Tag: employment

Mark Casci: Britain not at all prepared for impact of automation

Mark Casci: Britain not at all prepared for impact of automation

Picture Jonathan Gawthorpe Social unrest grips the nation as the very way of life people have known for decades begins to slip away.

Don’t worry my friends, this is not another doom-laden polemic on a post-Brexit Britain. Rather what I am talking about is the genuine and very much real threat posed to the UK’s economy, and indeed that of the world’s by the threat of automation. Embargoed to 0001 Monday April 08”Undated file photo of social media icons displayed on a mobile phone screen, as plans for new laws making tech giants and social networks more accountable […]

The new spirit of postcapitalism

The new spirit of postcapitalism

Barcelona is one of the ‘fearless cities’, where the seeds of postcapitalism can start to grow The streets are full of young people (and not just students)—sitting, sipping drinks, gazing more at laptops than into each other’s eyes, talking quietly about politics, making art, looking cool.

A time traveller from their grandparents’ youth might ask: when is lunchtime over? But it’s never over because for many networked people it never really begins. In the developed world, large parts of urban reality look like Woodstock in permanent session—but what is really happening is the devalorisation of capital.

Sure, somewhere on the edge […]

AI will create more jobs than it destroys

AI will create more jobs than it destroys

AI will bring productivity growth that will create demand for work, offsetting the displacement of workers. Despite fears that artificial intelligence (AI) will wipe out millions of jobs across the globe, technological advancement is poised to be a job engine that will create more employment than it destroys.

While jobs will be displaced by automation, some technology experts allay fears of robots completely taking over. They suggest the fourth industrial revolution presents both an opportunity and a challenge that will see technology pave the way for shifts in occupations, resulting in the creation of more jobs than it will ravage.

An […]

Blue Prism shows its colours around the rise of the ‘Digital Worker’

Blue Prism shows its colours around the rise of the ‘Digital Worker’

A common gripe in the UK and European tech communities is that there are few homegrown unicorns, few billion-dollar players to rival those of the US or China. “We just can’t grow them here,” people say – at least, not since SAP or (whisper it carefully) Autonomy. Even the UK’s DeepMind went for a song – a reported $500 million – when Google snapped it up and rebuilt its AI vision around it. Meanwhile Europe seems to want to break up the US giants rather than grow its own.

Yet if you mention the name Blue Prism to many analysts […]

Perspective: Artificial intelligence and automation — the U.S. manufacturing challenge

Perspective: Artificial intelligence and automation — the U.S. manufacturing challenge

In the U.S. manufacturing sector, there are “production-focused” positions that are low-skilled and “skilled production” positions that require specific training to develop complex skill-sets. As to the future of production-focused positions, the manufacturing sector is choosing to eliminate them through increased automation .

However, for skilled production positions, more than half of manufacturing executives in the skills gap study cite technology/computer skills, digital skills, programming skills for robots/automation, working with tools and technology, and critical thinking skills to be in demand over the next three years.

what is the U.S. manufacturing sector doing beyond turning more to automation and AI to […]

Adjusting to the new world of work

Adjusting to the new world of work

Waking up on my first morning in Las Vegas, where the time is 14 hours behind Thailand, was not easy. Cup of coffee in hand, I walked past a group of senior citizens wearing red long-sleeved T-shirts outside a large conference hall. They were event ambassadors, hired to welcome and guide participants from all over the world, and the sight of their smiling faces helped to bring me awake. What a pleasant start to the day: I get to experience human interaction and some seniors have a chance to earn extra income, I was telling myself.

I was in Las […]

Not All Workers Fear Automation, Study Says

Not All Workers Fear Automation, Study Says

Many workers are surprisingly sanguine about the impact of automation on their jobs according to a survey of 5,000 business decision makers and knowledge workers. It reveals the majority of the latter (83 per cent) are comfortable with reskilling in order to work alongside the digital workforce.

The study was sponsored by Blue Prism, which along with Automation Anywhere and UIPath, is considered a leader in the at times controversial Robotic Process Automation market.

The impact of automation on employment featured heavily as a discussion point in last week’s Blue Prism World conference in London. The company was keen to emphasize […]

Booming logistics sector raises hopes for tech workforce

Booming logistics sector raises hopes for tech workforce

NEW DELHI: The e-commerce boom, grant of infrastructure status, the digital revolution and unprecedented growth of mobile phone ownership in India have collectively given a strong push to the logistics industry in India. Additionally, automation and implementation of new-age technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytics have also played a vital role in the massive transformation of the sector.
The unprecedented growth in the logistics industry has fuelled the demand for skilled labour such as vehicle drivers, device operators, back-end customer service providers, programmers, machine engineers, optimised route developers etc. The arrival of tech-focused logistics start-ups have […]

The new spirit of postcapitalism

The new spirit of postcapitalism

Capitalism emerged in the interstices of feudalism and Paul Mason finds a prefiguring of postcapitalism in the lifeworld of the contemporary European city. Raval, Barcelona, March 2019. The streets are full of young people (and not just students)—sitting, sipping drinks, gazing more at laptops than into each other’s eyes, talking quietly about politics, making art, looking cool.

A time traveller from their grandparents’ youth might ask: when is lunchtime over? But it’s never over because for many networked people it never really begins. In the developed world, large parts of urban reality look like Woodstock in permanent session—but what is […]

Regulating Work in an Age of Fissuring and Automation

Regulating Work in an Age of Fissuring and Automation

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Employers may increasingly automate their workplaces, requiring a new approach to workplace regulation.

Why and when do firms hire employees? This question has grown urgent in light of two trends that are undermining the standard employment relationship: “fissuring,” or firms’ growing tendency to secure inputs from outside suppliers, and automation, or the replacement of human labor with machines. The latter has been going on for centuries. But many informed observers argue that “this time is different,” and that innovations in robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are likely in the foreseeable future to destroy more jobs than they create—and […]