Tag: mobility

Brexit could speed up the rise of the robots in Wales

Brexit could speed up the rise of the robots in Wales

Robot assembling a car. Picture by Steve Jurvetson (CC BY 2.0) Keith Darlington, retired university lecturer in AI

There is widespread agreement on both sides of the political divide that Brexit has become a huge distraction that is eating away at the body politic. One of its consequences is that other important issues are getting scant attention.

One of those is robotics. According to one think tank, almost one in four jobs could be lost in Welsh cities to robotics by the year 2030.These figures could turn out to be worse because, in a week when Ford has announced the […]

Forty Percent of Elementary School Teachers’ Work Could Be Automated By 2030, McKinsey Global Institute Predicts

The impact of automation will vary for male and female workers, with women likely being more susceptible to partial automation of their current occupations, according to new projections from the McKinsey Global Institute.

One big example: elementary school teachers, roughly 80 percent of whom are female. In the coming decade, McKinsey Global predicts, more than 40 percent of what these educators do during a current workday could be automated, resulting in the need to develop new skills and become more comfortable collaborating with algorithmic systems.

And teachers could be the lucky ones: Overall, as many as many as one-fourth of U.S. […]

Automation vs jobs – 5 questions everyone should look at and ask!

Automation vs jobs – 5 questions everyone should look at and ask!

Everywhere is the fear of large-scale automation leading to mass unemployment and insecurity. We are at the cusp of major technological change, drastically changing the nature of jobs, leaving masses of people unemployed and worsening economic inequality.

According to a 2013 study by Oxford University researchers, 47 percent of U.S. employees are at risk of automation, while a 2017 McKinsey Global Institute report claims that one-third of U.S. workers will be displaced by imminent automation from their current jobs. Other reports offer tamer prospects, with a recent OCDE report (2018) finding that only 9% of U.S. jobs are “highly automatable.” […]

‘The UK is a long way behind in terms of productivity’: Mike Wilson, BARA

Chairman of the British Automation and Robot Association (BARA) Mike Wilson discusses the ‘underperforming’ state of the UK’s manufacturing robot industry. He says without an increased commitment to automation, it will find itself with bigger problems on its plate than Brexit.

“The UK is a long way behind in terms of productivity,” says Mike Wilson of the British Automation and Robot Association (BARA). “The increased use of robotics is an important element of addressing that shortfall.” Wilson is the chairman of BARA, an organisation that represents “the supply chain for robot and automation products into the UK”. Its membership consists […]

The Answer to Rising Inequality Isn’t Redistribution

The Answer to Rising Inequality Isn’t Redistribution

robot Uncredited Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines by calling for “ taxing the robots ” of the emergent digital economy. That followed upon her previous call for a 70% top marginal income tax rate on the richest and Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plan for a 2% wealth tax on assets worth more than $50 million (and 3% on assets worth more than $1 billion).

By putting inequality front and center on the political agenda as the U.S. heads into the election season, Democratic politicians are trying to capture the populist zeitgeist.

The redistributionist rhetoric has some investors concerned . Ray Dalio, who […]

Amazon’s New Robot Can Pack More Than 600 Boxes Per Hour

Amazon’s New Robot Can Pack More Than 600 Boxes Per Hour

Amazon has installed new robots in its facilities that can pack hundreds of objects per hour and has considered rolling the technology out across its factories. The robots can wrap packages inside boxes it custom-assembles to fit each item. While the robots cost over a million dollars each, Amazon expects to recover the costs within two years.

A new report claims that Amazon has considered rolling out the machines at dozens of warehouses, removing an estimated 24 positions with each rollout. Reuters notes that Amazon is interested in cutting humans out of the warehouse process altogether to save on labor […]

Maybe the robot will do you a favor and snatch your job

Maybe the robot will do you a favor and snatch your job

Recently, Amazon floated the idea that it would be fully automated in a decade: Not all of the 125,000 people who work at Amazon warehouses have to worry about losing their jobs to robots — not for 10 years or so, anyways.

On Tuesday, Scott Anderson, director of Amazon Robotics Fulfillment, led reporters on a tour of the company’s Baltimore warehouse during which he said it would be “at least 10 years” before Amazon could entirely automate the fulfillment process. When we read further into the story, of course, we find it’s not so simple. Robots are especially bad […]

How organisations aim to bring human identity back to employees

How organisations aim to bring human identity back to employees

How mobile workers can become even more efficient Vertiv and 451 Research release new report on 5G preparedness Amid rapid technological, economic and social change, it is important for organisations to move beyond mission statements and social impact programs to put humans at the centre of their business strategies.

In its 2019 Global Human Capital Trends report, “Leading the social enterprise: Reinvent with a human focus,” Deloitte examines ways organisations can reinvent themselves on a broad scale, including interacting, motivating, and personalising experiences with the workforce to help build identity and meaning for workers.

Completed by nearly 10,000 respondents in 119 […]

Is this really the end of jobs as we know them?

Is this really the end of jobs as we know them?

Instead of lamenting the loss of traditional jobs, let’s prepare our organizations, our teams and ourselves for the future The chief economist of the Bank of England was quoted saying that half of all U.K. jobs are under threat from automation. REUTERS/Stringer

In March, I wrote about futureproofing your organizations . I reported on a SCNetwork CHRO peer group discussion focused on unpacking all the hype about the future of work and the impact of AI, automation and robotics on jobs.

That article elicited quite a bit of online discussion, which prompted me to do a bit of digging into what […]

Future of work in the digital economy

Future of work in the digital economy

Dass: Digital technology is causing the world of work change quickly today. Late adopters are placed in the same platform as “out of business”. It means, companies can no longer have the luxury of waiting to see what happens. GLOBALISATION, technology, mobility, Millennials and new attitudes are causing the employment scene to change at an ever-faster rate.

Companies can no longer afford the luxury of waiting to see what happens.

Anyone who does that will likely fail. Digital technology is causing the world of work change quickly today. Late adopters are placed in the same platform as “out of business”. It […]