Tag: Services

The Robots Are Coming. Welcome Them

Is it time to bow to our robot overlords? Last week analysts at Morgan Stanley , MS 0.16 % using data from an Oxford University study , predicted that nearly half of U.S. jobs will be replaced by robots over the next two decades. Ouch. Maybe we should build a wall.

Cars that drive themselves? Waiters you don’t need to pay (or tip)? Self-folding clothes? Are we headed toward a post-job future? Signs are certainly there. Abundant Robotics, a company spun from the same Stanford Research Institute that brought us the mouse and networked computing, has begun testing a robot […]

Should you hire robots?

Should you hire robots?

With an increasing focus on automation through robotics, digitisation and even artificial intelligence , humanity is in the midst of a new industrial revolution.

In the next decade more than 40 per cent of the jobs we know today will no longer exist according to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, replaced by jobs we can’t even imagine yet. A quick look at LinkedIn tells us the majority of roles being advertised have the word ‘ digital’ in the role title.

So how should business leaders respond to the questions and concerns of team members? At ANZ, the most frequently […]

Flipkart, Infosys, AskMe: Why recent spate of job cuts should worry us

Flipkart, Infosys, AskMe: Why recent spate of job cuts should worry us

New Delhi – In the last few days, newspapers have had screaming headlines of loss of thousands of jobs across the services sector.

On Monday , The Indian Express reported Infosys, the country’s second largest software exporter, has cut 500 jobs after the company recorded poor quarterly results were and lost a contract from RBS.

Over the weekend, reports said about 4,000 people were about to lose their jobs due to a suspension of operations at e-commerce website AskMe. Earlier Flipkart had asked about 700 underperformers to leave. Meanwhile, Snapdeal is shutting down a luxury fashion portal which could lead to […]

How trade impacts American jobs: Research roundup

How trade impacts American jobs: Research roundup

Container ship (Photo: Pixabay) Economic dogma asserts that free trade improves everyone’s wellbeing. For decades, both major American political parties have hailed free trade with other countries as critical to voters’ well being. But candidates in the 2016 presidential election have raised piercing questions about the benefits, with both major party nominees distancing themselves from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a pact with bilateral support that was seven-years-in-the-making. The Republican nominee is even proposing to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ), a signature policy of the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.

Rapidly increasing […]

3 Ways Tech Is Empowering Freelancers

3 Ways Tech Is Empowering Freelancers

By now we’ve all heard of the term ‘shared economy’. Or at least the companies that spearheaded this movement, such as Uber , Airbnb , RelayRides or TaskRabbit .

After the 2008 financial crisis, we’ve seen a decline in quality corporate jobs. And thus people are supplementing their income with ‘side jobs’. But this so-called side hustle has become commonplace . According to Freelancers Union , 53 million people in the US are 1099 employees.

I recently connected with Will Lee, an Artificial Intelligence expert who studied at Stanford. He created his company, Verlocal , with the mission to teach and […]

The Shifts — Great and Small — in Workplace Automation

The Shifts — Great and Small — in Workplace Automation

Despite valid concerns and anxiety about machines displacing workers, human labor isn’t going away any time soon. Tasks that cannot be substituted by automation are generally complemented by it. There have been periodic warnings in the last two centuries that automation and new technology would wipe out large numbers of middle-class jobs.

In the early 19th century, for instance, a group of English textile artisans, known as Luddites, famously protested the automation of textile production by seeking to destroy some of the machines. A century later, concern rose again over “The Automation Jobless,” as they were called in the title […]

IT boom is going bust as freshers recruitment decreases: G Madhavan Nair

IT boom is going bust as freshers recruitment decreases: G Madhavan Nair

Eminent space scientist G Madhavan Nair said the IT boom is going bust with increasing automation leading to shrinking employment opportunities for freshers even as he favored Indian companies focusing on creation of high end jobs and the domestic market. The former Indian Space Research Organization chairman said he had mentioned a couple of years ago that the so-called IT boom would go bust and “that is the phenomena we are now seeing”. “The recruitment for freshers (IT engineers) last year was reduced and this year in many places it has come to zero, that means that type of […]

IT boom going bust now, says space scientist G Madhavan Nair

IT boom going bust now, says space scientist G Madhavan Nair

He opined that big ‘desi’ companies should focus on Indian scenario and tap the "phenomenal" domestic market which is bigger than European or American one. HYDERABAD: Eminent space scientist G Madhavan Nair said today the IT boom is going bust with increasing automation leading to shrinking employment opportunities for freshers even as he favoured Indian companies focussing on creation of high end jobs and the domestic market.

The former Indian Space Research Organisation chairman said he had mentioned a couple of years ago that the so-called IT boom would go bust and "that is the phenomena we are now seeing".

"The […]

IT boom weaning off now, says former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair

IT boom weaning off now, says former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair

“Everybody is satisfied with doing some ordinary things and unless we challenge ourselves, we will be left out,” said G Madhavan Nair. Eminent space scientist G Madhavan Nair said today the IT boom is going bust with increasing automation leading to shrinking employment opportunities for freshers even as he favoured Indian companies focussing on creation of high end jobs and the domestic market. The former Indian Space Research Organisation chairman said he had mentioned a couple of years ago that the so-called IT boom would go bust and “that is the phenomena we are now seeing”.

“The recruitment for freshers […]

Automation and Jobs for People

Automation and Jobs for People
Since the introduction of the first machines for weaving cloth and other automated processes during the Industrial Revolution, manufacturers have relied more on machines and less on humans for labor. Automation increased during the latter half of the 20th century, as computers were combined with machines to produce highly sophisticated robotic systems and other automated processes. Improvements in communication and information technology moved automation from strictly manufacturing processes to processes that involved more intellectual work. The result has been increased productivity and lower human resource costs for manufacturers and the elimination of some categories […]