Recently there has been a slight backlash against businesses that have started taking technology and automation to a point where they seem to be replacing humans. Whilst reducing human interaction in processes can reduce errors and improve efficiency, there have been some issues with people who believe that these companies are putting profits before jobs – basically profiteering but not giving back to the community. But is this necessarily true? Sure, we may see less workers on the frontline doing low-skilled jobs, but is this offset by training and employing more people behind the scenes to maintain everything?
Much technology has been developed to ease the many “burdens” on humans, and we can see this right now with the rise of autonomous vehicles and automated chatbots. The booming business process outsource (BPO) industries we see in the Philippines and India amongst others, are under threat with the rapid development of the latter technology. Millions of people in these countries have been brought into the upper-working/middle class thanks to these jobs, but automation appears to be pushing them closer to becoming obsolete within even the next decade. Such a situation calls for a quick solution, possible retraining people to do jobs that cannot yet be automated.
There is usually some sort of resistance to new technology, especially from those affected most, however, as we have seen in the past, resistance is almost futile. It is important that when technology is being developed, there is a clear path and plan for it. For example, we have seen a reduction in receptionist jobs in some cases with the rise of management software such as Pronestor scheduling software, but while this impacts one job negatively, it may have a wider benefit for other job positions. It is rare, but not impossible, that one piece of technology is the one and only reason for the loss of a job position for humans, but also goes to show that we should also be striving to improve and build on our skills in order to negate this threat and to better ourselves.
Industries such as computing and automotives are increasingly moving over to automation for production, but at this point are still heavily reliant on humans for much of the processes, especially with quality assurance. We are seeing new, modern factories being built, yet there are still many jobs being created, the difference between now and ten or twenty years ago is the level of skill required.
On a whole technology will always be improving, with often the purpose to make processes become more efficient, and this usually means reducing human interaction. The reality is that regardless, people should not rest on their laurels and should always be looking to improve upon their skill sets, for it is difficult to predict what the next few decades will hold in terms of job security.