London’s Science Museum has an exhibition on the 500 year history of automata, a moving mechanical device made in imitation of humans. The exhibition highlights that while robots have enjoyed much approval and fascination from humans, their rise has made people concerned and uneasy. As early as the 1920s, films such as Metropolis questioned the enslavement of people through their dependency on robots; and we all recall Terminator’s Judgement Day, prophesying the time the world is overrun by robots.
Indeed, the rise of robots is increasingly encroaching on jobs once thought to be exclusively limited to humans. The question of which current employment is at high risk of unemployment by robots and technology is arriving faster than many expected. But the future is apparently already here. As the global economy grows, it is almost impossible for companies and industries to remain globally competitive without using automation, and without making huge investments in technology. The only way to remain competitive is to embrace today’s and tomorrow’s technologies, which means moving towards automation, artificial intelligence and robotics. Simply, things get done quicker, and more efficiently.
The exhibition couldn’t come at a better time as UK think tank Reform launched Work in progress. Towards a leaner, smarter public-sector workforce, which calculates that over the next 10 to 15 years, ‘central government departments could […] reduce headcount by 131,962, saving £2.6bn from the 2016-17 wage bill’ should they shift to automation. The report reveals ‘HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has reduced its numbers of administrative staff from 96,000 to 60,000 over the last decade through expanding online services and providing better real-time information’ and that it ‘aims to reduce 11,000 more’.
The report states that ‘broadly speaking, technology can disrupt jobs in three areas:
- Administration or operative roles, in which activities are repetitive and predictable.
- Interactive or frontline roles, which require a high degree of personal interaction.
- Cognitive roles, which require strategic thinking and complex reasoning.’
However, this takeover will enable ‘those skilled practitioners to focus on their non-automatable skills’ and for ‘cognitive roles’ requiring ‘strategic thinking and complex reasoning’ to grow. Our economy is becoming more complex and creative, and as such, humans are needed to keep ahead with these developments and progress. In fact, technology tends to create more jobs than it obliterates – and perhaps the human capacity will expand as the more simple jobs taken by robots leaves time for development in more complex tasks and opportunities.
Thus, our approach to training for the future’s skills base must change, as there are critical skills yet to be imitated by robots, such as flexibility between tasks, adaptability, emotional intelligence, and dealing with change. Our future labour workforce should be able to ‘exploit technology’ and ‘seek to develop non-traditional skill sets such as creativity, learning from errors and self-improvement’. A new culture of strong leaders is needed to adapt to the wave of technology arriving at our doorstep, and to not underestimate the potential of human capacities – Perhaps finally having the opportunity to put human skills to better use will bring a positive future.
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