It's no secret that during the second decade of the 21st century, governments are loathe to spend a cent more than they have to, and Centrelink is shaping up to be the touchstone for using automation as its salvation and failing badly at it.

One can easily imagine how the powers that be within Centrelink and its overarching Department of Human Services (DHS) ended up taking the decision it did.

According to Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) National Secretary Nadine Flood, after years on the receiving end of efficiency dividends -- government-speak for reducing spending by a single digit percentage and expecting the same level of output and service -- DHS suffered a 10 percent cut in 18 months.

"It is not an exaggeration to say that the Department of Human Services is an agency is crisis, and it's not something I say lightly," Flood told the Senate Community Affairs References Committee on Wednesday.

Flood said DHS is unable to provide Australians with a basic level of service following a reduction of 5,000 permanent roles by governments of both stripes.

Given such a situation, it is hardly surprising that management decided to automate a decades-old process. But there was a catch. The process itself was not sound, as thousands of former Centrelink recipients found out over the Christmas break.

In the pantheon of decision-making, automating an already bad process is up there with drinking two pots of coffee back to back: It will allow you to do stupid things at a much faster rate.

"The department has been put in a position where it has made decisions, with the recent introduction of the automated debt recovery program, to remove or reduce the role of DHS staff in that crucial hands-on element of the work -- investigating suspected overpayments and advising on appropriate debt recovery actions," Flood said.

"This new approach which removes or reduces human oversight of suspected overpayments and reduces employees' roles at a range of elements of the system has been an absolute disaster for many Centrelink users, but also for the workers charged with implementing a system they know to be deeply flawed and unfair."

Copping some flack for its perceived involvement in the data-matching, the Australian Tax Office was at pains to distance itself from DHS, and said it merely provided annual payment summaries to DHS, as it had done for years. If there was any division by 26 in this process to miscalculate fortnight income and generate debt notices, the ATO was not the source of it.

With an environment focused on saving money, and a budget target of collecting AU$1.2 billion from former welfare recipients, it is disturbing but not surprising that DHS took its human process and ported it across to a machine.

"If we want to look at where robodebt has come from, it is a fairly obvious consequence of a department that no longer has the resources to provide effective services," Flood said.

"It has, of course, proven to be a classic false economy -- and has created costly reverse workflows where staff are taken offline to deal with complex and difficult disputes over incorrectly raised automated debts.

"Sadly, I would suggest in the last few years, one of the things DHS has become an expert in is band-aid solutions as it lurched from one crisis to the next -- this is simply the largest of those."

In its defence, DHS told the committee a lot of the trouble was caused by people not engaging with the notices they were sent.

"I think what we underestimated was how many people would not clarify, and would not engage," DHS Secretary Kathryn Campbell said.

"If I was to sum up what the problem has been, it is that when we wrote those initial letters, that recipients and former recipients didn't engage."

36 million unanswered calls would suggest that when Australians engaged, DHS was wholly unable to cope with what it had unleashed.

Automation has been far from Centrelink's saviour; in fact, it has been a very naughty boy.

Excerpt from:

Centrelink robodebt resulted in automation false economy: CPSU - ZDNet

"We cannot solve our problems with the same kind of thinking that we used when we created them," Albert Einstein supposedly said. One of his namesakes, an artificial intelligence called Einstein that Salesforce is incorporating into all of its products, embodies that sentiment: Salesforce is betting that human cognition won't drive its next wave of commercial growth. Rather, machine learning will push Salesforce's products deeper into its clients' businesses, and help Salesforce penetrate new companies, by augmenting human decision-making.

If Einstein is anywhere near as useful as Salesforce claims, the technology will supplant some human workers -- maybe a lot of them. Salesforce wants to make sales and marketing more efficient, which means that fewer people will be needed accomplish the same tasks. CEO Marc Benioff once wrote, "The only constant in the technology industry is change." Automation has hit factory workers hard, and soon members of the information economy will feel the same pain. The deadline may arrive before most knowledge workers, or the societies they occupy, are prepared.

On Tuesday, Salesforce held a "customer kickoff" event. It executives and partners discussed product development, with a heavy focus on Einstein's artificial intelligence capabilities. IBM CEO Ginni Rometty spoke briefly, apropos the two companies' recently announced partnership. "2017 is the year that AI enters the world at scale," she said. "The cognitive era is just beginning."

