Like most technology, in the longer term robots increase employment. The biggest users
of robots per worker are Germany and South Korea, they both have very enviable
manufacturing bases, generally good working conditions and rates of pay.
Robots are generally used in the most difficult dangerous and monotonous applications.
These are things that robots excel at and people don’t. Many of the jobs “lost” to robots
are deeply unpleasant. Robots are also essential For competitiveness, in many industries
it is impossible to remain economic without robots.
Like all technology there is a double edge. Large companies that can afford robotics and
automation can squeeze out smaller competitors. But as the cost of robots falls and
installation gets easier smaller companies can leverage robots too. I have sold many
robots to “one person” businesses and small companies with fewer than 10 employees,
where the robot has not only allowed them to stay competitive but to rapidly expand as
their costs decrease and production soars.
There are many parallels in many industries, robots are versatile and can be used in lots
of applications but so can, for example, computers. Typing pools, slide rules, paper
accountants and manual draftsmanship have all been displaced, jobs lost for ever. Has
this ment the world is overall richer as costs have decreased and opportunity has opened
up to anyone with a $100 computer? Yes. Could we ever put the genie of technology
back in the bottle? Probably Not.
The world is far from perfect with huge challenges, especially climate change. But what
we desperately need is the robot manufacturing of wind turbines and solar panels,
autonomous robots cleaning the seas and new technologies, yet to be invented, housing,
protecting, feeding, and caring for the world.
If you are in a mischievous mood to raise anxiety levels among a group of technologists
just trigger this discussion, “How automation and robots will reduce employment in the
future”.
There will be a fascinating discussion about driver-less cars and bot scanning for cancer
patients.
A lot more energy will be expended on Doomsday predictions.

Robots will easily take over the job I am currently doing.

Skilled jobs will be taken over by smart machines.
There will be job adverts with the tag, ‘only robots may apply’ and many more.
Are these pessimistic predictions imperative or are these mere manifestations of
people’s fears of the unseen future? To answer this question, let’s revisit some pivotal
moments in the human history.

