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WILL AUTOMATION TAKE MY JOB?
Many people wonder if they will lose their jobs due to the great advances that technology has made when it comes to process automation. In my opinion, work as we know it will go through a major transformation that will make many of today’s tasks obsolete. That said, I am optimistic. I don’t see a future as bleak as the others. I would even dare to say that it could be a great opportunity if we knew how to manage it. This is not the first time that a new product, or a technological advance, has produced a reduction in the workforce. This phenomenon has been a constant throughout our history. Humans have always been generating ideas on how to make work simpler, more efficient and of higher quality.
Here’s an example to put this in context: A few years ago, if one of our ancestors wanted to dig a hole, he would do it by hand. If it was a big hole that needed to be dug quickly, it would take a lot of people to do it. Soon after, someone ahead of his time analyzed the situation, saw how much time and energy it took to dig holes, and the shovel was invented. Suddenly fewer people were needed to finish the task in the same amount of time or less.
Years later, another forward thinker felt that the task of digging a large hole with a shovel was too expensive because it required too many human resources and too much time, and time was extremely valuable. Through this need, the excavator was invented. Now the same task is done with just one person and in a fraction of the time.
So what happened to those who dug by hand and then shovel?
They may have felt out of place for a while, but then they adapted their skills to access new jobs where they required greater use of their intelligence. For example, repair the excavator.
This has always been the case, and with process automation it will be no different. Our priority right now is to prepare to make the adjustment period as short as possible. This is achieved by finding the spaces where our ingenuity is still superior and acquiring the necessary knowledge to occupy those spaces.
As an optimist, I ask myself: why should we, being such skilled beings, feel happy or comfortable, going to the office every day to perform the same mechanical activity over and over again? Shouldn’t we long for assignments that challenge our wits and show off our intellectual capabilities?
Return
Here’s an example to put this in context: A few years ago, if one of our ancestors wanted to dig a hole, he would do it by hand. If it was a big hole that needed to be dug quickly, it would take a lot of people to do it. Soon after, someone ahead of his time analyzed the situation, saw how much time and energy it took to dig holes, and the shovel was invented. Suddenly fewer people were needed to finish the task in the same amount of time or less.
Years later, another forward thinker felt that the task of digging a large hole with a shovel was too expensive because it required too many human resources and too much time, and time was extremely valuable. Through this need, the excavator was invented. Now the same task is done with just one person and in a fraction of the time.
So what happened to those who dug by hand and then shovel?
They may have felt out of place for a while, but then they adapted their skills to access new jobs where they required greater use of their intelligence. For example, repair the excavator.
This has always been the case, and with process automation it will be no different. Our priority right now is to prepare to make the adjustment period as short as possible. This is achieved by finding the spaces where our ingenuity is still superior and acquiring the necessary knowledge to occupy those spaces.
As an optimist, I ask myself: why should we, being such skilled beings, feel happy or comfortable, going to the office every day to perform the same mechanical activity over and over again? Shouldn’t we long for assignments that challenge our wits and show off our intellectual capabilities?
Return