You're Fired! Bring in the Robot!
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Imagine walking into your nearest Amazon warehouse and realizing that it is devoid of people. Instead, you find robots, a lot of them, and that all the work is done by these intelligent machines. This may seem like a scene of the future, but with Amazon boasting around 200,000 robots in its US warehouses, that is already somewhat already of a reality. But what does this mean for your human, blue-collar employee working at the warehouse? Will that person say sayonara due to a robot that needs no pay or vacation days?
Tech wizard Elon Musk has warned of a dystopian future where humans are outpaced by superiorly intelligent robots who do any aspect of work better than humans. Many resonate with Musk, as with 670,000 jobs lost to robots from 1990 to 2007 and nearly half of all work in the US being at the risk of automation, his fears seem to have substantial ground. Furthermore, white-collar workers are also at risk, as artificial intelligence has already been introduced in many jobs that require years of education and training, such as surgical operations. So are we doomed to a jobless future?
It’s important to realize that humans have technologically revolutionized in the past. The 19th and 20th centuries brought some of the greatest innovation humans have experienced, and these innovations didn’t consume all jobs, but in the long run, shifted workers to new sectors of work. For example, the number of locomotive engineers fell drastically due to the car being introduced, but similarly, car mechanic jobs skyrocketed. Many experts believe that as robots are introduced to the workplace, new jobs in IT, customer service, and advanced manufacturing will compensate for the jobs lost. After all, artificial intelligence’s goal is to assist workers and boost productivity by covering mundane tasks.
Regardless, if automation does end up consuming repetitive work, the question remains: When will automation play a significant role in our economy, and how can we prevent a massive unemployment crisis? Although it may be too early to provide definitive answers to this question, it’s important to realize that a new, robot-influenced industry will require a much greater skilled workforce. To transition to an industry of increased IT, customer service, and advanced manufacturing jobs, much greater skills training will be required for originally low-skilled workers, and this should be a priority for employers and employees alike in the coming future.
