily tasks in the future. Another fifth of respondents believed AI could replace […]

Industries Fight Automation Hypochondria in the Tech Industrial Age

Industries Fight Automation Hypochondria in the Tech Industrial Age

McKinsey has predicted that 800 million workers could be possibly displaced in 42 countries — a third of the workforce, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. While similar predictions came before every earlier change of era, could this one be?

The world has seen four industrial revolutions till now, and as each one has come with terrible frightening job loss scenarios. But, to date, nothing has been as disruptive as what’s coming now.

Disruptive technologies are indeed transforming the entire social, economic, and political systems in many unpredictable ways. While technology evolution is difficult to map because of its factorial or […]

Artificial Intelligence: Good or bad or both?

Artificial Intelligence: Good or bad or both?

If you read the flotillas of articles about the future of artificial intelligence, there are no guarantees that you will improve your IQ number.

Arguments are being floated that insist that the new waves will be good for us or bad for us and a combination of both.

AI means more jobs, but the consensus ends when you ask the next question: What will it mean?As artificial intelligence powers up, it will produce new jobs and conversely delete millions of work positions that are currently servicing our lifestyles across America.The Wall Street Journal published a 12-page special section on Oct. 14, […]

Blame the policies, not the robots

The claim that automation is responsible for massive job losses has been made in almost every one of the Democratic debates. In the last debate , technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang told of automation closing stores on Main Street and of self-driving trucks that would shortly displace “3.5 million truckers or the 7 million Americans who work in truck stops, motels, and diners” that serve them. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) suggested that the “automation revolution” was at “the heart of the fear that is well-founded.”

When Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) argued that trade was a bigger culprit than automation, the fact-checker […]

Surprise! The skills of the future aren’t technical

Surprise! The skills of the future aren’t technical

It’s time to prioritize gaps in behavioral and leadership skills. The IBM Institute for Business Value recently surveyed approximately 5,670 executives across 48 countries to learn more about the skills needed to execute business strategies. The top finding of the research is that approximately 120 million workers may need to be retrained or reskilled as a result of AI and intelligent automation.

Yet, the research also revealed that, while technical and digital skills were still in high demand, executives are placing highest priority on behavioral—or soft—skills. Of 12 technical and behavioral skills identified through the research, executives placed highest priority […]

6 skills that will never be replaced by automation

6 skills that will never be replaced by automation

The nature of work is evolving. Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are spurring a revolution, transforming jobs in every industry from IT to manufacturing.

The latest OECD Employment Outlook report reports that around 36% of Australian jobs face a significant or high risk of being automated in the next 15 to 20 years. If this number is worrying, you’re not alone. Half of all Aussie employees are concerned about their job will be replaced by technology at some point down the line.

However, automation isn’t going to eliminate jobs but rather, transform them. While some skills can be automated — such […]

American Manufacturing is No Longer a Sad Bruce Springsteen Song

American Manufacturing is No Longer a Sad Bruce Springsteen Song

In 1978 Bruce Springsteen released a song titled "Factory" on his fourth album, Darkness on the Edge of Town . The song, based on Springsteen’s father’s time working at a factory in New Jersey, is a haunting tale of despair that frames life on an assembly line as one of almost relentless bleakness.

Springsteen’s "Factory" paints an accurate picture of late seventies grease-stained drudgery.

Unfortunately, that perception still exists. In popular culture, manufacturing and factory work are often still portrayed as a fast track to a sore back and a regretful heart.That perception is wrong.A large percentage American manufacturing long ago […]

Will Jobs Be Lost to Automation?

Will Jobs Be Lost to Automation?

Product and technology innovation has transformed life as we know it in the last few decades, and the pace of change is only getting faster over the next decade. Inventors and innovators continue to look for ways to make life easier, automate repetitive tasks, and remove the likelihood of human error by teaching machines to do what humans would otherwise do. Self-driving cars removing the need for human drivers, robots automating manufacturing processes that required line workers, and self-guided vacuums and lawn mowers are only a few examples.

While several jobs are certainly being automated for greater efficiency, if you […]

Automation and AI: Implications for African Development Prospects?

Automation and AI: Implications for African Development Prospects?

Introduction

Now that computers are capable of taking the jobs that require brain as well as brawn, it may appear there is little left for humans to do. There are many scary forecasts of the capacity of automation and AI to replace a lot of workers very fast. Self-driving vehicles may wipe out opportunities for taxi drivers and truckers, for example. Brynjolfsson, Rock, and Syverson note there are 3.5 million people employed driving vehicles in the US. If automation reduced that to 1.5 million, that alone would increase total US labor productivity by 1.7 percent, [1] but it would […]

Will autonomous cars eradicate driving jobs? Don’t hold your breath

Will autonomous cars eradicate driving jobs? Don’t hold your breath

Automation, job security, and truck driving were center stage at last week’s Democratic debate. Andrew Yang and Elizabeth Warren in particular sparred over whether automation was going to kill jobs and wipe out the trucking industry. Without a doubt, the next 10 years will see drastic changes to the way cars and trucks move us and our cargo around.

But the next decade of changes will entail much smaller changes than many people – presidential candidates included – are expecting. The 2020s probably won’t bring flying cars, solar roads, or robot gas pumps. Like much of our current world and […]