Tag: employment

Why automation and robots won’t be the “end of work”

Why automation and robots won’t be the “end of work”

Galeries opening up shop in Luxembourg: report Snow flurry in Dippach Comment: Can you imagine travelling to work in a robotic “ Jonnycab ” like the one predicted in the cult Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Total Recall ? The image from 1990 is based on science fiction, but Mercedes Benz does have a semi-autonomous Driver Pilot system that it aims to install in the next five years and Uber is also waging on a self-driving future. Its partnership with Volvo has been seen as a boost to its ambitions to replace a fleet of self-employed drivers with autonomous vehicles .

Jonnycab […]

Interview: Ulrich Spiesshofer, CEO of ABB

Interview: Ulrich Spiesshofer, CEO of ABB

Ulrich Spiesshofer, the boss of one of the world’s largest automation companies talks to Jon Excell about collaboration, innovation, and why we shouldn’t fear the robots

The rapid march of automation and robotics is a divisive trend. For some, it’s a destructive force that threatens jobs and even entire professions. Others trumpet its productivity-boosting powers and the trickle-down benefits this brings to the wider economy.

There are no prizes for guessing where CEO of power and automation giant ABB Ulrich Spiesshofer sits on this. On a recent visit to the UK he explained to The Engineer why he believes we […]

Robot Writing, AI, and Marketing: It’s the End of the World as We Know It

Robot Writing, AI, and Marketing: It’s the End of the World as We Know It

Picture if you will, dear reader, the marketing apocalypse, a place where human-powered engines are less and less relevant and we are facing a new dawn: robot writing, triggered email campaigns, automated social scheduling and responses, ways to track users wherever they go.

Oh, hang on. Isn’t that . . . ? the future is here Yeah, it is. We would say welcome to the future, but that scares an awful lot of people. Case in point: all these stories about the robots coming to take our marketing jobs. There is legitimate worry in our industry today, and with good […]

In automation and AI, many see a jobless future and higher inequality. But the technologically driven shift should be welcomed, say Christopher Pissarides & Jacques Bughin

In automation and AI, many see a jobless future and higher inequality. But the technologically driven shift should be welcomed, say Christopher Pissarides & Jacques Bughin

Ever since early-nineteenth-century textile workers destroyed the mechanical looms that threatened their livelihoods, debates over automation have conjured gloom-and-doom scenarios about the future of work.

With another era of automation upon us, how nervous about the future of our own livelihoods should we be?

A recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that, depending on a country’s level of development, advances in automation will require 3-14% of workers worldwide to change occupations or upgrade their skills by the year 2030. Already, about 10% of all jobs in Europe have disappeared since 1990 during the first wave of routine-based technological change. […]

Automation and the Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market

Automation and the Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market

The Issue:

Automation has displaced workers in many occupations, from manufacturing to routine office jobs. New research finds that employment growth in high-paying jobs has slowed since the year 2000, and that this has been particularly true for jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). One possible explanation is that rapid advances in artificial intelligence and robotics are making it possible for a wider range of technically demanding jobs to get automated. High-paying jobs increasingly require skills that are more difficult to automate, such as those that involve significant interpersonal interaction. The Facts:

While there is much […]

Millennials, This Is How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Your Job For Better And Worse

Millennials, This Is How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Your Job For Better And Worse

Many of the jobs that millennials work in today didn’t exist when their parents entered the job market. And chances are the young professionals of the future will work in fields that don’t exist today.

Such is the nature of an economy continuously influenced by new technology, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises to transform the workplace once again. Image courtesy of Shutterstock But while some herald in the AI revolution with unbridled enthusiasm, excited by the opportunities and enriching work it could create, others are more pessimistic. However, both parties agree that AI has widespread application, from automating routine tasks, […]

Automation, robots and the ‘end of work’ myth

Automation, robots and the ‘end of work’ myth

Can you imagine travelling to work in a robotic “ Jonnycab ” like the one predicted in the cult Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Total Recall ? The image from 1990 is based on science fiction, but Mercedes Benz does have a semi-autonomous Driver Pilot system that it aims to install in the next five years and Uber is also waging on a self-driving future. Its partnership with Volvo has been seen as a boost to its ambitions to replace a fleet of self-employed drivers with autonomous vehicles .

Jonnycab might belong to futurology but if MIT academics Erik Brynjolfson and Andrew […]

Embracing the New Age of Automation

Embracing the New Age of Automation

With rapid advances in automation and artificial intelligence in recent years, many are worried about a jobless future and sky-high levels of inequality. But the large-scale technologically driven shift currently underway should be welcomed, and its adverse effects should be managed with proactive policies to reinvest in workers.

LONDON – Ever since early-nineteenth-century textile workers destroyed the mechanical looms that threatened their livelihoods, debates over automation have conjured gloom-and-doom scenarios about the future of work. With another era of automation upon us, how nervous about the future of our own livelihoods should we be? The world’s leading thinkers and policymakers […]

IPPR – Greater inequality not mass job losses most likely outcome of automation

New IPPR analysis shows that £290billion wages associated with jobs that could be automated

The total level of wages associated with jobs that have the technical potential to be automated in the UK is £290 billion per year, which represents 33% of all wages and earnings from labour in the economy, according to a new report published by IPPR, the progressive policy think tank, for the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice. The report further shows that low-wage jobs have more potential to be automated than high-wage jobs.

The new report from IPPR shows that work will be transformed, not eliminated, […]

International: McKinsey report identifies basic income as a potential response to automation

International: McKinsey report identifies basic income as a potential response to automation

As many as 375 million people may have to switch jobs as a result of automation by 2030. This is according to a new report published by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) , a private sector think tank and the business and economics research arm of McKinsey & Company .

According to MGI researchers, “the transitions will be very challenging – matching or even exceeding the scale of shifts of agriculture and manufacturing we have seen in the past.” Such dramatic shifts in the global labor market will demand proportionately dramatic responses from governments, businesses, and individuals. Specifically, the MGI […]