AI and Automation – skills for newly created jobs

October 2018

Reflecting on yesterday’s Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Business Insight Conference, it is clear that real collaboration must take place if jobs are to survive AI and automation. Tracy Black, director at CBI, represents 197 thousand businesses and believes a coordinated approach is required to plan for technological change. There is a need for early planning by first looking at workers’ existing skills and what can be changed to allow them to become upskilled. Yes, jobs will be replaced, but new opportunities will become available, and new jobs will be created.

AI and automation bringing around new jobs is positive, although there is a high level of resistance to change. Tracy was hired to automate an entire trading floor, and the result was 6 thousand IT people replacing 1 thousand traders. She believes that preparation should be embedded into the culture by planning for adaption and new skills, laying the groundwork and using an inclusive angle to ensure morale is kept high and change is accepted.

Ivan Mckee, minister for trade investment and innovation for the Scottish government, emphasised that Scotland is not just a consumer of technology but also an inventor of the technology. He believes that the Digital Boost workshops set up throughout the country can help businesses to up-skill staff with relevant technological advances to support their digital presence.

Our own Roy Henderson, director, gave emphasis on the idea that SMEs should and could persuade other SMEs to start their innovation journey, learn from one another and realise that AI and automation are not only for larger companies. Automate or stagnate ran clear, and the realisation that your job won’t necessarily disappear, it certainly will change. Long-term sights and approaches should be taken into account, Including a longer payback period of automation investment to help you become more competitive and grow.

An example of machine learning being used to learn and remember common spelling mistakes of automated recordings for audio medical typists so that eventually this role can be fully automated showed that intelligent technologies could slowly replace jobs and that 40% of worker time is automatable.

Representing John White & Son, Joyce Onuonga is a director of the 300-year-old company and described how she empowered workers by upskilling them with qualifications that allowed them to embrace the technological push the organisation was experiencing. She explained knowing the customer’s needs is a crucial step when bringing in the correct technology that is going to produce their competitive advantage. She, too, emphasised that partnerships are very important for small businesses.

Experiencing a technology push for the second time in her working life, Linda Steedman, CEO of eCom Scotland, compared the internet in business with AI and automation. She reflected on when workers could not envisage the use of the internet in their workplace, but low and behold, it is indeed all around us, and the same, she states, will AI and automation, “people believe it will not happen, but it will.”

In her experience, people used the term AI and automation as an umbrella term, not truly knowing the real meaning behind it, only fearing it. Linda believes middle ages management are scared of the cost and skills required to embrace the term, however, she stated that there is no PHD required to operate robots and now every organisation will require a fully automated system, incremental innovations might suffice.

Scotland is an innovative and forward-thinking nation, with many academic institutions and successful SMEs; by partnering and working together to share skills and experiences, it is clear that AI and automation are the future. Collaboration has to be a priority; plans have to be made so that the groundwork can commence so that Scotland can start to plan and prepare for the skills required to become a nation that is ready to fully embrace AI and automation. Closing the conference, Tracy rang true the theme throughout the morning, “doing nothing is not an option”.

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Read more about our automation here…

• Benefits of Automation
• The Benefits of Machine Vision Technology
• Robots & Cobots – What is the Difference?
• Robotic Automation
• What is a URS? Why is it Important?
• Cost of Industrial Automation
• Advantages & Disadvantages of Robotic Automation

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