White Collar Robots Are Coming for Our Jobs

Raymie Fruia

Published February 8th by Oxford University Press

https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-collar-robots-are-coming-for-jobs-11548939601?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=3 Jobs 

We are truly living in the future! For years engineers have dabbled with artificial intelligence and produced some amazing tech. Now, they have gone as far to make humanoid artificial intelligence robots!

These robots not only look like humans; talking, reacting, and moving but, also, recognize emotions in humans and respond accordingly. These robots are so lifelike and so intelligent they are about to make service jobs in many companies obsolete.

AI is an interesting topic to me because I enjoy enhancements in technology. I believe this would be one enhancement that would greatly influence marketing and business overall. Specifically, these AIs could change the value of a service. The introduction of AI answering services and help centers would in a way level the playing field of customer service. It would be interesting to see in the future, if, human vs. AI customer interaction changed the flow of business for companies.

These robots are already being used in many banks around the world as well as in companies like google and eBay. It makes sense economically to utilize these robots for jobs like answering phones and assisting customers with small tasks or concerns. This is because the AIs are able to handle multiple calls at once, speak 200 different languages, and know all the ins and outs of a company. It’s almost scary. 

Are we headed for a peaceful, highly efficient future like that idealized world of the Bicentennial Man? Where our robots become our house keeps, personal cooks, nannies and any other service type job you can think of?

Or should we be bracing ourselves for an AI take over?

At the vary least many people are concerned that these super human AIs will cause a tremendous amount of human job loss in the near future. The article states that by 2025 there will be a net job loss of 7% due to the AI uprising and that this switch will disorder professional and service jobs faster than globalization disrupted manufacturing in the 20^th century. To combat this, AI management and maintenance jobs are being created. Let’s hope this new workforce helps to enhance productivity and simplicity in the market place without taking away the livelihoods of human workers.