Category: Automation Impact on Jobs

How you can protect your job from automation

Automation and the workplace is an issue that I’ve touched on extensively in the past year or so, and I’m broadly cynical about the doomsday scenarios that are proliferating at the moment, in no small part because of the dubious methodology many of the studies that underpin these ‘robots will take our jobs’ scenarios.

It would be churlish to believe that new technologies won’t impact the labor market though, and it will undoubtedly pay to be as agile and adaptive as possible.

A recent paper published in the European Journal of Personality examines the kind of traits we might consider developing […]

For US autoworkers, robots are the job killers, not trade

For US autoworkers, robots are the job killers, not trade

Honda’s East Liberty Auto Plant in Ohio, U.S. PALO ALTO, U.S. — The U.S. auto industry is struggling with slow employment growth. Economists mostly put the job losses down to automation: It simply takes fewer people to make a car than it once did.

American assembly line workers see things differently. They blame the country’s free trade agreements with Mexico and other countries for their plight and seem oddly untroubled by automation. President Donald Trump’s administration is also mum on the issue.

Friend or foe At Honda Motor’s East Liberty Auto Plant in Ohio, robots stand in rows on its […]

There Is One Thing Computers Will Never Beat Us At

In late post-revolutionary France one man was tasked to map out the country. Gaspard de Prony , a mathematician and engineer, decided to approach the task by creating logarithmic and trigonometric tables. These tables, which would come to be known as Tables of de Prony, were destined to speed up the trigonometric calculations needed to complete these cartographic task.

In handling the vast amounts of data, de Prony asked for help. His team was divided in three levels of hierarchy: besides a couple of highly skilled mathematicians, several mathematicians with less sophisticated skills, he also hired sixty to eighty hairdressers.

These […]

As Amazon purchases Whole Foods, don’t fear for the cashier. Fear for the supermarket

As Amazon purchases Whole Foods, don’t fear for the cashier. Fear for the supermarket

When Amazon announced its plan to pay $13.7 billion for Whole Foods Market last week, pundits wondered what it meant for the workers at Whole Foods’ more than 450 store locations.

Whole Foods’ infamously high prices are partly the result of its highly human approach to groceries. The stores post experts in every department and offers human service at specialty counters.

Amazon’s brick-and-mortar retail ambitions, meanwhile, have been focused around a technology that eliminates the need to interact with human employees at all . Instead, customers take products off of shelves and walk out of the stores. Amazon’s technology keeps tabs […]

Amazon’s Move Signals End of Line for Many Cashiers

Amazon’s Move Signals End of Line for Many Cashiers

Imagine this scene from the future: You walk into a store and are greeted by name, by a computer with facial recognition that directs you to the items you need. You peruse a small area — no chance of getting lost or wasting time searching for things — because the store stocks only sample items. You wave your phone in front of anything you want to buy, then walk out. In the back, robots retrieve your items from a warehouse and deliver them to your home via driverless car or drone.

Amazon ’s $13.4 billion purchase of Whole Foods, […]

Smart Machine Age Shifts the Future Workforce

Smart Machine Age Shifts the Future Workforce

Recently, I was invited to take a place on a Tech for Distribution Center (DC) panel during the annual Georgia Logistics Summit . We tackled some intriguing questions: During this time of technological change, what does the future work force look like?

What is the most important quality to look for when hiring?

Who will be best suited to carry the organization into the new smart machine age? The Center for Logistics Innovation , which is part of State of Georgia, puts together the summit. The Center is based out of same building where the Advanced Technology Development […]

American Manufacturing – A Look At The Biggest Industry By State

There’s always talk about manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Whether they’re lost due to technology or because of trade . One thing that’s here to stay is the discussion about American Manufacturing and its impact on the economy.

Bid-On-Equipment created a map of the leading manufacturing focuses in each state and the numbers behind them.

There are many clichés associated with American Manufacturing, including Michigan with automation and Washington for the aerospace field. While that does hold true to an extent, there is much more across the country from a manufacturing job outlook.Animal slaughtering and processing is the leading manufacturing […]

Links and quotes for June 16, 2017: Amazon’s business model, Musk on Mars, AI lawyers, and more

Why Amazon Has No Profits (And Why It Works) — a16z

Amazon is buying more than groceries with Whole Foods: it’s also getting more than 400 stores to use as delivery hubs — Recode Amazon’s $14 billion deal for Whole Foods gives it more than just groceries. It also gets it crucial real estate it needs to accelerate its delivery operations. Amazon took a big leap into the grocery industry when it announced its intention to buy Whole Foods for $14 billion. But the deal gives Jeff Bezos something else he craves: More than 400 brick-and-mortar stores that […]

Tourism is booming in the nation’s capital. So why aren’t hotel jobs?

Tourism is booming in the nation’s capital. So why aren’t hotel jobs?

At the Marriott world headquarters, the hotel operator has created an “Innovation Lab” to build prototype room arrangements that respond to the changing tastes and needs of customers. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) Tourism is thriving in the nation’s capital, with the District’s visitors bureau declaring a record year for U.S. foot traffic in 2016. But at Washington’s hotels, hiring has been more or less flat for two decades.

The region’s hotel industry employs only about 5,400 more people today than it did in 1990, a tiny increase for a region the size of the Washington area. And when calculated […]

The jobs artificial intelligence will take over first

The jobs artificial intelligence will take over first

In the US, close to 15 million new jobs will be created over the next decade as a direct result of automation and artificial intelligence, according to estimates in a new report from Forrester Research The robotic revolution is set to cause the biggest transformation in the world’s workforce since the industrial revolution. In fact, research suggests that over 30% of jobs in Britain are under threat from breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

With pioneering advances in technology many jobs that weren’t considered ripe for automation suddenly are. PWC Data has revealed how many jobs per sector are at […]