The Importance Of Automation In The Workplace

📌Category: Business, Life, Science, Technology, Work, Workforce
📌Words: 1242
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 02 September 2021

Many occupations that used to be done by people have been replaced by robots and technology in recent years. As technology advances, robots will become smarter than humans, and computers will learn to execute tasks more efficiently than humans. It is frightening to imagine that one day, robots will be in every workplace, with less employment available for humans. An article from the Times magazine showed evidence from the previous year already shows a similar trend, as it was estimated that about 400,000 jobs were lost to automation in U.S. factories from 1990 to 2007(Semuels, 2020). The threat of Automation overtaking the job market has been further propelled by the implementation of AI as many now consider it the next technological revolution. The switch to automation is a practical idea as “Machines don’t fall ill, they don’t need to isolate to protect peers, they don’t need to take time off work.” (Susskind, 2020). These reasons combined with the more efficient work speed and precision have convinced many companies in the automotive industry to switch to automation in recent years. The new era for automation is nigh, but where does this leave those who were previously working in those jobs.

It's quite simple, those that were replaced by automation are either required to be reeducated for another job, forced into another lower-wage profession, or be stuck in unemployment limbo. However, workers that were kicked from their position are typically older individuals who lack the money, time, and skills to be retrained for a different occupation. This essentially forces people to take the latter of the three choices from before and lowers their quality of life. Automation may also result in economic polarization, with fewer people in the middle class and a stratified society with only highly paid professionals and low-paid jobs whose primary goal is to guarantee the comfort and health of the affluent. But even lower-skilled jobs have a risk of automation coming in and performing these simple tasks to greater efficiency. So we end up in a situation where people aren’t just unemployed, but also unemployable.

For centuries humans have worried that advances in technology will eliminate the need for jobs but this was never proved completely true. While many jobs were forcibly taken away by automation, some created a situation where necessary personnel increased. The World economic forum(WEF) concluded: “automation will supplant about 85 million jobs by 2025” (Kelly, 2020). They also estimate the future economy will produce around 97 million new jobs in replacement for those that were lost. This estimation is highly accepted as our economy has already been through multiple technological revolutions. As an example, many speculated that with the introduction of ATMs, need for bank tellers would slowly fade away as it essentially did their job but to a better degree. While it did reduce the number of tellers initially, eventually teller jobs become more consumer-focused, which led to an increase in tellers to handle tasks beyond the abilities of ATMs.  New technology typically creates jobs designed to maintain new technology and sometimes new industries are built upon their existence. AI and computerization may free us up to pursue occupations that provide us with a sense of development, freedom, and belonging, all of which are attributes of meaningful work. In addition, AI and robotization will aid in the eradication of illness and global poverty. AI is already making remarkable advancements in medicine and healthcare, with better disease prediction, more precise diagnosis, and more feasible treatments and cures. This doesn’t mean new jobs will show up immediately, be located in the same place, or pay the same wage.  The only caveat to this situation is that this process has to be done properly with the correct time and resources dedicated to retraining and reintegrating people back into the workforce after adapting to the new technology. If done incorrectly, it could destabilize our entire economy and cripple the middle class while causing severe income inequality for those unfortunate enough to be replaced.

This situation has proven itself to be true as the recent coronavirus pandemic had encouraged businesses to accelerate the use of new technology to cut costs, boost productivity, and reduce reliance on real-life people. It was estimated that at the height of the epidemic, the United States lost about 40 million jobs, and while some have returned, occupations that require human connection have not(Semuels, 2020). The shift was so sudden that it gave little to no time for companies to offer severance pay or unemployment benefits as they were too busy worrying about how these drastic restrictions would affect their bottom line. Employees were immediately rushed to be replaced by robots or AI software and the workers themselves were stuck in a terrible situation. In the middle of a worldwide pandemic with a crashing economy and now replaced out of their job. Retraining could only be possible for those that had ample time and money saved up and money didn't have either.

So based on what history has shown before, what will the future look like if all previous known jobs were to be replaced by automation? For starters, all blue-collar and white-collar jobs will be eliminated leaving only low and high skilled jobs available. This in turn will then lead to economic polarization, reducing the number of the middle class and creating a stratified society with only highly paid professionals and low-paid occupations whose major purpose is to ensure the comfort and health of the wealthy. Even if unemployment stays low, the possibility of automation worsening economic inequality is also a high likelihood. Jobs related to engineering, coding, and robotics will thrive as maintenance for AI and automation will be extremely sought after. But this will require workers to have higher academic requirements to advance into the upper echelon of society.

History is a good reference for the future but it doesn't mean it’ll repeat itself, especially considering how far artificial intelligence has come along. Artificial intelligence can become more adept in every job which was previously handled by humans. JPMorgan says it now has AI reviewing commercial-loan agreements, completing in seconds what used to take 360,000 hours of lawyers’ time over the course of a year(Semuels, 2020). It's only a matter of time before Artificial intelligence becomes equally as capable as a human being in every aspect.

Artificial intelligence has long been considered as the be-all and end-all to the next step in human evolution. The possibilities of how far humanity can achieve with the power of AI is ALMOST limitless as AI excel at most task in comparison to humans. But that little exception as stated earlier is where we have the absolute advantage currently, as it's impossible for Artificial intelligence to mimic the complexity of the human brain. Computers are unable to imitate the “trust and a human-to-human connection”(Kelly, 2020) that many jobs such as teachers and need to perform their jobs. AI’s are inherently unable to reason for themselves or have a conscious outside of the programming it has. This is a genuine restriction to what AI can achieve because it can't depart from pre-programmed instructions or devise its strategy. The creativity that humans possess allows us to overcome novel situations with little to no previous information needed. As of currently, AI excels in jobs that are reducible to frequent, high-volume tasks but this limitation is something that isn't impossible to overcome in the future.

The coronavirus pandemic has only accelerated the inevitable with AI research and integration being one of the biggest priorities within the technology industry. The development of Artificial Intelligence will undoubtedly allow many monotonous and dangerous tasks to be done remotely with little to no supervision. Many see Artificial intelligence as critical to human evolution as it will allow a new era of automation which in turn will make things “easier” for humans. But for humanity to take advantage of this possibility without crippling itself in the process, we must invest the proper amount of time and resources into the infrastructure needed to support people as many current jobs will be eliminated we transition to this dangerous new future.

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