The Robots: Stealing Our Jobs or Solving Labour Shortages?

As the coronavirus pandemic enveloped the world, businesses increasingly turned to automation in order to address rapidly changing conditions. Floor-cleaning and microbe-zapping disinfecting robots were introduced in hospitals, supermarkets and other environments - given the new emphasis on hygiene and social distancing, robotic operations offered a marketing advantage.

With the worst days of the pandemic hopefully behind us, the jobs story has turned out to be unexpectedly complicated. While overall unemployment rates remain elevated, employers are experiencing widespread worker shortages, focused especially in those occupations that tend to offer grueling work conditions and relatively low pay. The reasons behind the worker shortages are not entirely clear. A common assumption is that extended payments to laid-off workers allowed people to remain out of the workforce. However, evidence suggests that many workers may have simply reassessed their willingness to do difficult and often unrewarding jobs in return for low pay. All of this has created a powerful incentive for businesses to invest in automation as a way to adapt to the worker shortage. For example, McDonald's restaurants are testing an artificial intelligence-powered voice system that can process customer orders in drive-throughs.

The pandemic and the associated worker shortage are accelerating the drive toward deploying artificial intelligence, robotics and other forms of automation. However, most of these technologies are unlikely to arrive in time to offer a solution to the immediate challenges faced by employers, such as critical worker shortages in transportation and logistics.

Over the next decade, the overall impact of artificial intelligence and robotics on the job market is likely to be significant and new technologies may lead to dramatic change. Many workers will soon confront the reality that the encroachment of automation technology will not be limited to the often low-paying and less desirable occupations where worker shortages are currently concentrated.

More educated white-collar workers will quickly discover that they are by no means exempt from the rise of AI. Any job that involves the relatively routine analysis or manipulation of information is likely to fall in whole or in part to software automation. Some of the world's largest media organizations already use AI systems that automatically generate news articles, while intelligent legal algorithms analyse contracts and predict the outcome of litigation.

In the long run, the workforce will increasingly be divided into winners and losers. The losers will be those who focus largely on routine, predictable tasks, regardless of whether these activities are

physical or intellectual in nature, and often independent of education level. The winners are likely to fall into one of three general groups. First are skilled trade workers, such as plumbers and electricians, who do work that requires dexterity, mobility and problem-solving ability. This type of work is far beyond the capability of any existing robot. Second, those workers whose occupations require the development of deep, sophisticated relationships with other people will be relatively safe. This might include caring roles, such as nursing, or business or educational occupations that require complex human interactions. The final category includes intellectual work that is creative or activities that are otherwise genuinely non-routine and unpredictable in nature. For these workers, artificial intelligence will be likely to amplify, rather than replace, their efforts.

The best advice for individuals is to transition from routine, predictable work and towards one of these winning categories. However, many workers will likely lack the inherent talents and personality traits required to take on creative or relationship-based roles.

1. outline the implications of robotics and artificial intelligence applications for human resource planning.

2. briefly describe your short-term career plans and discuss how concerned you are about the impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on your career path.

3. what type of training and development activities do you feel will be important for your career objectives over the next five years? Be sure and support your position and integrate concepts from the class materials and textbook.