As most of you probably saw, I spent my Saturday at #cipdmap17 yesterday, and managed to get myself a seat into Prof. Donald Hislop’s session on New Ways of Working – Myth or Reality? When I sign up for conference sessions, it’s the title of it alone that will determine whether I choose to sit through it or not. And this one definitely caught my attention.
The alternative title to this session was ‘are robots going to eliminate all jobs?’ and by this Prof Hislop is asking ‘to what extent will technology and artificial intelligence impact the elimination of jobs?’
Can a computer replicate human thought? How many times have you called up a customer service helpline and had to interact with an automated voice-recognition machine before you get the option of speaking to a human – a real life person – one of us?! For me I can’t remember the last time I rang a customer service helpline and a human being picked up the phone the first time around!
It’s fair to say that service work is the area of work largely impacted by automation of roles. But what other industries are affected? Prof Hislop mentioned doctors, nurses and even Uber! Surgery performed by machines and driverless cars seem to be on the horizon – a scary thought!
Research suggests that within the next 10 years, 4 million private sector jobs will be lost to automation. But how many people are studying and training now for jobs that haven’t even been created yet?
Which brings us on to challenging Myth #1:
New technology can create new jobs – not just eliminate existing jobs
We only have to unlock our smartphones and see our home screens to prove this point. Yes there are more and more apps being developed, but this is still done by people. No matter how much technology advances and develops, you will always need people at the core of it to design, build, develop and maintain these things.
Challenging Myth #2:
Automation of routine tasks – not whole jobs
We still need people for crucial decision making processes, so in essence it’s just routine jobs and tasks that are being automated, not complete jobs – don’t listen to media hype, they’re just trying to create a sense of moral panic!
Challenging Myth #3
Analysis underestimates the necessary role of humans in facilitating robots
There will always be limits to the capabilities of computers and robots. Yes voice recognition has advanced but it still fails to pick up all accents! And what about robots in the hotel industry? We still need people to fold towels. There is still a human need when it comes to physical mobility.
Challenging Myth #4
Underestimating regulatory barriers and institutional inertia
Basically, how long will it be before we have driverless motorways. Surely there will still be people monitoring and managing this constantly. We still need people to oversee the automation.
From this, Prof Hislop concluded that we need to start working collaboratively with technology, but we can’t ignore the fact that work is changing. Yes there will be job losses, but there will also be new jobs created. Particularly in the IT and analytics industry, that will surely boom as technology progresses.
The moral of this story is: Fear not, it’s not all doom and gloom in the world of increasing tech!
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