The industrial revolution of the 18th century gave birth to the textile industry. It was
widely believed that the textile mills would destroy the handloom industry and cause
great pain to everyone. This panic was spread on both sides of the Atlantic.
What followed was anything but anticipated. The cost of producing cloth declined
significantly. Large mills came up and provided employment to a huge number of youth.
Modern cities like Manchester, London and New York were born. Even more jobs were
created in the secondary and tertiary sectors. This changed the face of urban
development. And today 80% of the population in the developed world resides in urban
areas.
In early 20th century, thanks in large measure to Henry Ford, cars became mainstream.
There was the expected panic about the fate of horse carts. Yes, the horse carts
dwindled, but Detroit was born. And America rose.
In the 1990s banks introduced ATMs and their adoption spread rapidly. Bank employees
became very insecure expecting that most of their work will now be done by these
machines and they would be rendered jobless. It is true that ATMs did takeover many
of the manual tasks but rather than exterminating the poor bankers, they opened new
doors to the banking industry. Banking activities became very efficient and extremely
convenient. Hordes of unbanked people flocked to the banks, multi-channel banking
became the norm raising the level of sophistication of the bankers’ work many notches
above. ATMs turned out to be a boon to the bankers.
There is no historical precedence of automation or scientific progress causing regression
in human lives. There are temporary setbacks no doubt but those are never longlasting.
Society has always moved forward and taken people with it. Cheaper and stronger cloth
by the textile mills protected the poor in harsh winters, motorized transport helped
improve connectivity, ATMs enabled easy cash transactions. History is replete with such
myriad examples.
Robots that make a pizza, smart drones that deliver them and robots performing
surgeries, each of these might create short term pain in certain industries, however, the
history of mankind leads me to predict that despite these blips in our lives, there will be
more meaningful jobs and an overall better life awaiting us in the future. Exactly what
kind of jobs and where is a question that remains to be answered by Father Time, not
me!
We live in amazing times. Driverless cars, drones delivering packages and
chatbots taking our fast food orders. In fact, this entire “thing” of robotics
and artificial intelligence (AI) is now being called the next industrial
revolution. And it does not come without a lot of fear about a large workforce
losing its jobs and means of making a living.
When the first industrial revolution hit, factories and mass production drew
workers to the cities in droves. Manufacturing put individual craftsmen out of
business. Consumers could get products cheaper and faster and that was a
good thing. Yes, some workers were obviously displaced. But along with the
“revolution,” new jobs were created and, over time, employment reached high
levels.
Fears about the new robotic revolution
Of course, technology will eliminate many jobs – it has always done so. And
predictions about those job losses range from a few million to over a billion, as
a recent MIT study revealed.
Why this variance? Because no one can predict accurately exactly all of the
jobs that robots and AI will assume from humans over the next few decades.
We just don’t know where the technology will take us.
At the same time, we cannot predict the numbers of new jobs/careers that new
technology will create. One study from Gartner Research states that while 1.8
million jobs will be lost by 2020, 2.3 million new ones will be created.
Even today, there are a huge number of technology jobs that did not exist ten
years ago: State-of-the-art programming, data science, web security,
marketing and sales. There is no reason to believe that the need for humans to
create and manage new technology will decrease.
And in developed countries, with comparative salary data readily available for
various industries, far fewer people are willing to enter low-paying work force
jobs that require no thinking and that do not allow people to have a decent
lifestyle. Young people who graduate high school often have vocationaltechnical skills that allow them to enter the workforce with skills that are
needed. Others opt for vocational-technical or community college programs
where they learn to use the latest technology.
China is a prime example. Automation, through robotics and AI, has moved
China to a major economic force in the global economy. Because of its focus on
automation and new technology, China now exports far more than it imports,
and as a result, is having a huge impact on the global supply chain. Smaller
countries with less to invest are seeing some negative consequences and they
will suffer from the inability to compete. On the other hand, they can take a
lesson from countries like India that have moved into areas of technology that
are in high demand. There are jobs – the key is the right training of people to
work within an environment of robotics and AI.
Humans create and humans control
Robots and AI have been created by humans – they are tools that we can use
when we give the right instructions. The point is that humans and technology
must work together, humans in control and the technology providing what it is
programmed to provide. The idea that technology will replace the need for
creative thinking, problem-solving, leadership, teamwork and initiative is
rather silly right now. The idea that humans can leverage technology to
provide a better world for all of us is not silly, however. It’s fascinating.
Consider this: One of the industries that have seen the greatest disruption of
robotics and AI has been medicine. We now have robotic and AI tools that can
perform amazingly accurate diagnoses and precise surgery. Have we lost
doctors to this technology? The answer is “no.” Doctors have simply learned to
leverage the new technology to provide better healthcare.
Finding your place in a robotic world
Robots and AI will certainly replace jobs – boring, dangerous, and dirty ones
mostly. Consider coal mining for example. How many people still want to go
down into a mineshaft and dig out coal? How many want to subject
themselves to black lung disease and a host of other health problems from that
job? This is why coal mining towns are dying out. Young people in these towns
are moving on to the brighter job prospects. And technology is taking over
what’s left of the mining industry. Green energy is taking over, and with it, a
host of new, clean jobs and careers. It’s the march of civilization that will never
cease.
Those entering the workforce today will have to be adaptable. They'll have to
be hungry for knowledge and committed to continuing education whether
that's by taking an online MBA, attending conferences, reading books,
consuming podcasts or taking traditional advanced degrees. What robots can
do is make humans more productive than ever before. Workers will need to
develop technical skills and keep those skills updated as technology moves
forward. Those who do not want to deal with technology need to pursue
careers where it is not as much a factor or where demand for human skills and
talents remains high.