The robots are coming to steal your job but just not yet
Summary: Automation and AI are reshaping the workplace by streamlining processes, reducing costs, and enabling innovative solutions. While concerns over job displacement and ethical implications remain, these technologies also create opportunities for new roles and greater efficiency. Governments, businesses, and workers must embrace adaptation, education, and ethical integration to thrive in a digitally driven future.
Will Automation and AI Take Over Jobs? The Complex Truth
When the industrial revolution happened, a tidal wave of machines rapidly replaced countless jobs over night[1]. Today we are faced with a similar prospect. Advanced automation technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) possess the capability to replace countless knowledge workers roles. For example, as recently as 2017, McKinsey Global Institute produced a report that predicted that by 2030, as many as 800 million jobs could be lost to intelligent automation.
But whilst employees are fearful, employers are excited about the potential benefits of automation artificial intelligence and intelligent digital workers.
But does that mean robots will steal our jobs? Sadly, there is no one right or wrong answer. As research shows[4], the story is more complicated than can be afforded by a simple yes or no answer.
Why is automation and artificial intelligence disrupting the world of work?
Businesses are excited about the transformative effects of digital technologies. Digital workers offer tremendous cost advantages. For example, digital workers don’t require holidays, bathroom breaks or remuneration. They don’t require uniforms or pension fund contributions, nor can they join a union and go on strike, get hurt, or require disciplinary action. Artificial intelligence (AI) infused chatbots enable businesses to offer intelligent customer service 24/7 at the fraction of the cost of an employee, whilst simultaneous improving customer experience. Intelligent automation tooling and robotic process automation platforms can release employees from necessary but low value tasks, to complete high value tasks.
There are also a range of drivers that push businesses toward digital technologies. For example, employee dissatisfaction, customer complaints, missed deadlines, compliance check failure or fines, high cost to value, extended process timescales, inefficiency, or a lack of company-wide insight are all indicators that a market, business, process or job role is ripe for digital disruption.
So what are the potential benefits of automaton and artificial intelligent infused digital workers?
In today’s fast paced digital world, businesses, employees and customers won’t tolerate poor service, inefficient processes or paying for something that does not uniquely benefit them. Employees and customers want instant answers and automation, AI and advanced digital assistants are delivering business results.
For example, leading food manufacturers, such as the French food manufacturer Danone Group, now use machine learning to improve its demand forecast accuracy. This has led to a 20% decrease in forecasting errors; 30% decrease in lost sales and a 50% reduction in demand planners’ workload
Farmers Insurance, now uses unmanned aerial systems to assess damage to residential rooftops after significant weather events. Deploying drones and AI instead of claims adjusters has improved response time as well as safety.
OTP bank has deployed Druid AI’s conversational AI platform to provide its customers with 24/7 access to banking products and automate key customer support processes. OTP did this by designing and deploying Druid’s proprietary NLP/NLU engine to understand human language through a conversational digital assistant. Conversational business applications, like Druid’s can help banks onboard customers 10x faster with full KYC capabilities, collect customer feedback, and enable 24/7 customer support automation through an omnichannel conversational AI experience – none of which requires an employee to be involved. In fact, many times customers rarely even realise they’re talking to a bot, due to the highly personalised interactions that virtual assistants now deliver.
Chinese company Alibaba, is the world’s largest e-commerce platform and sells more than Amazon and eBay combined. Artificial intelligence (AI) is integral to Alibaba’s daily operations and is used to predict what customers might want to buy. With natural language processing, the company automatically generates product descriptions for the Alibaba site.
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What are the greatest impediments to digital transformation?
Whilst people may get excited about the prospect of autonomous vehicles, trains and aircraft, for example, disrupting every sphere of the global transport and logistics industry will introduce many hurdles that need to be overcome before artificial intelligence and automation can be expanded at pace.
There are a whole host of impediments to implement a successful automation program including, technical feasibility, the cost of developing and deploying automation solutions for specific uses in the workplace, the labour-market dynamics (including quality and quantity of labour and associated wages), the benefits of automation beyond labour substitution, and regulatory and social acceptance will all impact the likelihood or pace at which automation will impact roles.
In addition, many businesses do not have the necessary knowledge or skills to effectively implement and utilize AI technology. The cost of acquiring and implementing AI technology can be high and may not be feasible for some small or medium-sized businesses. AI requires a large amount of data to train models, and businesses may not have the necessary funding, data or infrastructure to support AI implementation.
Some businesses may be hesitant to implement AI due to concerns about ethical implications such as job displacement or bias in decision-making. Often businesses are simply resistant to change and may not be willing to adapt their processes and systems to incorporate AI. Besides integration AI with existing legacy systems and processes can be challenging and may require significant changes to the existing infrastructure.
