“Robots are coming for your jobs.” “Automation Apocalypse is nearing in.” These job
threatening statements have created the impression that automation is our economic enemy.
Without an iota of doubt, our future is going to be impacted by Artificial Intelligence in many
ways. ATMs, vending machines, cash checking counters have been automated. Robots are
delivering food, they are being trained in data entry and maintaining spreadsheets, providing
legal advice and they’re maintaining investment portfolios. So, does it mean that automation
is going to steal all our jobs? Certainly not!
First of all, there is an economic validation to the argument. Technological advancement
spurs productivity. Costs fall and as the law of demand works, demand for these good
increases. This augurs well for the firms which means they’ll employ more labor. Lower
costs of machine produced goods would mean purchasing parity of consumers increases and
they’ll be able to spend on other goods and services which in turn implies that labor demand
of these firms would increase. Those industries where labors might be displaced need to offer
higher wages for the highly skilled ones. Profits of firms increase with increased productivity
which would higher wages or investment which in turn would propel the aggregate demand-
a good sign for economy.
There has been a historical background to the arguments of technological advancement eating
up jobs. Luddism, the 19 th century socio-economic movement in the aftermath of Industrial
Revolution by textile workers who were afraid of the prospects of losing out their jobs to
machines might have been a reaction to short term employment loss. But in long run there is
a statistical validation to the fact industrial revolution had improved living standards. All the
vital economic indicators experienced a rise: real wages, productivity, life expectancy,
electrification and urbanization saw a rise. With advent of automated loops, textiles were
produced at lower prices which meant that disposable incomes increased causing demand to
rise for a wide range of goods and services e.g. railways and even automated loops. History
points out that automation did not affect employment opportunities rather it changed the
employment structure.
Has not automation end up creating new jobs in engineering, management and research-
development? According to a report automation took as many 1,300 jobs in Amazon
warehouses but in same time, Amazon hired 196,000 workers. Critics point out that
automation would diminish job prospects for lesser skilled workers. Let us take an example
of truck drivers. Their jobs are not limited to drive; they need to maintain record logs,
packing-unpacking, loading-unloading are the other tasks they are equipped with. Rather than
taking up jobs, robots are taking up tasks. To a further extent they are supplementing tasks.
No technology has been developed yet that could handle these tasks on their own or even
with instructions. There has been no evidence that long distance automated travels with
freight would even be feasible. If we look at another rung of labor force: artisans, singers,
craftsperson, authors etc.- have not their jobs flourished with advent of technology; they are
getting huge coverage, large audiences and with introduction of digital streaming more actors
are getting employed in the industry. There is no way that automation would even touch these
jobs. Firefighters, police, professors, doctors, yoga instructors and many others- these jobs
require instinctual decision making- a skill robots won’t be able to pick up at any point.
Artificial intelligence is utterly devoid of emotions; can we imagine the hospitality industry
sans humane interaction or the cause of humanoid nurses where they might medically assist
the patients but any such service would be lacking care or other human emotions. Artificial
intelligence has been employed to perform repetitive, mundane tasks to ensure that minimize
errors to the largest extent. If robots are able to provide services like data entry, analyzing
huge data sets, managing spreadsheets in bulk- they are actually reducing the burden and
ensuring that their task turns out be super-efficient. Robots would require instructions to be
fed in if not human supervision at all time. These puts out many tasks at disposal which
requires human element. Any firm requires to be streamlined in order to have an edge in
fiercely competitive markets which makes it imperative to have human employment for
controlling the nuances here and there. Interaction with AI requires a plethora of skills which
create new set of jobs. Automation ensures that diminishing returns to human labor are
minimized. A WEF report states that will displace 75 million jobs but will create 133 million
new ones by 2022. Similarly, McKinsey Global Institute has predicted a positive net job
growth rate in USA despite advanced automation.
A research shows that 73% employees are optimistic about upgrading their skills. This
presents an opportunity for socio-economic upliftment of those who are most susceptible to
loss of livelihoods by automation. Automation can usher in social revolution if everyone is
given their rights to a dignified life. If automation eliminates jobs which are cause of
discrimination and denigration (automation of sanitization will purge out manual
scavenging), opportunity cost of those jobs being lost in social terms weighs heavily than
economic losses. Economies are going through demographic change, advanced economies
have low population growth rates which implies that dependency ratio would increase
causing labor shortages. In such a case, automation could ensure diversion of resources
towards the care of elderly. Companies and governments should look to harness the benefits
from automation and solving different societal challenges. Social, creative and cognitive
skills would witness an increased demand. Definitely, human intelligence is notch above
artificial intelligence. Automation has left us on cusp of unprecedented, amazing and
unimaginable opportunities. The choice is left to us. We should harness the technological
growth to bring about a positive change in our working lives and for betterment of humanity.