Tag: Services

Automation Doesn’t Just Create or Destroy Jobs — It Transforms Them

Automation Doesn’t Just Create or Destroy Jobs — It Transforms Them

Summary. Automation is everywhere these days. While economists often consider the effects of automation in terms of whether it creates or destroys jobs, less attention is paid to how it changes jobs and the wages paid to the workers that perform them. While there are…

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. From contactless cashiers to welding drones to “chow bots” — machines that serve up salads on demand — automation is fundamentally transforming, rather than merely touching, every aspect of daily life. This prospect may well please consumers. Forsaking human folly for algorithmic (and mechanistic) perfection […]

Employees are not showing up to work — employers are replacing them with robots

Employees are not showing up to work — employers are replacing them with robots

It’s the “Great Resignation,” and many workers seem to prefer not coming in to work. Employers are increasingly obliging them. How? By eliminating their jobs altogether.

A recent survey from Verizon of more than 600 U.S. small businesses found that 30 percent have already adopted digital tools to help compensate for a shortage of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Think this is short term? It’s not. As the cost of these technologies rapidly decline, both big and small companies are making significant investments in software and hardware that is helping to eliminate what is for many their biggest headache: people. For […]

How the Future Could Shape Your Life; A Glimpse into Tomorrow

How the Future Could Shape Your Life; A Glimpse into Tomorrow

Monday, October 11, 2021 /8.00PM / Iyioluwabomi Onakoya, Proshare research intern/Header Image Credit: BBC Science Focus Magazine

The next decade is shaping an era of technological and intellectual innovation closely resembling the world of science fiction. The future of the global economy will be shaped by the 5 th industrial revolution (5IR), technological advancements, the evolution of money, demographic changes, and the green revolution ( see illustration 1 below ).

Illustration 1: Likely trends shaping the future of the global economy Technology The future of work is bleak for up to 375 million people worldwide who are susceptible to […]

The robots are coming, and your job may change — but it won’t disappear

The robots are coming, and your job may change — but it won’t disappear

Two things can be said about human beings: we like building machines, and we tend to freak out about the machines we build.

The Luddites of 19th-century England, an oath-based secret society, looked to the industrial era and saw not liberation but destitution. The most radical among them formed paramilitary groups to raid textile factories and destroy knitting machines and mechanical looms — devices that would replace workers. Their political descendants include the lamplighters of early-20th-century New York who went on strike to protest the advent of electric streetlights, and the switchboard operators of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, who in the 1930s […]

The robots are coming, and your job may change — but it won’t disappear

The robots are coming, and your job may change — but it won’t disappear

Two things can be said about human beings: we like building machines, and we tend to freak out about the machines we build.

The Luddites of 19th-century England, an oath-based secret society, looked to the industrial era and saw not liberation but destitution. The most radical among them formed paramilitary groups to raid textile factories and destroy knitting machines and mechanical looms — devices that would replace workers. Their political descendants include the lamplighters of early-20th-century New York who went on strike to protest the advent of electric streetlights, and the switchboard operators of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, who in the 1930s […]

Do we need humans for that job? Automation booms after COVID-19

Do we need humans for that job? Automation booms after COVID-19

Baylee Bowers works on her computer after ordering and paying for her meal using her cellphone at Bartaco in Arlington, Va., on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021. The restaurant uses an automated app for ordering and payments. Instead of servers they use “food runners” to get orders to tables. Ask for a roast beef sandwich at an Arby’s drive-thru east of Los Angeles and you may be talking to Tori — an artificially intelligent voice assistant that will take your order and send it to the line cooks.

“It doesn’t call sick,” said Amir Siddiqi, whose family installed the AI voice […]

Yes, robots are coming for your job, but you might like the new one more (if you’re still employed)

Yes, robots are coming for your job, but you might like the new one more (if you're still employed)

Image: GettyImages/gremlin It’s been a century since the word " robot " first entered the human lexicon. In the ensuing decades, automation has leaped from the pages of science fiction with very real-world implications on workforces around the globe. While the early use of these technologies may have focused on the hardware side, advances in AI are ushering in a new automated age, augmenting traditional human roles across industries; including skilled portions of the labor force.

For decades, a speculated wave of job-stealing technologies has stirred debate about the role of humans in the labor force alongside innovation and automation. […]

‘South Africans mustn’t fear losing jobs to robots’

‘South Africans mustn’t fear losing jobs to robots’

Blue Prism Country Manager, Greg Newton by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – A TECHNOLOGY executive has allayed fears the advent of digitalisation would worsen rampant unemployment in South Africa.

Instead, technology will drive new jobs in Africa’s most diversified economy, according to Greg Newton, country manager at Blue Prism.
His sentiments come as South Africa’s unemployment rates in the first quarter of 2021 hit a record high of 32,6 percent. The rate is at 46,3 percent among people aged 15 to 34 years old.Unemployment is blamed for the restlessness besetting the country. Tempers flared in July as some shopping […]

The Future of Work — Part One

The Future of Work — Part One

Photo: Artyom Kim/Unsplash We are not in a second industrial age. That may be the dream of those who really want to double down on the dehumanizing legacy of the past few hundred years of employment. But the emergence of digital technology, algorithms, and robots offers much more than an opportunity to further automate our businesses, alienating our workers and customers alike; it’s a chance to retrieve the human sensibilities at the heart of our organizations, and embrace the truly collaborative, participatory spirit of this age.

The digital renaissance of the early 1990s was about the unbridled possibilities of the […]

The Future of Work — part one

The Future of Work — part one

Photo: Artyom Kim / Unsplash We are not in a Second Industrial Age. That may be the dream of those who really want to double down on the dehumanizing legacy of the past few hundred years of employment. But the emergence of digital technology, algorithms, and robots offers much more than an opportunity to further automate our businesses, alienating our workers and customers alike; it’s a chance to retrieve the human sensibilities at the heart of our organizations, and embrace the truly collaborative, participatory spirit of this age.

The digital renaissance of the early 1990s was about the unbridled possibilities […]