Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

Hale: Fighting automation fears with creativity

Hale: Fighting automation fears with creativity

In 1930, a time of true depression and fear of future, the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that 15-hour work days would be the norm for his grandkids. Clearly, things haven’t quite worked out that way.

While many have wisely predicted that new technology would increase prosperity and lower drudgery, the economy is still fraught with worry for most families, certainly those I know. And we are watching our normal disappear. Those jobs and industries we counted on to keep people working are disappearing.

Robots can flip burgers and drop fry baskets into hot bubbling grease, and they can be timed […]

Column: Driverless tractor-trailers could open up more jobs

The future of trucking may tell us a lot about the future of work. It’s no secret that many Americans fear losing their jobs to automation. In a Pew Research Center poll last October, nearly three-quarters of respondents worried that “computers and robots could do most of the work currently done by humans.” And yet the job market seems to be sending the opposite message: With a low unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, many companies say they can’t find good workers.

Trucking symbolizes the contradiction. Trucking companies complain they can’t hire enough drivers, and the situation will get worse before […]

Gig economy: An empowering trend here to stay or a stumbling block that compromises on labour welfare?

Gig economy: An empowering trend here to stay or a stumbling block that compromises on labour welfare?

We look into the good, bad and ugly of the gig economy, a fast catching trend that promises to revolutionise the Indian economy in the coming decades. Imagine the nature of a job that is flexible, convenient and lets you choose exactly what you want to do from the choicest of options. As utopian as it sounds, jobs as these are a commonplace reality in India, a booming economy that is slowly shifting towards a gig-based economy (also referred to as peer-to-peer economy or shared economy or collaborative economy), a fast catching trend that involves outsourcing of work, project-based […]

The changing face of retail and retail employment

The changing face of retail and retail employment

Over the last five to 10 years we’ve all witnessed the changing face of the retail store. The early signs were evident, with Apple’s flagship stores launching as places to worship tech, the rise of experiential stores – where we’re just as likely to pop into one for a coffee or a ‘brand experience’ – and more recently the growth of demo and click-and-collect stores.

What these stores all have in common is that they are more focused on experience and brand engagement, and less on the actual transaction.

So why is the retail experience changing? If I can transact so […]

CPGs Make Data Inroads; Agency Jobs In Decline?

CPGs Make Data Inroads; Agency Jobs In Decline?

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here .

CPGs Make Data Inroads

CPG brands like P&G and Clorox are starting to crack the code on digital spending, according to a report from L2. CPGs are getting smarter about using data-rich channels like search, where they can capture intent. By bidding on cheaper top-funnel queries and letting retailers like Target and Walmart fight over the more expensive brand names, CPGs are decreasing the bid costs while increasing visibility. Programmatic is still key, but these brands are moving away from the long tail and buying […]

Robots Are Displacing Manual Labor Jobs

Robots Are Displacing Manual Labor Jobs

At the Pacific Design and Manufacturing Show, robot makers acknowledged that robots will replace human workers.

One of the ongoing fears repeatedly voiced about the proliferation of robots in manufacturing and logistics is that they will gobble up jobs needed by humans. In the session, "Will Collaborative Robots Even Replace Human Workers," that was presented as part of the Pacific Design and Manufacturing Show in Anaheim this week, panelists conceded that – yes – robots are replacing human workers. But panelists also insisted that robots were needed because of the tight labor market in logistics and manufacturing. Rethink Robotics displaying […]

4IR will eliminate risks – and create new ones

4IR will eliminate risks – and create new ones

Converging technologies marking the fourth industrial revolution look likely to transform the risk landscape The convergence of several transformative new technologies – collectively dubbed the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) – will likely transform the risk landscape in the decades to come.

However, the rise of robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and autonomous technologies has the potential to transform or create new risks as well as eliminate old ones, according to Ravin Jesuthasan, the managing director, responsible for Willis Towers Watson’s future of work initiative and author of multiple books on the topic.

“It is changing some risks, changing the very nature of […]

Robots Are Displacing Manuel Labor Jobs

Robots Are Displacing Manuel Labor Jobs

At the Pacific Design and Manufacturing Show, robot makers acknowledged that robots will replace human workers.

One of the ongoing fears repeatedly voiced about the proliferation of robots in manufacturing and logistics is that they will gobble up jobs needed by humans. In the session, "Will Collaborative Robots Even Replace Human Workers," that was presented as part of the Pacific Design and Manufacturing Show in Anaheim this week, panelists conceded that – yes – robots are replacing human workers. But panelists also insisted that robots were needed because of the tight labor market in logistics and manufacturing. Rethink Robotics displaying […]

Maintain domain expertise

As I watch my older colleagues cast off into retirement one by one, unmooring and sailing away into oblivion, without even glancing back, I sometimes wonder how we’ll replace the expertise they take with them.

The years of experience and tribal knowledge they’ve accumulated over the course of decades just floats away. Sure, many of them are replaced by algorithms and sophisticated software analytics that are much less expensive in the long run. But how do we replenish the domain expertise that Baby Boomers collected?

Where do you find individuals who understand the mechanical properties that give meaning to trending data? […]

What trucking tells us about the future of work

What trucking tells us about the future of work

A truck on Highway 101 last month in Larkspur, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) The future of trucking may tell us a lot about the future of work. It’s no secret that many Americans fear losing their jobs to automation. In a Pew Research Center poll last October, nearly three-quarters of respondents worried that “computers and robots could do most of the work currently done by humans.” And yet the job market seems to be sending the opposite message: With a low unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, many companies say they can’t find good workers.

Trucking symbolizes the contradiction. Trucking companies […]