Of course, humans have engaged in cognition as long as the species has existed. What Rometty meant is we won't keep our monopoly on thought for long.

AI has been subject to enough hype cycles that default skepticism is warranted. However, recent technological breakthroughs suggest that the frothy press coverage and equally frothy corporate salivation may indicate something real this time. Google's DeepMind division programmed an AI that beat a complex strategy game before anyone expected it to be able to. Andrew Ng, renowned machine learning expert and chief scientist at Baidu, told the Wall Street Journal, "I think we're in the phase where AI will change pretty much every major industry."

Ng added, "Things may change in the future, but one rule of thumb today is that almost anything that a typical person can do with less than one second of mental thought we can either now or in the very near future automate with AI." Perhaps human workers should be frightened, since "there are a lot of jobs that can be accomplished by stringing together many one-second tasks."

Salesforce's Einstein is already doing some of this. In practical terms, the AI will not provoke an immediate revolution -- it's a version of what many SaaS clients expect from the applications they pay for. You could even argue that innovation hides in plain sight. Einstein enables prosaic but immensely useful functions like automated lead-scoring, based on information pulled into Salesforce's system. Einstein can aggregate signals such as whether a contact has looked at marketing materials (e.g. a webinar or whitepaper), and what their role is within the target organization.

"In a world powered by AI, signals are important," chief product officer Alex Dayon noted at the customer kickoff event. Einstein is able to interpret a variety of data inputs without much setup. In fact, most of Einstein's capabilities are available out of the box. Other features like Einstein Vision have to be integrated by developers. Salesforce is bringing automatic customization to all of its customers, while enabling those with greater resources to craft a deeper layer of specialized processes.

Some levels of customization are designed to be leveraged by non-technical users. "I can create a lead-management process with clicks, not code," product marketing EVP Stephanie Buscemi said. Salespeople who use Einstein are "not just smarter, they're also more productive," according to Buscemi.

Today's productivity gains are tomorrow's layoffs. It's not that productivity gains are bad. Rather, increased efficiency simply means that fewer inputs produce greater outputs. As it stands, labor is among the most significant inputs for a majority of businesses. The acceleration of what artificial intelligence can do is poised to multiply the impact of individual human workers -- while obsoleting others.

See the article here:

Salesforce's Big Bet on AI Shows How Automation Will Affect Knowledge Workers - Inc.com

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), a provider of investor communications and technology-driven solutions for broker-dealers, banks, and mutual funds, has acquired Message Automation Limited, helping extend its global post-trade control capabilities to both the sell-side and buy-side firms across the capital markets space.

Message Automation Limited, is a provider of post-trade control solutions the acquisition will aim to help strengthen Broadridges ability to transform its risk and compliance capabilities. This will include an emphasis on complex asset classes, including capital markets.

The acquisition of Message Automation is also important as Broadridge will be able to utilize its central data model, which is equipped to handle new regulations and market changes, such as the upcoming passage of MiFID II legislation.

The group had already been working with global firms in preparation for the January 2018 deadline, having already teamed up with Broadridge on addressing self-reporting needs for buy-side firms.

According to Charlie Marchesani, President of the Global Technology and Operations division of Broadridge, in a statement on the acquisition: The addition of Message Automation will enhance our ability to help companies to reduce risk and enhance compliance while improving operational efficiency.

This is the third acquisition related to broadening our post-trade and data analytics capabilities. These recent acquisitions in securities financing, collateral management, and derivatives clearing have helped Broadridge establish a comprehensive suite of capabilities across asset classes globally, benefiting our clients who are seeking more efficiency from a single global market provider, he added.

Companies are faced with the growing challenge of improving their regulatory compliance and operational efficiency, under significant deadline pressures, explained Tom Carey, President of Global Technology and Operations International for Broadridge.

Our unique operational and technological insights, complemented by Message Automations leading technology and expertise on derivatives processing models, enable us to help clients address the fragmentation of data and connectivity standards in the post-trade marketplace.

We share Broadridges focus on delivering exceptional business value to clients, and we look forward to leveraging Broadridges scale and relationships to help accelerate industry transformation through our post-trade control solutions, said Hugh Daly, co-founder and CEO, Message Automation.

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Broadridge Acquires Message Automation, Fortifying Post-Trade Solutions - Finance Magnates

The Age of Automation

Much has been said about how automation will affect employment and the economy. In almost every conversation, the looming threat of job displacement is focused on a very specific sector: the blue-collar job market.

