A robot took over my work… and I feel fine – Episode 1

The title of this article sounds like the title of a rock song. It contains a contrast that represents the feeling a lot of people have when it comes to robotic process automation: Fear and acquiescence.

Is Robotic Process Automation the new job killer? Or does is provide us with new opportunities and perhaps new jobs?

There has been a lot of writing recently on how the rise of the robots will eliminate millions of jobs. According to World Economic Forum research, about 7 million jobs will be lost and 2 million gained as a result of technological change. Administrative and office jobs will account for two-thirds of the losses, with “routine white-collar office functions at risk of being decimated.”

Impact on IT and BPO business
Now let’s take a look at the business I am working in: IT and BPO. Analyst firm Horses for Sources has estimated the total impact of automation on IT/BPO Services Workers.


Source: http://www.horsesforsources.com/indias-services-industry-set-to-lose-640000-low-skilled-jobs-to-automation-by#sthash.AVrPulvs.dpuf

They predict that there will be a worldwide decline of 14% in the IT and BPO Workforce. In India the decline is expected to be 14%, in the US 12%. Interesting detail is that the impact on the workforce in the Philippines is expected to be positive: resulting in an increase of 8%. For the rest of the world a decrease is expected of approximately 5% (UK 4%).

Understanding the impact of robotics
To understand the impact of robotics on our daily work and on our clients, we need to be able to:
  1. Assess our own work and point out which parts would be a candidate for robotics;
  2. Understand where the opportunities are for utilizing our unique skills, as humans and as individuals.

Do I think that robots will take over all our work?
Hell no, there is going to remain a need for the human touch.

Do I think robotics will impact the work of every single individual on this planet?
Yes, I do.

How would I feel about a robotic system taking over (part of) my job?
Let's discuss that in the next episode.

Relevant articles

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using the Golden Circle Model in your resume and LinkedIn profile

Image
The last three years I worked as a (senior) business consultant and information architect at software company Be Informed in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. We worked on an amazing product, a ground breaking model-driven business process platform. And my job was to explain the possibilities of this platform to various audiences. The Be Free program, which I launched in September 2013 was a marketing campaign that targeted on making a wider group of people familiar with the product. The campaign was a great success and I had the feeling that I was really helping people in proving their ideas to their customers and managers. But the interaction was on-line and from a distance, never close enough to really understand their business goals and issues.  The sudden end of my contract with Be Informed, forced me to rethink my professional goals and ambitions. What do I really want? Do I want to be a product marketer, focused on 'pushing' a product? Or do I want to be a business cons
Read more

Improve Product and Brand engagement through smart documentation - A White Paper about the challenge of creating user-centric documentation

Image
For most product manufacturers, delivering adequate documentation is a constant challenge. The increasing complexity of products and the stricter regulations for product documentation often lead to extensive documentation sets with 500+ pages manuals on-line or in print. The question is: how effective is all this documentation? Smart, user-centric documentation Users can be overwhelmed by long, jargon-loaded user manuals, and frustrated by a lack of clear answers. When customers don’t find a solution, blame inevitably falls on the product and the company. Bad documentation - incomplete, unclear, out of date - creates a negative engagement with products and brands. Figure 1. Smarter documentation asks users what they need to know Smart documentation leads users to success and satisfaction. These are the users who share their positive experience with family and friends, and convince them to become customers in turn. Using semantic technology, we can create the smart document
Read more

Laying the foundation for an effective article

Image
In this series of articles you can follow my process in writing a new article on Robotics. In the  first episode  I explained my approach towards writing, the  second article  focussed on setting the goal, choosing an audience and finding the right approach. Now that we have a clear vision on goal, audience and approach, it is time to start setting up the structure. Writing requires a structured approach Writing is all about structuring your thoughts. And although this is a process that most of us do in a more implicit way, it sometimes helps - and is actually best practice - to write down your structure on a very high level. The goal of my article is to change the opinion of the reader towards accepting Robotics as a something that brings value to a business and motivates employees, rather than being limited to reducing FTE. So the structure of my article should be build up around the motives used to build up this case. As I want my article to be short and sharp, I don't
Read more