Tag: Technology

How Robots Are Changing Minnesota’s Workforce

How Robots Are Changing Minnesota's Workforce

Photo by Ibrahim Hirsi/MinnPost Baxter, a two-armed robot, has been with Atlas Manufacturing for more than a year, performing tasks that would otherwise require two human operators. Atlas Manufacturing is just one of a growing number of places in Minnesota and across the country where automation is quickly and radically transforming the labor market.

On the main floor of Minneapolis-based Atlas Manufacturing, Baxter is hard at work: She places metal pieces on a giant machine in a process that bends and punches parts before picking up the pieces and carefully arranging them on a nearby counter.

It’s a repetitive task, […]

Trump’s climate denial is just one of the forces that points towards war

Trump’s climate denial is just one of the forces that points towards war

Illustration by Andrzej Krauze Wave the magic wand and the problem goes away. Those pesky pollution laws, carbon caps and clean-power plans: swish them away and the golden age of blue-collar employment will return. This is Donald Trump’s promise, in his video message on Monday , in which the US president-elect claimed that unleashing coal and fracking would create “many millions of high-paid jobs”. He will tear down everything to make it come true.

But it won’t come true. Even if we ripped the world to pieces in the search for full employment, leaving no mountain unturned, we would not […]

Robots vs humans? AI and the future of the workplace

Robots vs humans? AI and the future of the workplace

TV series "Humans" shows robots taking over simple human tasks Photo: Channel 4 As more work becomes automated, jobs will be lost but also created. How can HR respond to the changes in the workplace that artificial intelligence brings, and build the right skills and culture to make the most of them?

Robots. Siri. Image recognition software. Thinking machines. Over the last decade, the types and definitions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have ranged across a wide spectrum. A future of smart homes and smart cars, driven by AI, is no longer a distant reality.

This future poses questions to businesses; […]

Trump is right to ditch TPP. How about the WTO next?

Trump is right to ditch TPP. How about the WTO next?

President-elect Donald Trump faces heavy pressure from the establishment to abandon his campaign promises on trade policy. His announcement on Monday saying that he would pull out of President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on his first day in office shows that he’s not giving in – and for the sake of a healthy economy he must stand his ground.

Tune into Worldwide Exchange on Wednesday Nov. 23 at 5:15 am when Alan Tonelson will make a guest appearance.

Trade supporters are employing arguments that have repulsed challengers for decades, at least in the halls of government: that the string […]

How robots are changing Minnesota’s workforce

How robots are changing Minnesota's workforce

Baxter, a two-armed robot, has been with Atlas Manufacturing for more than a year, performing tasks that would otherwise require two human operators. On the main floor of Minneapolis-based Atlas Manufacturing, Baxter is hard at work: She places metal pieces on a giant machine in a process that bends and punches parts before picking up the pieces and carefully arranging them on a nearby counter.

It’s a repetitive task, and at times, agonizing. But Baxter doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, she’s able to do the work around the clock throughout the year — without requiring lunch breaks. Or sick […]

‘Technological Automation and the Soft Skill Revolution’ has no comments

'Technological Automation and the Soft Skill Revolution' has no comments

In 2014 technology research firm Gartner projected that one-third of global jobs will be replaced by robotics, software, or machine learning by 2025. While technological advancements have been shifting entire labor markets since the beginning of time, the rate at which Moore’s Law is increasingly blurring the lines between algorithmic computing and human decision making promises to make this era of automation far different than those that have come before.

As about half of all jobs in both the U.S. and OECD countries become automated over the next two decades, governments and firms across the world must adapt to a […]

The LoweBot Robot Shows Technology May Be On a (Crushing) Roll (Over Human Employment)

For the last couple years, I have done a fair amount of speaking around the country discussing looming technological and demographic changes that will dramatically alter the workers’ compensation industry. In relation to the impact that automation and robotics eventually will have on the workforce, one of the examples I have discussed was the testing of a customer service robot at a Lowes Home Improvement Store in California.

Well, it appears the testing is over, and Lowes is rolling out 22 “Lo-bots” to 11 San Francisco Bay Area locations . The Lo-Bot is bilingual, and will greet people in the […]

Technology is exacerbating unemployment and wage stagnation – and it’s set to only get worse

Technology is exacerbating unemployment and wage stagnation – and it's set to only get worse

In Silicon Valley, only 1.8 per cent of workers are employed in new industries For most people, a secure, fairly paid job is the difference between a reasonable life and destitution. Today changes in the structure of the work force make this objective increasingly elusive.

Technology exacerbated declines in employment and incomes by eliminating certain tasks and deskilling many jobs. Robotics and complex computerised equipment successfully replaced often skilled labour. Computer software is now replacing journalists being able to synthesise news items electronically up crawling the worldwide web. Even traders in financial markets are being replaced by automated algorithms.

In the […]

Jobs on the line in Tim Dunlop’s Why the Future is Workless

Jobs on the line in Tim Dunlop’s Why the Future is Workless

Oxford University warns 47 per cent of the US workforce could be lost to automation. Picture: AP Gig economy. Uberfication. The precariat. These once unfamiliar terms have become commonplace in the post-global financial crisis world. We are witnessing an economic shift and changing labour relations that mirror the major disruptions of the past. Technology has changed certain jobs while rendering others obsolete. Economic uncertainty fuels social and political anxiety around the world, seen in the Brexit vote in Britain and the election to the White House of Donald Trump, a political candidate who tapped into anxieties about economic dislocation […]

Why robotic process automation adoption is on the rise

Why robotic process automation adoption is on the rise

Robotic process automation (RPA) — a technology that enables software robots to replicate the actions of human workers for tasks such as data entry — has the potential to dramatically change the way companies approach many of their key business processes. Read More

It also can greatly boost the efficiency of the legacy applications that support those processes, so it should not be surprising that the technology is seeing a rapid adoption rate.

"RPA tools are not as sophisticated as the larger market but play a very important role," said Frances Karamouzis, research vice president and analyst at Gartner. […]