One frequently cited study published back in 2013 by Oxford University and the Oxford Martin School says that 47 percent of jobs in the US will be automated in the next 20 years. In Canada, a study conducted by the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship says that 40 percent of jobs in the country will be taken over by machines in the next decade or two. In the UK, theyre predicting that 850,000 jobs will be automated by 2030. And in Southeast Asia, an estimated 137 million workers are in danger of losing their jobs in the next 20 years.

These predictions are premised on the fact that machines are now more than capable of completing repetitive jobs that most blue-collar human workers are handling today. But technology isnt going to stop there. Artificial intelligence(AI)is getting more sophisticated, implying that its not only the jobs defined by formulaic processes that are in danger, but also creative, service and knowledge-based professions.

We are starting to see in fields like medicine, law, investment banking, dramatic increases in the ability of computers to think as well or better than humans. And thats really the game-changer here. Because thats something that we have never seen before, says Sunil Johal, a public policy expert forCBC News.

Granted, the implications of more intelligent automation on white collar jobs are all speculative at this point. Theres little data to support how much automation will affect that job market, mostly because experts believe its impactwill be far more subtle than inblue- collar industries. In white-collar industries, theres more opportunity to shuffle employees around, or slowly phase out jobs, which means the threat of automation wont be as dramatic. That being said, it willchange things.

Johal believes that to keep up, one must actively develop new skills that will adapt to the changing needs of the job market.

If Canada doesnt take this seriously, we are going to see many Canadians left on the sidelines of the labour market, he adds. They are not going to be able to get back into the job force.

Read the original here:

The Automation Upheaval Won't Be Limited to Blue-Collar Jobs - Futurism

The current job description of an accounts payable clerk will disappear in possibly as little as 20 years. This may seem bleak, but the reality is that software advances, developments in robotics, AI and machine learning are bringing a new age of automation one in which machines will be able to outperform humans in various work tasks.

According to McKinsey Global institutes January 2017 report on the future of automation, nearly half of the activities that people are paid to do in the global economy can be automated by adapting currently demonstrated technology. Activities most susceptible to this automation are repetitive, non-creative tasks such as data collection and processing. This puts at risk many jobs in customer service, sales, invoicing, account management and other data entry positions, not the least of which includes AP clerks.

However, these projections dont necessarily mean that the future is hopeless for those holding AP positions. In McKinseys words, People will need to continue working alongside machines to produce the growth in per capita GDP to which countries around the world aspire.

Skilled employees will work alongside software automation and RPA (robotic process automation) to approve data analyzation, guide software in the right direction and even perform tasks that we may not know exist yet. This will require some new skills-based learning, but it is also an opportunity for AP department employees to step out from behind the curtain, develop their job descriptions and have more interesting and meaningful jobs. Employees will be able to focus on raising their profile, supporting the business with more meaningful work, providing good internal service, and in turn, be more motivated.

Reckon this is wishful thinking? Think again. Its been done before.

After all, the first computers wore skirts. In the early decades of the 1900s, mathematical and technical calculations were made manually rather than by machine. This work required a large workforce to compute all the information. With the industrial boom brought on by WWII, organizations like NASA began recruiting women for this work, who they called computers. It has even been said that the first computers wore skirts.

Eventually, as the machines we know today as computers began to develop, many of these manual tasks were automated. Rather than discarding the women that had previously done this job, NASA and other organizations simply retrained employees to work alongside these machines and perform less menial tasks. This conscious step allowed the women who had been the quiet backbone of the organization to make themselves and their work known.

One example recently made popular by the book and award-winning film Hidden Figures is that of African-American physicist and mathematician Katherine Johnson and her team. Johnson worked as a computer on NASAs early team from 1953-1958, where she analyzed topics such as gust alleviation for aircrafts. When NASA used electronic computers for the first time to calculate John Glenns first orbit around the earth, officials asked Johnson to verify the computers numbers and her reputation for accuracy helped establish confidence in the new technology. Johnson herself went on to use these new computers to aid in calculations until her retirement in 1986. Similarly, the value of AP clerks and other accounting professionals will shift as they become valuable as human analysts and strategists, vital in the role of validating a machines processes.

