The future of work: Project
- 1. NAME: FIBERESIMA FRANCISCA EMAIL: franciscafiberesima@yahoo.com The question before us today is understanding the changing nature of work and what government and private sector can do to prepare and support the workforce. What is work? A simple definition of work is the ability to perform duties or tasks regularly in exchange for wages or compensation. For centuries and millennia, this has been the standard practice for humans in order to provide for their selves and families, people had to engage in productive activity so as to actively support each order and make progress. Over the years the nature of work has evolved from primitive farming and hunting practices where one only had to work to support the immediate family and into community driven endeavors where humans work as a team to help each other make progress as a unit. In the modern day after the advent of the industrial era, corporations and firms created the present working model in line with modern governments where Work is more structured with better wages, benefits and health insurance for its workers. This vastly improved the security and living conditions of humans who weren’t subject to as much uncertainty as previous generations. Now we have come to a crossroads in human history where the nature of work is threatened not because of human shortcomings but because of our technological advancement , with the creation of super computers who have the processing power no human brain could match and the introduction of Artificial intelligence , a great number of existing jobs are threatened because companies are looking to save costs and introduce non-human technology which operate autonomously and can perform the same tasks as humans and in many cases even better. Some examples of Industries that face disruption and
- 2. could be threatened by Automation and A.I are: 1. AGRICULTURE - Modern tech has created automated tractors and harvesters that work independently by eliminating the need for humans to manually operate it. Some of these equipment plant, weed, spray herbicides and harvest crops without the need for any human to work it. A single tractor can perform the tasks of a 100 humans in half the time which means better crop yields but less jobs for low skilled workers 2. CALL CENTERS - Companies in the past had a team of employees tasked with handling customer requests and complaints, they were often available round the clock to attend to various needs of the paying customer, with the advent of AI and automation, these jobs are obsolete as robots and AI have been trained to answer and respond to these customer requests. 3. HEALTH CARE - Health Care as an industry also faces a huge disruption as technology has made it possible for AI and automation to identify diseases, high risks patients and also prescribe medication for these conditions hereby making people less reliant on doctors who are human and are prone to making mistakes and misdiagnoses. 4. RETAIL - We have grown accustomed to walking into stores and malls to be attended to by staff who we pay to or ask for help regarding items in the shops, with the advent of automation, a lot of these roles are becoming more and more obsolete as machine learning and automation are in place to provide assistance for shoppers. There many more examples of Industries that are at risks of eliminating the human face of work but all hope is not lost, with credit to human ingenuity and ability to solve problems, human solutions are being put in place to help reduce the
- 3. human capital and employment disruption these would cause. Countries and the private sector are encouraged to bring employees and citizens up to speed, by investing in education and tech savvy skills, some of the automation still needs human control to initiate and observe the process. A more radical approach is the introduction of a Universal Basic Income where everyone is paid a living wage, this doesn’t sound very practical at the moment but certain circles in academia and the tech industry are looking at the possibility. Arts and craftsmanship with a human touch can never go out of fashion so more people should be encouraged to go into design, sculpting, and literary works that need a human touch the audience can relate to. The world is an ever changing place and the people and nations that thrive are the ones who have foresight and are able to identify challenges ahead of time and create effective strategies to combat it. They say a stitch in time saves 9, Automation and Artificial intelligence is here to stay in the work force and humans can and will adjusts accordingly by creating new roles where they become one with the system working hand in hand and not Excluded by the system.