Covid Impact: Labour Automation, Digitisation Above Global Average

A World Economic Forum study showed on Wednesday that the COVID-19 pandemic is making businesses automate their workforce faster than anticipated globally, while companies with operations in India are accelerating their automation and digitization above the global average.

The year-long report on the impact of workplace automation and the prospects for the robot revolution found that thanks to COVID-19 the ‘future of employment’ arrived early and could lead to 85 million workers being replaced in medium and large companies in just 15 sectors and 26 economies in the next five years.

At the same time, 97 million new jobs will be generated by the robot revolution, but societies most at risk of disruption will need business and government support, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said.

In the care economy, in the fourth industrial revolution of technology industries such as artificial intelligence, and in content production fields, these fresh jobs will mostly emerge.

The study showed, “Businesses with operations in India are accelerating automation and digitisation above the global average. While 58% are accelerating automation of tasks, compared to 50% globally, as many as 87% are accelerating digitalisation of work processes, above the global average of 84%”.

Employers can split jobs evenly between humans and computers by 2025. Roles that harness human abilities will increase in demand. Machines will mainly concentrate on the processing of information and data, administrative tasks and regular manual jobs for white and blue-collar positions.

Management, advising, decision-making, reasoning, communication and engagement are the activities in which humans are set to maintain their competitive advantage.

Demand for employees who can fill positions in the green economy, roles at the forefront of the economy of data and artificial intelligence, as well as new roles in engineering, cloud computing, and product creation will increase.

But approximately 50% will need reskilling for their core skills for those employees who are likely to stay in their positions in the next five years.

The study included data from top recruiting and planning managers at the world’s largest businesses, as well as from LinkedIn, Coursera, FutureFit AI and ADP research partners.

It used estimates by senior business leaders from nearly 300 multinational firms, which employ 8 million employees collectively.

Analytical thinking, imagination and flexibility are among the top skills required over the next five years, according to the report, whereas the top emerging careers are data and artificial intelligence, content development and cloud computing.

As per the ‘Future of Jobs’ report, the most competitive companies would be those who choose to reskill and upskill current workers.

By 2025, 85 million workers globally in medium and large companies spanning 15 sectors and 26 economies will be affected by automation and a new division of labour between humans and machines. As automation and digitization in the workplace grow, jobs in areas such as data entry, accounting and administrative support are decreasing in demand.

More than 80% of business managers are accelerating plans to digitise work processes and introduce new technology, while, according to the report, 50% of companies expect to accelerate the outsourcing of some positions in their businesses.

Employment growth is now slowing in comparison to previous years, while job loss is accelerating, it said.

WEF Managing Director Ms. Saadia Zahidi said, “COVID-19 has accelerated the arrival of the future of work. Accelerating automation and the fallout from the COVID-19 recession has deepened existing inequalities across labour markets and reversed gains in employment made since the global financial crisis in 2007–08.”

In this challenging period, it is a double-disruption scenario that poses another challenge for employees and the window of opportunity for constructive management of this transition is rapidly closing, she stated.

Ms. Zahidi noted, “Businesses, governments and workers must plan to urgently work together to implement a new vision for the global workforce”.

Nearly 43% of companies surveyed suggest that due to technology convergence, they are set to reduce their workforce, 41% plan to increase their use of contractors for task-specialized work, and 34% plan to expand their workforce due to integration of technology.

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Source; PIB

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