These kinds of shifts can be seen throughout history, like in the move away from agriculture and decreases in manufacturing share of employment in the United States, both of which were accompanied by the creation of new types of work not foreseen at the time.

We can expect a similar response to automation in the accounts payable department. As AP software becomes more advanced, clerks and controllers will evolve to work with it, not be replaced by it. The important work of AP clerks will no longer be in the shadows. The job will be transformed from paper pusher to vital business asset.

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Voices The hidden figures behind automation - Accounting Today

Network World | Mar 9, 2017 6:02 AM PT

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As most internet users are aware, last week Amazon faced one of its largest service outages since the launch of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The list of disrupted businesses read like a dire who's who of the internet, from Netflix to Pinterest to Airbnb. The cause of the AWS S3 outage appears to be a fat-finger typo by an authorized Amazon system administrator who was troubleshooting an unrelated problem.

It happens, and it happens often.

According to research from Ponemon Institutein 2016, at least 22 percent of data center outages each year are caused by human error. Outages have far-ranging impacts, from business disruption and lost revenue, to end user productivity. The average cost of an outage has increased by 38 percent since 2010 from $505,502 to $740,357 in 2016.

The fact that Amazon has not experienced many more outages like this so far is a testament to just how good their processes truly are. Apparently, though, the public cloud is not going to save us from human error. We should all have a contingency for these inevitable outages. One of the most striking features of this outage was just how businesses had such a plan in place.

Many just waited on Amazon to fix the problem and took the cue to take a break, go outside and see the sunshine. Let's call that "service provider induced learned helplessness," and it can happen when your service provider is excellent, even superb. It is laboring luxuriously under the delusion that your service provider will always be there to mitigate your disaster and that your operational responsibility ends with their SLA. Nice work if you can get it.

Others, as frantic Twitter and forum chronologies show, worked furiously to restore their sites as fast as possible. A few just flipped a switch to their backup and quietly went on with their day, and a handful flipped no switch at all. How did they do it?

Rob Scott, vice president of software at the engagement company Spire, described a "sense of awe watching the automatic mitigation as it happened" using Kubernetes. Kubernetes, an open-source project originally from Google, can orchestrate complex multi-tier applications in near real time. In Spire's case, Kubernetes detected the outage immediately with active monitoring, automatically replacing failed servers with new ones in another availability zone.

Kubernetes has seen a lot of activity recently, with dozens of vendors piling on as partners and contributors. Although the system is maturing rapidly, Kubernetes is known for its complexity, and getting the system running can still be a real challenge. A recent release, version 1.4, attempts to simplify Kubernetes deployment with a new tool called kubeadm.

Other open-source projects such asOASIS TOSCA, Hashicorp's Terraformand Docker's Compose, take a different approach. In this model, system administrators predefine the desired state using a high-level programming or configuration language. There are many advantages to this method. Changes are implemented in code and placed into software revision control systems like git. System administrators rely upon the orchestrator to converge the cloud environment to the target state automatically. Upgrading an entire environment to new versions of application servers can be as easy as running a single command.

Despite the availability of so many excellent tools, the real-world difficulty of running failover and replication in the cloud was still a common complaint in postmortem discussion around the internet. The complexity of even a single cloud service provider like Amazon is not easily conquered by a single tool. There is still a multi-year battle between numerous vendors and open-source projects over cloud orchestration, and as of yet, there is still no clear winner. This situation leaves developer and IT teams in the precarious position of needing to make a rather risky bet on the future of cloud automation.

At this point, the safest best is still on containerization being a pillar of the automated future. It is now almost a foregone conclusion that containers will be the de facto packaging for microservices (and everything else) going forward, so the work of containerizing will surely pay dividends for IT and development teams. Just take care to avoid overinvesting in a solution that strays too far from the mindset of the underlying containerization layer.

This article is published as part of the IDG Contributor Network. Want to Join?

James Thomason is the CTO of HyperGrid. He is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with a career track record of $1.1 billion in successful acquisitions and IPOs.

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Recent Amazon outage highlights need for cloud automation - Network World

The Danish maker of collaborative robots (cobots), with U.S. headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich., displayed a UR robot arm mounted to a Festo seventh axis linear actuator at the February show in Anaheim.

A Universal Robots USA, Inc. spokesperson said the company collaborated with automation technology supplier Festo and safeguard detection supplier SICK Sensor Intelligence to create the operational mock up. In most cases, Universal Robots noted that a 7-axis setup of this style, traversing between machines, would require caging and communication of hard safety lines, including a lot of handshakes between the disparate pieces of equipment.

