Will robots take my job?
I have already taken Pepper robot to a wide variety of events. We were also in museums, agricultural fairs, schools and corporate events. One question was asked on each:
Will robots take my job?
I have both a short and a long answer to this. In short: no! And I’ll go into more detail in this blog post.
Why can’t robots take human jobs?
A robot is still a machine that is certainly not capable of two important things:
- creativity
- empathy
Robots cannot take away our tasks that require creativity and empathy.
Of course, it takes away the monotonous, repetitive tasks.
Because of these, we will have to face much more challenges in the workplace.
We will have tasks that require more complex thinking.
Work where human presence, empathy, is important will also not be done by robots on our behalf. By the way, there are already robots in such areas as well. There are some that help the elderly, some that help autistic children.
Some research is looking at what it will be like to work with robots.
How do robots affect stress at work?
Professor Isamu Yamamoto of Japan conducted a study on how the appearance of robots affects workplace stress.
According to the professor, more complex tasks require more creativity. It will make employees more satisfied, but also more stressful.
We’ve all experienced that when we face a bigger challenge, step out of our comfort zone, it also makes us tenser. At the same time, a successful solution to the problem fills us with satisfaction.
In what areas can we expect robotics?
Without wishing to be exhaustive, I present some industries where a high degree of automation takes place. Whatever area we are talking about, monotonous, often repetitive routine tasks can always be automated.
RPA
Robotic Process Automation means the automation of classic office processes. These are actually software robots, such a product being the SAP IRPA robot. It can automate IT workflows using machine learning. There are other similar software robots that are also used in banking and accounting, for example.
Industry 4.0
Industrial robotics is a huge industry and has undergone tremendous development recently. These systems can perform several types of robotic tasks:
- welding
- cutting
- non – destructive testing
- dispensers
The cost of entry for industrial robots is high, but they provide a very good return on investment (ROI), with the great advantage of efficiency (working faster, at lower cost). They produce higher quality and produce less scrap.
Customer service, contact
Thanks to machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), answering frequently asked questions can be increasingly automated. There are two basic products behind them:
- chatbot
- voicebot
In fact, they are able to answer questions that have occurred before and that you will find answers to in the database. Robots still can’t improvise, they can’t answer every question. They are a bit reminiscent of school answers, when the person in charge only knows the answer to the question he or she has learned (there are people who cut themselves out of such situations as well).
Chatbot
There are plenty of chatbots available in the market today. We communicate with chatbots, among others:
during online administration
information websites
when shopping online
at the time of booking
Voicebot
The voicebot is able to respond live and talk to people. I left this to the end, even though our company is working on developing such solutions.
These robots can be used in physical locations. They can be integrated into a humanoid robot or any other hardware that includes a microphone and speaker. We can meet him
- banks
- offices
- in stores
- at the information desks of shopping malls
- petrol stations
- airports
- and many other places!
Not so long ago, a robot Pepper served at a private clinic in Budapest, for example:
There is also an industry that is gaining strength as a kind of countertrend now.
Craft products and robotics?
In his video, Áron Tanos spoke about the fact that in addition to a high degree of automation and robotization, handicraft products will have an increasing value.
Today, for example, we can see this in the beer market. Craft beers and pubs are hugely popular, these products can be sold at much pepper prices.
It is conceivable that in the future many will make a living from the production of handicrafts.
Will robots take my job? – Key takeaways
The basic question of the blog: are robots losing their jobs?
- robots will only automate certain tasks
- jobs that require creativity and empathy are still safe
- working with robots gives people more complex tasks, which makes employees more stressed but also more satisfied
- as a kind of countertrend, the market for handicrafts is strengthening
If you are an employer and you deploy some robots: it is important to focus on the mental health and stress management of your employees.
In addition to those listed in the article, a wide variety of robots have been developed. Let us know if there is a robot we didn’t mention, but you’d like to read about it!
Sources and more readings:
https://www.automate.org/blogs/an-introduction-to-industrial-robots-for-beginners
https://www.pwc.com/hu/hu/kiadvanyok/assets/pdf/impact_of_automation_on_jobs.pdf
