From the sci-fi horror movies from the 80s of robots taking over the world, the use of AI has increasingly become a part of our everyday lives. We first see the rise of industrial robots in the 1950s as they were used for tasks too dangerous for the average human. As technology has grown and changed, we have been able to program artificial intelligence to do tasks that we normally would perform. We see countries such as Japan and China adopt a heavy integration of robots into service/customer-based industries. According to the BBC article “What the world can learn from Japan’s robots”, Japan has utilized robots in its workforce to combat its growing old population. We commonly see the hot debate that AI has been taking jobs away from thousands of everyday workers. From the use of self-checkouts at stores to robot servers, we wonder if there will be jobs for us in the future. Are you afraid AI will eventually leave you out of a job one day? I’ll leave that question to the readers to decide.
This robot mascot for Tokyo’s 2020 Summer Olympics was unveiled by Toyota last year. (Credit: Getty Images)
I believe AI is beneficial for everyone and it continues to blow our expectations of what it can achieve. Yes, I think it will take over low-skilled jobs, but it will force people in the workforce to gain unique skills. I recently ate at a Japanese restaurant in Duluth and was amazed when a robot came to my table to take the order. As someone who has worked in the service industry, the need for workers has always been at an all-time high. Reliable and hard-working individuals are hard to come by and robots will always be there. On the flip side, the con of social interaction will be at a loss if we fully transition to robots at restaurants. As a bartender, I know individuals go to restaurants to interact and talk to someone outside the house. I love going to my favorite restaurants and bars to have a small chat with the workers. It will be interesting to see how this will change in the future.
With the start of the COVID Pandemic, the world completely shut down, and when it was time for restaurants and other establishments to open there were no workers. Service industry workers were able to learn trades and go to school to find better jobs during the pandemic. According to the Boston Hospitality Review article “The Rise of Service Robots in the Hospitality Industry: Some Actionable Insights”, people were in favor of non-human workers as it could reduce transmission rates and allow for establishments to continue running smoothly. At an all-time low for workers, countries have been slowly transitioning their work base from humans to machines. For example, we see at a fast-food chain such as Mcdonald’s has transitioned to using self-service kiosks. The rise of digital innovation has changed the traditional ways of ordering with a cashier to physically tapping your order yourself. I would compare this to the Industrial Revolution as digital innovation is changing the ways of working, living, and fundamentally transforming our society.
McDonald’s Self Ordering Kiosk (Wall Street Journal, Kevin Hagen) WALL STREET JOURNAL
While politicians and others are warning us that we are on the verge of a job-stealing robot revolution, Japan is open arms to the use of robots in their everyday lives. They argue that the robots are already here, and we should be utilizing them rather than blaming them. We can see the appearance of robots in Japan’s restaurants, nursing homes, government offices, and just above we saw them at Tokyo’s Summer Olympics. Japan’s need for robots came out of necessity. With the declining population from low fertility and immigration, the use of robots has become a staple in their growing workforce. China is a country that has also invested some serious money in its robotic industry. According to the Forbes article “China’s Rise As A Robotic Nation”, China has dedicated its supply chain system to designing and manufacturing a large variety of robots in a short time for an affordable cost. As mentioned in the prior article, a manager explained that it was cheaper to buy a robot than to hire a human worker.
The rise of digital innovation is drastically shaping the way we live our everyday lives. The need for human knowledge and skill will never go away but jobs that don’t require such caliber will eventually go away forever. Recently, we have seen big tech companies lay off thousands of workers such as Google, Twitter, and Meta. These workers had college degrees and years of experience but overnight their job became nonexistent. If we don’t keep up with the changing times, we will be left behind. One of my favorite sayings is “If you don’t adapt, you die”. Although it specifically pertained to plants and animals, we see it today as individuals who refuse to adhere to these changes aren’t succeeding compared to their counterparts.
Sources:
China’s Rise As A Robotic Nation (forbes.com)
What the world can learn from Japan’s robots – BBC Worklife
The Impact of Robotics on the Service Industry (analyticsinsight.net)