In this set up, a SICK area scanner detects the presence of people and slows down the robots movements at one distance, with the ability to completely stop the traversing automation if people get too close. True to the flexible nature of URs automation, the entire setup was mounted on casters, enabling it to be wheeled to different cells in a plant and repurposed as needed.

In a release, UR western region sales manager, Craig Tomita said, We see a collaborative robot as a tool on demand as neededone that can quickly be transitioned between a wide variety of automated tasks. Flexibility in manufacturing involves ability to deal with variation in volumes, design and material handling as well as variations in the process sequences.

At the show, the 7-axis display ran alongside a glue-dispensing application from UR systems integrator SP Manufacturing Solutions. The company also discussed the creation of its online Academy. The intention there is to create a free open source development space for the authoring of automation programs, with UR likening it to Apples App store. A space where UR users can create and share software for the cobots.

Okay, maybe having robots serving beer (as at this K 2016 demo) is not at the top of the list of tasks that you would consider automating in your plant.

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AUTOMATION: Cobot Adds a 7th Axis - Plastics Technology

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by Shannon K. O'Neil March 7, 2017

While politicians have focused primarily on the effects of trade, automation is rapidly transforming the nature of work. A recent McKinsey report estimates that half of the labor done today can be turned over to machines, fundamentally changing the nature of manufacturing, retail, food services, and data processing among other sectors. They predict that China, India, the United States, and Japan will see the largest and fastest shifts as a combination of easy capital, aging populations, and falling productivity speeds the transition away from a human workforce. By their calculations, nearly 400 million Chinese and 235 million Indian workers compete with robots today. In the United States and Japan, some 60 percent of jobs are susceptible to change. Although positions may not disappear altogether, the work people do will change, as roughly a third of todays repetitive tasks could be taken over by machines.

Latin America will also see significant change with roughly half of the current labor mix in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina vulnerable to automation, a higher percentage than the United States. Sales of robots already top $2 billion a year, showing that the shift is already underway.

Brazil looks the most vulnerable to change, as its mix of stagnant productivity, an aging population, and the infamous Brazil cost make labor expensive. In manufacturing, retail, transportation, and agriculture more than half the work done by 32 million employees could be automated.

Though Argentinas economy is slightly less susceptible to automation, its aging population combined with a decade long lack of investment could lead companies to step up capital spending on robotics under the more market friendly Macri government. Slowing the process down are strong unions and unreliable electricity. But over half of its agricultural and manufacturing jobs are vulnerable.

Structurally, Mexico has the highest potential to automate, as almost two-thirds of the work done in advanced manufacturing plastic, auto, and aerospace sectors could be phased out, affecting some five million workers. Yet the process in Mexico will likely be slower, cushioned by its younger population and lower wages.

The global question is what comes afterward. The majority techno-optimists believe new jobs will emerge for these displaced workers, following the industrial and agricultural revolutions before. They point to car mechanics, coal miners, engineers and more recently app developers as previously unimaginable gigs that have appeared. The pessimists see this time as indeed different, as with the rise of artificial intelligence making machines viable substitutes for people.

Leaning optimistic, McKinseys advice for advanced nations rings just as true for Latin America. Governments need to expand social safety nets to protect those most vulnerable to these coming labor upheavals. They also need to transform schools and educational curriculums to train a twenty-first century workforce that complements rather competes with robots, encouraging creativity, flexibility, and entrepreneurship. And governments need to support basic research and innovation, helping them shape the ongoing revolution. For Latin America especially, it means promoting these types of investments, as even though they disrupt todays status quo they will help ensure the region isnt left behind in these global shifts.

CFR seeks to foster civil and informed discussion of foreign policy issues. Opinions expressed on CFR blogs are solely those of the author or commenter, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions. All comments must abide by CFR's guidelines and will be moderated prior to posting.

Latin Americas Moment looks at economic, political, and social issues and trends throughout the Western Hemisphere.

While politicians have focused primarily on the effects of trade, automation is rapidly transforming the nature of work. A recent

This morning, I had the privilege of testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations at a hearing titled

View article in Spanish, originally published in El Financiero. Mexicos presidential elections for decades have been a one shot deal.

