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Here’s how vulnerable to automation your job is

Here’s how vulnerable to automation your job is

What impact will the robot revolution have? Explore the latest strategic trends, research and analysis Another week, another warning about technology taking your job.

This time it comes in the shape of a report from the OECD that finds “the tasks that AI and robots cannot do are shrinking rapidly.” The report goes on to say 14% of jobs across 32 countries are “highly vulnerable” to automation.

Such themes are not new. A World Economic Forum report on jobs predicted the Fourth Industrial Revolution would transform labour markets and the Bank of England’s Chief Economist, Andy Haldane, has warned "large swathes" […]

AI news: AI technologies are 2018’s biggest tech trends

AI news: AI technologies are 2018's biggest tech trends

AI icons You’d be hard pushed to have a conversation about technology today that doesn’t mention Artificial Intelligence (AI) at some point. The technology has massive potential to shape and enhance our working and personal lives, but for all the pros, some remained worried about the downsides.

With talk of job loss a result of increased use of AI, should we be that concerned?

Perhaps not if analyst firm Gartner’s predictions are to be believed. It reckons that AI will eliminate 1.8 million jobs. That’s the bad news. The good news is that AI will also be responsible for creating 2.3 […]

AI Might Take Jobs, But CEOs Are Giving Them Away

AI Might Take Jobs, But CEOs Are Giving Them Away

Shutterstock Nearly 50 years ago, the first ATM doled out dollars to curious Americans. This cash-spewing, automated machine teller caused a wave of panic for banking professionals. Newspapers offered warnings, with headlines exclaiming how robots would be replacing our jobs.

The panic was short-lived. Although tellers were replaced by ATMs, banks were eventually able to open more branches and actually hire more tellers. Now, ATMs are ubiquitous, and there are more tellers doing a wider variety of customer service tasks. However, we shouldn’t forget that the expansion of banks came with extreme growing pains for employees, businesses and the economy. […]

Jobs and careers in the ‘fourth industrial revolution’

By Jock Finlayson
and Kristine St.-Laurent
Business Council of B.C.

The work world is being transformed by rapidly evolving digital technologies as we march into what many are calling the “fourth industrial revolution.” Jock Finlayson With disruptive technologies pushing the frontiers of automation, some of the comparative advantages humans traditionally have enjoyed relative to technology are eroding. Computers and learning-based algorithms have progressed beyond replacing repetitive, manual tasks with mechanical execution.Now, recognizing patterns, providing diagnoses and communicating complex information – three activities once seen as within the purview of people – are increasingly performed by computers. Doctors, lawyers, accountants […]

The zero-sum economy

LONDON — Across the global economy, the potential for automation seems huge. Adidas’ “Speedfactory” in Bavaria will employ 160 workers to produce 500,000 pairs of shoes each year, a productivity rate over five times higher than in typical factories today. The British Retail Consortium estimates that retail jobs could fall from 3 million to 2.1 million within ten years, with only a small fraction replaced by new jobs in online retailing. Many financial-services companies see the potential to cut information-processing jobs to a small fraction of current levels.

And yet, despite all this, measured productivity growth across the developed economies […]

The Zero-Sum Economy

The Zero-Sum Economy

The anthropologist David Graeber has argued that as much as 30% of all work is performed in “bullshit jobs,” which are unnecessary to produce truly valuable goods and services but arise from competition for income and status. But the deeper problem is that more and more economic activity performs a merely distributive function.

LONDON – Across the global economy, the potential for automation seems huge. Adidas’ “Speedfactory” in Bavaria will employ 160 workers to produce 500,000 pairs of shoes each year, a productivity rate over five times higher than in typical factories today. The British Retail Consortium estimates that retail […]

Coping with Technology: Challenges and Opportunities for ASEAN+3 Economies

Coping with Technology: Challenges and Opportunities for ASEAN+3 Economies

Technology Technological change and the relentless pace of automation offer significant opportunities for productivity growth and improved efficiency, but they also bring related risks of increased worker displacement and the challenge of upskilling labor.

While the rise in trade protectionism (discussed in the first part of this interview ) is an immediate reality the ASEAN+3 economies are confronted with, coping with technological advances and using them to drive productivity and growth is a medium- to long-term challenge for the region.

In this second part of the interview, AMRO’s chief economist, Hoe Ee Khor, touches upon this topic, as well as other […]

Economics101: Automation need not endanger human jobs

Economics101: Automation need not endanger human jobs

Many people are terrified that automation and artificial intelligence are the beginning of the end for human jobs. ISAAC LAWRENCE/AFP Many people are terrified that automation and artificial intelligence are the beginning of the end for human jobs.

The result is dystopian visions of a world where most humans do nothing all day, being denied a dignified existence, while an elite class who own and control robots amass immeasurable wealth. Are such fears well-founded?

Before we discuss the latest research, it is worth noting an old but still instructive observation made by the British economist Nicholas Kaldor in 1961. Decades of […]

5 Jobs that have been Created by Tech and Automation

5 Jobs that have been Created by Tech and Automation

In recent years, there has been a lot of worry about how technology could impact employment, particularly the fear that jobs could become obsolete. While it would appear there is a reason for concern – for example, The Guardian recently reported that 1 in 3 warehouse jobs could be lost to automation – it seems the rise in tech could actually benefit the workforce.
A 2017 study found that while AI had eliminated 800,000 jobs, it has subsequently created another 3.5 million. With that in mind, here are 5 jobs that exist as a direct result of innovations in […]

How AI and Intelligent Automation Impact HR Practices

How AI and Intelligent Automation Impact HR Practices

AI and intelligent forms of automation are changing the ways companies operate. HR is no exception. In fact, HR leaders are spearheading automation efforts for their employers.

Today’s businesses must continually improve process efficiencies to stay competitive. Given the high cost of human labor, they are turning to AI and intelligent automation technologies to lower costs and increase ROI. While there’s considerable anxiety in some parts of the workforce about the impact of AI and intelligent automation, experts say workers and their employers are happier when humans focus on what they do best. Image: Shutterstock Forrester Research has defined a […]