Some industries may be regulated and have compliance requirements, which can make it difficult to implement AI without violating any regulations. And governments often intervene to reduce the prospect of mass redundancies on their populations as a result of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation. For example, the Indian and South African governments actively block automation of their taxis industry to prevent disruption to local drivers and the local economy.
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Can we rely upon the existing impediments to automation to protect our jobs?
The short answer is No. All of the barriers to implementing digital transformation can be overcome, both by you or your competitors. For example, businesses can invest in building internal expertise by hiring AI professionals or by providing training and education for their existing employees. Alternatively they can partner with AI experts or contractors who can provide the necessary knowledge and resources to implement AI effectively, such as Druid AI for conversational AI and conversational business applications.
Businesses with limited funds can start small by piloting AI in a specific area or process before scaling up. And they can address ethical concerns by developing and implementing policies and procedures to ensure that AI is used in a responsible and ethical manner. They can also communicate the benefits of AI to both employees and stakeholders, therefore minimising any resistance to change whilst incrementally integrating AI into existing systems and processes to minimize disruptions and costs. Businesses can stay up to date with regulations, or compliance requirements by working with their legal and compliance teams to ensure that their AI implementation does not violate any regulations.
Even the most reluctant governments eventually come to recognise that they operate in a global digital economy. So ultimately, it is in their citizen’s best interests to offer tax and funded educational opportunities to incentivise indigenous business and their citizens to adopt digital technologies.
So what does that mean for jobs?
Many people will fear that AI will ‘steal their job’, and that is not without reason. As automation, AI and digital workers play an increasing role in peoples everyday lives, their potential impact has become the subject of much research and debate. For example, the McKinsey Global Institute report postulated that advances in AI and robotics will have a ‘far -reaching impact’ on the everyday lives of workers. They quoted ‘in about 60% of occupations, at least one-third of the constituent activities could be automated, implying substantial workplace transformations and changes for all workers’. For example, in the United States alone, between 39 million and 73 million jobs stand to be automated — making up around a third of the total workforce.
AIs potential impact is comparable to the shift out of agriculture and manufacturing dominated industrial societies of the past toward a very different future. For example, one-third of China’s workforce moved out of agriculture between 1990 and 2015.
But that is not the complete story as McKinsey also highlight, ‘history shows that technology has created large employment and sector shifts, but also creates new jobs’. It is understandable that some are concerned but far from being scared about AI, we should be excited about the possibilities and opportunities it brings. AI, automation and sophisticated virtual assistants are actually better at augmenting the role of current employees, rather than replacing them. Ensuring that people understand this, and that they know about the ways in which AI can make their jobs easier, is a really important step in generating the excitement around AI we want and need to see.
So it is up to government, businesses and the advocates of AI to educate people, and listen to their worries rather than dismissing them, while demonstrating AI’s transformative potential. Professionals will need to adapt to a scenario with new technologies, robots, and artificial intelligence taking over a significant portion of their roles.
Some people may be able to adapt through better education. Others will dedicate their time and energy to activities that require emotional and social skills, creativity, a high level of cognitive ability, and skills that are difficult for robots to replicate. Others will need to retrain and change jobs altogether. For example, those who have large manual components to their roles and complete tasks which are easily digitised have much to fear e.g., food industry or factory workers, accountants or administrative assistants.
Increasingly, so called knowledge workers will experience the impact of automation, artificial intelligence and digital workers on their roles. The recent release of OpenAI’s GPT-4o model highlights just how precarious so called ‘knowledge work’ is, when a robot can competently create a social media content strategy, computer code or write a book in a matter of minutes.
Conclusion:
The technology dominated world we live in is filled with promise[13]. AI, automation and digital workers can deliver improvements across the board but that does not, as The McKinsey Global Institute suggest, mean that workers won’t be displaced by automation. Hence, many people are right to fear digital technologies.
And whilst concerns about whether there will be enough jobs for workers in the future are genuine, given the potential of digital technologies, history suggests that such fears may be unfounded[14]. Over time, as we have witnessed with prior industrial revolutions, labour markets adjust to changes in demand[15]. And that has led McKinsey to also suggest, whilst ‘workers displaced by automation are easily identified, …new jobs…created indirectly from technology are less visible…across different sectors and geographies. ‘
It often takes a crisis or an external point of view to recognise that change must happen. Many businesses, governments and workers are wedded to the way they’ve always done things. Yet as global competition increases and the current global economy dissipates into recession, a ‘head in the sand or we have always done it this way’ approach might not be the best way to operate. It’s therefore important that governments, employees, and employers are provided with the incentives, knowledge and skills they need to leverage the incredible opportunity that digital technologies bring. Otherwise, the prospects of a bright and prosperous digital enabled future may pass them by.
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