Office Automation – Efficient Technology or Job Loss Nightmare?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation promise more efficient, less costly ways of performing traditional business tasks. Is this a new era of effortless processes and freedom from tedium or is it the prelude to job loss? How do business bring about exponential technological changes without disrupting the workforce and breaking their workers economic autonomy? Interestingly, the technology that causes job loss in one sector can be the same technology that creates jobs in another sector.
Take office jobs – your typical “white collar” job -- or in a less-flattering depiction -- the typical “paper-pusher.” Let’s face it, there are a lot of us out there. We work in small mom and pop companies and in large corporate enterprises. We pay invoices, analyze data, generate contracts, and so much more. From banks and doctor’s offices to government agencies and schools, there’s an entire, and mostly invisible, “back-office” that manages the paperwork that keeps every organization going.
Does office automation eliminate these jobs? Or does it create opportunities? It all depends upon how you look at it...
