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The pandemic brings more robots

What will be the impact of greater automation in the workplace?

The world’s major economies are moving again thanks to mass vaccination against the coronavirus. President Biden says a higher demand for workers will help them negotiate increased wages and better conditions. But instead of welcoming them back, many businesses are replacing workers with automation and artificial intelligence - often a much cheaper and more reliable option in the long term. Even before the pandemic, one influential think tank predicted nearly 25 percent of jobs are being lost to automation. And it is believed that the months of lockdowns have accelerated that shift, especially in routine low-skilled jobs that require minimal human interaction. So where is the shift happening and how has the pandemic affected trends? What jobs are under threat, what are educators and policymakers doing about it, and could it actually mean more people doing more creative and fulfilling jobs? Paul Henley is joined by a panel of experts to discuss how accelerated automation is changing the world of work.

Available now

49 minutes

Last on

Sat 10 Jul 2021 03:06GMT

Contributors

Michael Chui - Partner at the McKinsey Global Institute

Hamoon Ekhtiari - Founder and CEO of FutureFit

Rachel Statham - Senior Research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research

Kate O’Neill - Founder of KO Insights & host of The Tech Humanist Show

Also featuring:

Rob Carpenter - CEO and Founder of Valyant AI

Grace Lordan - Associate Professor, London School of Economics

Picture

A service robot at a digital workshop of SIASUN Robot & Automation Co., Ltd. in China. Credit:Β Yu Haiyang/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images

Broadcasts

  • Fri 9 Jul 2021 09:06GMT
  • Fri 9 Jul 2021 23:06GMT
  • Sat 10 Jul 2021 03:06GMT

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