The Push and Pull of Automation
Automation has been a hotly contested subject, with some lauding it for its potential to improve worker safety and efficiency and others concerned that it leads to job loss. In truth, automation has been around for a long time in various respects and will only continue to expand in the future. The question then becomes whether automation is a net positive for society. Naturally, this is difficult to answer conclusively, though the type of automation plays a role in how beneficial it is.
While the common conception of automation is that of a robot performing labor such as assembly, it can refer to any device whose purpose is to perform a procedure or task automatically. This ranges from complex vehicle assembly lines to the autofill function on phones. Automation is beneficial when it improves efficiency or reduces human error. In economic terms, automation saves capital by both (in some cases) producing more than the average worker and requiring less upkeep. However, even saving on labor can create more for those that must contend with malfunctioning automation technology. Many have speculated that robotics will be a blue-collar industry in the future, with numerous humans dedicated to maintaining a workforce of laboring machines.
Automation can also improve the quality of workers. The aforementioned autofill function, along with numerous pieces of equipment and software made more efficient through automation, can allow for workers to be overall more productive than they would be otherwise. This does, however, create a disparity between these workers that benefit from this new technology and those for whom automation has become a convenient replacement. In fact, the number of jobs in the world’s top companies has declined drastically in the last decade. The most humane and productive way to do this would be to foster opportunities for workers displaced by automation, though few have latched on to this solution due to a perceived lack of short term gains.
Of course, in the rush to adopt automation technology, many businesses have only seen the economic potential without considering the hurdles inherent in adoption. As previously stated, automation may save labor for some while increasing it for others. Furthermore, automation without a goal beyond “improve productivity” can be detrimental to businesses looking to hop on the latest bandwagon.
Advocates of automation will often note that similar sweeping changes in the workforce, namely industrialization, did not necessarily reduce human employment. The difference between industrialization and automation is mainly a matter of adoption rate—automation technology has been implemented much faster, and exponential gains in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence accelerates this even further. There may eventually be an equilibrium in which the human workforce adapts to new technologies and overhauls the type of jobs on the market, but little has been done by businesses or governments to adjust to this change.
Regardless, automation will continue to be adopted as long as it affords companies better productivity and economic gains. Furthermore, more jobs will become automated—even tasks such as writing, long thought to require a human touch, are becoming feasible with the help of advanced AI systems. We have to have hope that automation will be beneficial for more than just the companies harnessing it as a net positive for society, as long as the context surrounding it changes.