Michael Rogers, Practical Futurist

Amazon continues to expand its enormous presence in the robotics industry, particularly in terms of warehouse automation.   Now both retail and fast food companies are also pushing forward in automating all aspects of their business.

Even so, employers continue to argue that automation will simply create new jobs for humans.

As employers struggle post-COVID to hire workers, it's growing clearer and clearer that the majority who can afford to do so will invest in artificial intelligence and automation.  Unlike human employees, technology gets cheaper as it gets better at the job, and as a capital expense it's handy for company finances.

Long-term, robotics and artificial intelligence will fundamentally alter the face of work in ways that our society is very poorly equipped to handle.  The "new jobs" will not appear out of thin air--smart management will need to look ahead to how to use existing staff to improve their quality of service.

It's a topic that very few politicians want to address, but which at some point later in this decade will rise to the level of a potential workforce disaster.