New-Tech Europe | February 2019

welcoming robots into the workplace is the threat to human jobs. Will human employees be completely replaced by robots? If humans are replaced, how will this impact society and the workforce? Research from McKinsey Global Institute shows that these concerns aren’t unreasonable as they predict that approximately one-fifth of the global workforce will be impacted by the adoption of AI and automation. Developed countries like the US, United Kingdom and Germany are expected to see the biggest impact with estimates suggesting robots will replace between 400 and 800 million workers by 2030. Within the next five years, we’re likely to see some impact from AI and automation technology. According to the World Economic Forum, nearly 50% of companies believe that automation technology will lead to a reduction in their workforce by 2022. While these studies may sound like robots will replace humans, many think that welcoming robots into our workforce will simply change how we work. For example, the same study conducted by the World Economic Forum also showed that 38% of businesses believe AI and automation technology will allow employees to redirect their attention to more productive tasks and 25% of companies think automation will result in the creation of new roles. “Producers will only automate if doing so is profitable. For profit to occur, producers need a market to sell to in the first place. Keeping this in mind helps to highlight the critical flaw of the argument: if robots replaced all workers, thereby creating mass unemployment, to whom would the producers sell? Because demand is infinite whereas supply is scarce, the displaced workers always have the opportunity to find fresh employment to produce something that satisfies

Image 2: Welcome to Industry 4.0

demand elsewhere.” – Kallum Pickering, senior economist with Berenberg. Everyday Artificial Intelligence examples Whether we realize it or not, automation and AI is already in our everyday lives. Businesses use automation for admin tasks like sending out invoices or creating personalized customer emails. Healthcare professionals use AI to detect cancer from radiographs quicker and more efficiently. Most of us even have AI devices in our kitchens and living rooms and use them to play our favorite songs, bake a cake or order our shopping. Devices like Google Maps use machine learning to calculate the fastest route home based on previous traffic flow, Amazon suggests products we might like based on previous purchases and Netflix helps us find binge-worthy TV

shows based on our viewing habits. The options for incorporating AI and automation into our lives are truly limitless. Personal and home assistants Assistants like Siri from Apple, Alexa from Amazon, Cortana from Microsoft and Home from Google are becoming increasingly present in American homes. At last estimate, around 39 million Americans currently own a smart speaker, a 128% increase from last year! These personal assistants use a ‘natural language interface’ which means that users can talk to the device as they would a human assistant and ask it to complete certain tasks or provide specific information like the weather or directions. Devices are getting better at understanding human speech and

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