Even before the pandemic, scientists and engineers have highlighted the increasing importance of automation. Now that the pandemic has left its mark in the world’s economy, causing a surge in global unemployment, this statement is truer than ever.
Since the COVID-19 virus struck the world, companies are faced with a difficult task of providing revenue while still protecting the health of their employees. As companies try to reduce the frequency and duration of human-to-human contact through social distancing, technology poses as a solution. This automation is already much more prevalent than you may realize!
Already in airports, many forms of automation are being implemented for higher health security. For example, thermal scans take body temperature of passengers to distinguish any potential at-risk passengers with fevers. The latest disinfection technologies are also being used; Hong Kong airport is the first airport to employ a full-body disinfection channel. Others automation technologies include robots like Blue Ocean Robotics’ UVD Robots, which are wireless sterilizing robots carrying UV lights and operating autonomously within the airport or hospital. It can sterilize 99.9% of bacteria in its surrounding in under ten minutes! Even face recognition, already used by iPhone's, may begin to be implemented in airport security for the boarding process in order to reduce touching surfaces.
These are only a few examples of how airports have adapted to the limitations imposed by COVID. But organizational companies need to catch up, and many are realizing that accelerating their use of automation is the best answer.
But... will the integration of automation create permanent unemployment?
A very dramatic response is to answer yes. But the answer is much more complicated than that. The “rise of machines” has long been a debated topic, especially by researchers (see: Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne’s research paper “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible are Jobs to Computerization” from the University of Oxford). Naturally machines "taking over" does create anxiety, but, the truth is, as Frey and Michael indicate in their study, education attainment has a strong negative correlation with than occupation’s probability of computerization. That is to say, the higher education reached by a person, the less likely they are to lose their job to a machine because the job has been automatized.
Let’s not forget that although machines are impressive and perform their assigned job quickly and efficiently, there is still not one computer created today that can parallel itself to that of the human mind when it comes to critical thinking skills (arguably the most important difference, although defiantly not the sole difference). But where does critical thinking come from?
The ability to think for ourselves is a skill that is hard to automate. It is a skill we learn from practice and experience, and this skill can best be accomplished through education. So, while McKinsey & Company forecasts 38.6 million full-time equivalents to be displaced by automation by 2030 in the US, this prediction only accounts for easy-to-automate job. The occupations which involve empathy, judgment or human emotions are not only central to human culture and well-being, but they could not easily be replaced by machine. That is to say, jobs like health care workers, psychologists, judges, teachers, and social workers will always be in demand.
Not to mention the most effective answer to this theoretical “rise of machine” problem, is to become part of the solution for automation. That is, joining careers which teach skills about automatization, such as software engineering, human factors, robotics, and computer scientists. These professions will be needed more than ever as the world’s leading companies plunge into automatization.
Now is the time to learn new skills! There is nothing wrong with your liberal arts degree. Those are impressive educations that highlight critical thinking! But don't limit yourself. Learning to be flexible and adapt to our ever-changing world is also a valuable skill and companies will appreciate your dedication and well-roundedness.
Automation was not truly “replacing” human work before, rather automation was like an assistant to human work, aiding in very specific sub-tasks. However, as the pandemic crisis continues to impact the world, automation may be our best answer yet to avoid human contact while also furthering the economy, and the side effects seem rather positive: as it could lead to a more educated society.
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