Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Retailers play down job threats in stores from AI and automation

Retailers play down job threats in stores from AI and automation

Major retailers played down the threat to job in stores from artificial intelligence (AI) and automation on Thursday, Reuters reported . Several global retailers pledged more training to help staff adopt more high-value tasks as machines take over their work.

Retail is one of the largest job creators in developed economies stepping up employment opportunities. Experts predicted automation puts millions of low-skilled jobs in the sector at risk, particularly as the introduction of self-checkouts makes cashiers redundant.

“Technology can liberate people from repetitive tasks,” Barbara Martin Coppola, chief digital officer at Swedish furniture giant IKEA, told Reuters on the sidelines of […]

Tennessee’s unemployment rate remains at a record low

Tennessee's unemployment rate remains at a record low

Updated at 6:01 p.m. on Thursday, May 16, 2019, with more information.

Unemployment across Tennessee remained at an historic low last month after employers added 51,600 jobs over the past year in the state.

* 3.2% in Tennessee, unchanged from the previous month* 3.8% in Georgia, down 0.1% from the previous month* 3.6% in the United States as a whole, down 0.2 percent from the previous monthSources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Georgia Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsFor the third consecutive month, Tennessee’s unemployment rate in April remained at 3.2% — well below the U.S. jobless […]

Retail chiefs dismiss AI job threat, promise more training

Retail chiefs dismiss AI job threat, promise more training

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Executives from major global retailers played down the threat to employment in stores from artificial intelligence and automation on Thursday and pledged more training to help staff adopt more high-value tasks as machines take over their work. FILE PHOTO: Self checkout machines are seen at a supermarket of Swiss retail group Coop in Zumikon, Switzerland December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

Retail is one of the largest employers in many developed economies and experts have predicted automation puts millions of low-skilled jobs in the sector at risk, particularly as the introduction of self-checkouts makes cashiers redundant.

“Technology can […]

Globalisation, automation and the history of work: Looking back to understand the future

Globalisation, automation and the history of work: Looking back to understand the future

The economy appears to be on the cusp of a third great transformation, driven by globalisation and automation. In this post, Richard Baldwin argues that the first step in thinking clearly about the future of work is to look at its historical transformations.

The future of work is a fascinating and important topic – and has been since steam power first got useful in the early 18th century. Since then, economies have struggled through two major economic transformations: when people moved from farms to factories, and when they moved from factories to offices.

Many believe that the economy is on […]

The Future Of Customer Service Is Humans And Machines Working Together

The Future Of Customer Service Is Humans And Machines Working Together

The robots are coming, and they are going to take our jobs. A simplification, perhaps – but if one were looking to find the simplest statement explaining the narrative following the era of automation, that would probably be it. In a world where customers can order on mobile, use a touchscreen or talk to an AI-based bot, the service industry will no longer need human workers, because machines will be able to do all of those jobs.

And while there are grains of truth mixed into that rather apocalyptic employment narrative, it gets a lot more wrong than it gets […]

OPINION | Jamie Dimon’s timely warning

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SOCIALISM is now woker than a two-for-one Che Guevara T-shirt sale, with Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dominating the party’s imagination.

In a rare calling-out of this bogosity, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned shareholders that “socialism inevitably produces stagnation, corruption and often worse.” He was echoing Winston Churchill’s observation that socialism allows for “the equal sharing of misery.” Why is it only capable of generating misery?Because under socialism, politics rather than productivity drives employment. Technological innovation is suppressed. Long ago, an Israeli explained to me that under socialism — Israel’s economic system until 1985 — you would always hire […]

AI Industry Will Be Facing Job Disruptions

AI Industry Will Be Facing Job Disruptions

AI Industry Will Be Facing Job Disruptions The velocity and scale of the transition to synthetic intelligence are prone to take Asian governments unexpectedly, doubtlessly inflicting financial and social shocks, following MIT Technology Evaluation. In a report launched Wednesday, the expertise media outlet warns of the chance of Asia’s employment panorama turning into “more and more polarised” with a rising variety of employees excluded from the worth creation facet of AI.

The findings within the report have been primarily based on a survey of about 900 executives throughout 13 Asia-Pacific markets together with the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Australia, India, […]

Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Work

Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Work

Image by Alexander Yakimov via Shutterstock.com Scepticism of innovation is as old as the ages, but it can empower our societies. It is still too often the case that new technology is met with doubt and hesitation. In 1995, renowned astronomer Clifford Stoll stated , “The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher, and no computer network will change the way government works”. Stoll, alongside others, misjudged human behaviour and our ability to adapt. We can learn from such statements by being open to new technologies […]

Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Is Wrong About the Future of Work

Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Is Wrong About the Future of Work

Last evening, I attended a rain-soaked rally in New York City for long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang , a 44-year-old entrepreneur who is running on a platform based on three main ideas: a universal-basic income (UBI), Medicare for All, and what he calls "human-centered capitalism." He’s funny, smart, and forward-looking. Although he has effectively zero chance of becoming president (then again, who thought Donald Trump would ever win?) and his vision is built upon flawed premises (more on that in a moment), the conversation he’s trying to start is worth taking seriously, if only because his fear of […]

Back To The Future: Why We Must Look To The Past To Understand The Future Of Work

Back To The Future: Why We Must Look To The Past To Understand The Future Of Work

Not a day passes without a news article about the future of work. From the rise of AI and automation to the growing awareness of the need to reskill the global workforce to questions about what it means to lead in the new world of work, the future of work has become an integral part of the news cycle given its profound and widespread impact on all facets of society.

Yet, what seems to be lost in all these conversations about what is new is an interesting phenomenon where we are seeing the reversal of over 200 years of evolution […]