Tag: productivity

VoxEU: Don’t blame it on the machines: Robots and employment in Europe

VoxEU: Don’t blame it on the machines: Robots and employment in Europe

In the last couple of decades, the Digital Revolution has unleashed rapid progress in many advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession, this has sparked an intense debate on the future of work, both in academic circles and amongst the general public. In this debate, the image of robots replacing workers – most notably, low-skilled workers – is a recurring theme. For instance, according to a recent Eurobarometer survey, 72% of Europeans believe that “robots and artificial intelligence steal peoples’ jobs” (European Commission 2017). This column summarises the main findings […]

Contra the Skeptics, Trade and Technology Really Do Benefit Most American Workers

Contra the Skeptics, Trade and Technology Really Do Benefit Most American Workers

Figuring out how to help the minority being left behind is policymakers’ most urgent challenge.

As we plunge into another presidential-election year, one key point of contention will be the state of the American worker: Are most Americans getting ahead in today’s increasingly high-tech, globalized economy, or have wages and incomes “stagnated” for middle-class and blue-collar workers?

Progressives on the left and economic nationalists on the right seem to share a common view that most American workers are worse off today than in past decades. Trade and technology, they say, are largely to blame. Their favored policy prescriptions range from […]

The future of global manufacturing

The future of global manufacturing

Today’s rapidly evolving manufacturing technologies including artificial intelligence, advanced robotics and the “internet of things”—often referred to as “Industry 4.0” technologies—are poised to reshape the global manufacturing landscape, with important consequences for the traditional role of manufacturing in economies’ structural transformation, growth, and job creation.

As we explore in our chapter in the just-published book “ Growth in a Time of Change ,” technology is changing the comparative advantages that drive competitiveness. Developing countries’ comparative advantage in low-skill, low-labor-cost production is at risk as routine low-skill tasks are increasingly automated. New technologies are demanding higher-level skills, raising the capital intensity […]

Each industrial robot displaces 1.6 workers: report

Each industrial robot displaces 1.6 workers: report

Creative Commons Dive Brief:

One industrial robot displaces an average of 1.3 workers the first year after installation, but the rate grows to 1.6 workers in the following years as companies figure out the best way to deploy robots in operations, according to a report released last June by Oxford Economics.

China has seen the greatest decline in its manufacturing workforce since 2000 with 550,000 fewer people working in the sector as of 2016. China also leads the way in automation — accounting for 36% of global industrial robot sales in 2017, the report found. The automotive industry leads […]

Einride Hires the First ‘Remote Autonomous Truck Operator’ in the Industry and the Company is Looking to Hire More

Einride Hires the First ‘Remote Autonomous Truck Operator' in the Industry and the Company is Looking to Hire More

While advances in technology and automation are replacing jobs once performed by humans, progress also creates new opportunities, offering people a chance to learn and apply new skills to take on high-tech roles. As autonomous driving technology slowly makes its way into the freight transport, there are some truck drivers who feel threatened that automation or robots will eventually take their jobs away.

However, autonomous transport startup Einride believes that autonomous driving technology will create entirely new job categories and the company is looking to train and hire people for these new high-tech roles. Einride announced today that it hired […]

Would You Work With A Robot?

Would You Work With A Robot?

Pepper the automated receptionist, Brainlabs Mass job losses and a fundamental shift in employment have been forecast by some, as automation changes how businesses operate. Every business will be touched by this technology no matter their size. In the near future, will some of us have robotic colleagues?

It’s 2035. Booting my iMac, after checking email and my favourite newsfeeds, I start iDavid, my digital assistant, I tasked yesterday with some research I need for a feature I’m doing next month for my Forbes channel.

My digital assistant uses advanced machine learning to understand the kind of information I’m looking for. […]

Digging deep

Digging deep

Digitalisation and automation will help with health and safety issues in South Africa’s mining industry. (Russell Scott, Tyrone Bradley/Red Bull Content Pool & Anglo American) “I don’t believe that robots are just going to eat up people’s jobs,” says University of Pretoria vice-chancellor Professor Tawana Kupe, quoted in a report by McKinsey & Company that will be referenced throughout this article. “Instead, there can be a complementary relationship. Technology can free people from routine, repetitive work and enable them to take on higher-level work, decision-making and critical thinking.”

During a panel titled Digitised Mining: The Rise of the Machines at […]

Soaring Twenties: Time for robots to break out of their cages

Soaring Twenties: Time for robots to break out of their cages

‘he idea that everyone is going to be replaced by robots in 10 years is not going to happen’ (Credit: Matt Clough) What do the next 10 years hold for engineering? Experts across eight industry sectors gave us their considered, professional – and occasionally controversial – predictions for the Soaring Twenties.

Improvements to cost, safety and efficiency will see much wider applications of cobots in the manufacturing sector, says Jim Davison from Make UK :

The biggest trend over the next 10 years is going to be the response to connected technology linked to the fourth Industrial Revolution (I4.0). […]

The Autonomous Revolution

The Autonomous Revolution

In the years since I joined Ricochet as an almost charter member, I’ve had close to a dozen books published, including one Business Book of the Year. I’ve never really talked about them on Ricochet, preferring instead to mostly comment on other member’s postings — especially on items relating to the arts. However, last week I published a book that I think might be of interest to my fellow members. Here’s the book .

I’m posting this only because in support of the marketing of the book my co-author (the legendary VC Bill Davidow) and I have been writing a […]

Report: Most business leaders don’t feel prepared for technological change

Report: Most business leaders don't feel prepared for technological change

There is a concerning lack of readiness for technological change within Australian organisations, according to KPMG Digital Delta.

In its 4th Industrial Revolution Benchmark Report , KPMG said most business leaders are unprepared for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), and the convergence of the physical, digital and biological worlds.

KPMG Digital Delta surveyed 198 Australian business leaders, gauging their organisations’ uptake and understanding of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA) and the Internet of Things (IoT).Produced in collaboration with global analytics platform, Faethm, it found most Australian business leaders lack a deep understanding or experience with […]