Tag: consumer

Future Automation

Great for the robots, but what about people?. The Future of Jobs Report aims to unpack and provide specific information on the relative magnitude of these trends by industry and geography, and on the expected time horizon for their impact to be felt on job functions, employment levels and skills. Universal Basic Income may be our only way out. 133, Sector No. Learn about Azure Automation, a cloud automation service for process automating those long-running, error-prone, frequently repeated tasks with Windows PowerShell. In this talk about the future of work, economist David Autor addresses the question of why there […]

‘Robotic process automation is the beginning, expect further disruption in technology and services’

‘Robotic process automation is the beginning, expect further disruption in technology and services’

White collar automation has been happening for a very long time. Robotics is a cool name for efficient software that has led to the creation of a new stream called Robotics Process Automation (RPA). RPA eliminates mundane and tedious tasks freeing workers to focus on higher value work. Since the 4-5 years of its evolution, RPA is now the buzzword for CTOs and CFOs as it delivers 30-40 percent savings and operational efficiency in the first year of adoption and continues to improve efficiencies thereafter. Some of the leading industries adopting RPA in the West are financial services, healthcare […]

When Automation Works Alongside Humans

When Automation Works Alongside Humans

When we talk about automation, we often imagine a future in which everything we do will be almost entirely handled by machines. Cars will drive themselves. Management decisions will be handed over to an AI. Even the creative arts might one day be taken over by robots.

But for the time being, automation isn’t quite there. And so, some compromise between machine and human worker is needed. A synergy between the two has already yielded great results – just think about an autopilot guiding a plane for the majority of a flight, and human pilot intervening only for take-off […]

Higher Productivity Is Good for Workers

Higher Productivity Is Good for Workers

(Ralph Orlowski/REUTERS) For most of our history Americans have supported increased productivity, even if it led to economic disruption and worker displacement. Unfortunately, over the last decade that support has weakened. Productivity gains are now portrayed as a tool for greedy corporations to jack up their profits at the expense of workers. Moreover, workers are now seen as so fragile that all automation must be feared. So, rather than support productivity, the dominant narrative favors redistribution and protection from change.

The emergence of this new “productivity doesn’t benefit workers” narrative matters because government policies in a wide array of areas […]

Curriculum needs to change to help students navigate the rise of ‘smart’ technologies

Curriculum needs to change to help students navigate the rise of ‘smart’ technologies

UNSW Sydney academic calls for changes to the education system so future workforce can challenge artificial intelligence technology So-called ‘smart’ systems could cause great harm to individuals and the wider community if today’s students aren’t taught how to critically engage with them, a UNSW academic said.

Director of the Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation and UNSW Faculty of Law Professor Lyria Bennett Moses has proposed updating the Australian curricula on statistics and modelling after being commissioned by the NSW Department of Education’s Education for a Changing World initiative to explore the implications of developments in AI and automation […]

A New, Higher Minimum Wage Hurts Everyone

A New, Higher Minimum Wage Hurts Everyone

(Tethysimagingllc/Dreamstime.com) The House just recently passed the Wage Act to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. In the midst of their self-congratulatory back slapping, comments like "it’s an important step towards creating an economy that works for everyone" were tossed around. But is that statement true?

Yes, it is true that surviving on $8 or $9, or even $10 an hour, particularly in expensive metropolitan areas like New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, is difficult if not impossible. But raising the minimum wage is not going to provide a pathway out of poverty for workers making so […]

Episode Summary

On this episode of The Digital Life, we discuss workplace automation and the technologies that will make it happen — from robotics to artificial intelligence (AI) to machine learning. The McKinsey Global Institute released a new study on the topic this month, “A Future that Works: Automation, Employment and Productivity”, which contains some interesting insights.For instance, almost every occupation has the potential to be at least partially automated, and it’s likely that more occupations will be transformed than automated away. However, people will need to work in conjunction with machines as a part of their day-to-day activities, and in […]

Governments take first, tentative steps at regulating AI

Governments take first, tentative steps at regulating AI

One of the earliest accounts of technology control appears in ancient Greek mythology in the story of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. This stolen gift enabled the development of human civilization.

We humans are now attempting to control a new technology, artificial intelligence, and it is fair to wonder if we will be more successful than the Greek gods were.

State legislatures in New York and New Jersey have proposed legislation that represents the first, tentative steps at regulation. While the two proposed laws are different, they both have elements of information gathering about […]

Fed’s Kaplan says inflation likely to stay low even though economy near ‘full employment

Fed’s Kaplan says inflation likely to stay low even though economy near ‘full employment

Robert Kaplan, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve, says inflation is likely to stay low. The chief of the Dallas Federal Reserve on Tuesday said inflation is likely to remain low because of vast changes in the economy wrought by new technologies that have severed the historical link between wages and prices.

It used to be that wages rose in a good economy and businesses passed rising labor costs onto consumers through higher prices.

“That was true historically. Not today,” Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said at an event in Washington, D.C. “Wages and prices are different processes.”Kaplan said businesses have […]

The real minimum wage is $0 (zero, nothing, nada) per hour

The real minimum wage is $0 (zero, nothing, nada) per hour

High minimum wages just help force a West Coast restaurant chain into bankruptcy , and it has already closed multiple locations. This means that a growing number of the chain’s workers will not be earning the legally mandated minimum wage of $15 an hour — and many earned more — but the economically realistic $0 per hour. In other words, nothing. Or for the multicultural and diverse politically correct crowd…nada. That’s Spanish for…nothing. And many only Spanish immigrant (both legal and illegal) speakers work in the food service and restaurant industries.

And that’s only a small example of the real-life […]