The Financial Times had a great article, China’s robot army set to surge, which talked about China’s embrace and demand for industrial robots to increase productivity in its economy. There are important implications to the structure of the economy and the workforce. More importantly, this automation trend is not unique to China.
The Implications of Increased Automation
According to Rahul Chadha, Chief Investment Officer of Mirae Asset Management, one industrial robot replaces four to five workers, which means that as automation increases, the number of people who will be rendered jobless will also increase. This is expected to adversely affect workers in poorer countries and low income wage earners. Consequently, countries will have to contend with labour and social unrest if the unemployment problems become unmanageable.
Source: Citibank & Oxford Martin School Report, Technology at Work v2.0
If the automation process is something that cannot be stopped, what roles do human workers have to play in the economy? According to a joint study by Citibank and the Oxford Martin School:
Creative intelligence, social intelligence, and perception and manipulation are three potential bottlenecks to expanding the scope of automation.
But are these roles played by humans really defensible and sustainable?
The Opportunities Automation Technology Brings
Computers and robotics have made tremendous leaps in the field of creative intelligence mainly via the cognitive computing field as illustrated in my previous post. Natural language processing has also greatly enhanced the ability of computers to interact with humans. Google’s robotic company, Boston Dynamics, has also recently released a video where their robot, Atlas, was able to walk on snow, have depth perception and be able to pick up objects.
Automation provides opportunities to those who are able to re-tool themselves to harness technology effectively. We must first understand the technology drivers and their impacts before we can position ourselves to tackle them.
