Tag: consumer

Randy Daly: Ballot Measure 1 is a bad idea. Here’s why

Randy Daly: Ballot Measure 1 is a bad idea. Here’s why

Kenai Walmart sign in June, 2024. By RANDY DALY

Ballot Measure Number 1, an act increasing the minimum wage in Alaska, does not get much discussion, which may lead to it passing, and that would be a bad thing for Alaska.

As an Alaskan business owner, I know firsthand that increasing expenses without an increase in value to the consumer leads to price increases for customers. Alaskans have experienced a 20% increase in consumer prices over the last four years.Ballot measure 1 is a poorly timed bad idea. But hey, don’t take my word for it, there are many wiser […]

Machines Do Feed Families

Machines Do Feed Families

The recent port strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association was suspended after dockworkers received a massive pay increase. However, the union’s opposition to port automation technology on job preservation grounds remains the major sticking point to the union accepting a new contract by a January 15 deadline.

As I previously discussed , worker opposition to labor-saving technology is hardly new. In the short term, new technologies can cause job losses in the affected industry. That was the result of the introduction of shipping containers in the mid-20th century. In the long term, technology enhances productivity and thus fosters higher living […]

GenAI is a double-edged sword: Work efficiency will mean job losses

GenAI is a double-edged sword: Work efficiency will mean job losses

There are no easy answers to large-scale local jobs being threatened by AI and so, policymakers must remain flexible. Summary

The tension between the benefits of reduced costs and improved services on one hand and the potential workforce impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the other is a policy and political issue globally. India should focus on providing cost-effective innovation solutions to the Global South.

Demographic factors have always influenced societal evolution, which remains true in the era of GenAI. While AI promises reduced costs and improved services, its impact on the workforce is a looming concern, creating a […]

Innovating the Future of Automation: Key Trends for 2025 and Beyond

Innovating the Future of Automation: Key Trends for 2025 and Beyond

As the world advances towards a new era of automation, emerging trends in intelligent systems are set to revolutionize how businesses operate. According to Devesh Gupta , an expert in automation and technology, we are on the cusp of a transformation driven by innovations like AI, machine learning, IoT, and blockchain integration. This article delves into the future of automation , exploring the advancements that will reshape industries by 2025. AI and Machine Learning: The Heart of Next-Generation Automation

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are at the core of the next generation of automation, elevating systems […]

Amazon’s Robotics Revolution: Transforming Fulfillment Centers to Enhance Efficiency

Amazon’s Robotics Revolution: Transforming Fulfillment Centers to Enhance Efficiency

Amazon, robotics As Amazon seeks to redefine the future of logistics, the company is leveraging robotics to streamline its operations and enhance customer experiences, a process that began with the acquisition of Kiva Systems in 2012.

Amazon has since deployed more than 750,000 robots globally, with its latest fulfillment center in Shreveport, Louisiana , showcasing advanced robotic systems designed to improve efficiency in package delivery.

The goal of these robotics initiatives is to create a safer, more productive work environment for employees while increasing delivery speed. Scott Dresser , vice president of Amazon Robotics, noted this integrated suite of systems is […]

Amazon Tests Automated Warehouse Fullfillment Center (VIDEO)

Amazon Tests Automated Warehouse Fullfillment Center (VIDEO)

According to Geekwire, Amazon is testing a new concept, a fully automated warehouse that’s attached to a Whole Foods Center. ( This YouTube video is courtesy of Amazon via Geekwire). The concept is being worked on

Geekwire and CNBC are reporting the project involves a fully robotic automated warehouse that allows customers to place orders via their App, while they’re shopping at Whole Foods, and then pick them up on the way out.

The consumers can order items from Amazon’s website and even its Amazon Fresh grocery site.According to CNBC:(Amazon) … "showed a mockup of what the completed facility will […]

The Great Inversion

The Great Inversion

The quickly settled International Longshoremen’s Association strike takes us one more step toward the Great Inversion: a future in which people in the skilled and semi-skilled trades boast higher average wages than most college graduates. If the justification for most college degrees—only 10 percent of them in STEM fields—reduces to their boosting future earning power, then those graduates will have a problem. (Granted: a college education should be about more than just maximizing earnings.)

It has escaped no one’s attention that the settlement with the longshoremen’s union will bump up annual starting salaries to about $80,000, with mid-career salaries over […]

New technologies drive job creation despite economic headwinds

New technologies drive job creation despite economic headwinds

Technological advancements have created an estimated net 600,000 jobs in Southeast Asia over the past five years, according to the World Bank’s latest East Asia and Pacific Economic Update.

The report, released during an online conference on Tuesday, reveals that despite concerns over automation-related job losses, the adoption of industrial robots and artificial intelligence (AI) has led to unexpected employment growth in the region. "Between 2018 and 2022, the integration of robotics into manufacturing processes generated approximately 2 million skilled positions in formal employment sectors," said World Bank East Asia and Pacific chief economist Aaditya Mattoo . "While this […]

Lowry: Dockworkers for economic stagnation

Lowry: Dockworkers for economic stagnation

This 2018 photo shows cranes loading and lifting containers at an automated cargo wharf in Qingdao in China’s eastern Shandong province. (Photo STR/AFP via Getty Images) It’s the processing gate that roared.

APM Terminals at the Port of Mobile in Alabama uses a semi-automated gate to process trucks without union labor, and this supposed outrage is one of the reasons the International Longshoremen’s Association went on strike. Never mind that the gate has been in operation for years, and is a more efficient and safer way to check and admit trucks.

The strike, affecting ports on the East Coast and in […]

Short-lived strike puts focus on how dockworkers’ labor keeps economy, supply chain rolling

Short-lived strike puts focus on how dockworkers’ labor keeps economy, supply chain rolling

Port workers from the International Longshoremen’s Association participate in a strike at the Virginia International Gateway in Portsmouth Oct. 1, 2024. A compromise was reached Oct. 3 between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance and under a tentative agreement on wages — a 61.5 percent increase over six years — workers returned to the ports until Jan. 15, 2025. (OSV News photo/Jose Luis Gonzalez, Reuters) Some labor strikes can be comfortably ignored by many Americans.

But when an estimated 45,000 dockworkers at 36 East and Gulf Coast ports walked off the job at 12:01 a.m. ET on […]