A wave of corruption scandals has roiled Latin America in recent years, from Chiles campaign finance affairs, through Mexicos Casa

Last week while in Mexico I had the chance to talk to Alejandro Domnguez, Reporter for Milenio TV about U.S.-Mexico

In The Hacked World Order, CFR Senior Fellow Adam Segal shows how governments use the web to wage war and spy on, coerce, and damage each other. More

Red Team provides an in-depth investigation into the work of red teams, revealing the best practices, most common pitfalls, and most effective applications of these modern-day devil's advocates. More

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Williams argues that the status quo for peace operations in untenable and that greater U.S. involvement is necessary to enhance the quality and success of peacekeeping missions.

The authors argue that the United States has responded inadequately to the rise of Chinese power and recommend placing less strategic emphasis on the goal of integrating China into the international system and more on balancing China's rise.

Campbell evaluates the implications of the Boko Haram insurgency and recommends that the United States support Nigerian efforts to address the drivers of Boko Haram, such as poverty and corruption, and to foster stronger ties with Nigerian civil society.

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CG Power sells automation business The Hindu CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd. (formerly Crompton Greaves Ltd.) of the Avantha Group, has announced the sale of its B2B automation business to Alfanar for an enterprise value of 120 million (more than 840 crore). The deal is effective March 6. Crompton up over 4% on close of stake sale in automation bizMoneycontrol.com CG announces sale of B2B automation business to AlfanarHindu Business Line Crompton Greaves closes automation biz sale to AlfanarDaily News & Analysis all 5 news articles »

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CG Power sells automation business - The Hindu

Computers that learn and think virtual robots as well as physical ones on store aisles to help shoppers will be the next wave of technology to permeate the fashion and retail markets.

After years of investments to support omnichannel commerce, retailers and brands are now looking at automation, machine learning, cognitive computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to evolve the shopping experience as well as improve product life cycles, according to the latest survey by solution provider Zebra Technologies. The 2017 Retail Vision Study queried close to 1,700 retail executivesfrom North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and theMiddle East.

Researchers of the report said over the next five years, retailers and brands will deploy smart technologies as a way to provide shoppers with new levels of personalization, speed and convenience. The study is a follow-up to a global report published in 2012.

The study revealed that nearly 70 percent of retail decision makers surveyed are ready to make changes to adopt the Internet of Things, and 65 percent plan to invest in automation technologies for inventory management and planogram compliance by 2021, the researchers said.

Tom Moore, industry lead for retail and hospitality in North America at Zebra Technologies, told WWD that he wasnt surprised by the findings of this years study. He cited the overwhelming interest in these topics by attendees at the National Retail Federation Big Show in January.

The results of the survey validate what my team is hearing everyday on the ground, Moore said, adding that retailers are looking for solutions to help them overcome the challenges of todays retail market, which has left many companies behind, he noted.

Moore said the brick-and-mortar retail market is undergoing a significant transformation, and technology is driving much of it. At NRF, for example, Moore said many of the discussions he and his team had with retailers centered on fulfillment. This means more than just getting a product to a consumer, he said. The goal is to fully integrate e-commerce with the physical store, which requires complete visibility of inventory on an stockkeeping-unitlevel. Indeed, regarding the integration ofonline and in-store, 78 percent of respondents in the survey said it was business critical to do so.

Retailers are also faced withother challenges such as retaining customers while acquiring new ones. Retailers and brands are expected to be masters of personalization, customization and convenience. The continued rise of online shopping will challenge retailers to provide unprecedented levels of convenience to help drive customer loyalty, the Zebra report noted. By 2021, 65 percent of retailers plan to explore innovative delivery services, such as delivering to workplaces, homes and even parked cars.

The survey found that nearly 80 percent of retailers will be able to customize the store visit for customers as a majority of them will know when a specific customer is in the store. This will be enabled through technology such as micro-locationing, allowing retailers to capture more data, accuracy and customer insights.

Mobile devices are expected to play an important role. To speed check-out lines, retailers are planning to invest in mobile devices, kiosks and tablets to increase payment options, the researchers noted. Eighty-seven percent of retailers will deploy mobile point-of-sale[MPOS] devices by 2021, enabling them to scan and accept credit or debit payments anywhere in the store.

And if theyre not already learning how to better leverage data, retailers are expected to make it a priority. By 2021, at least 75 percent of retailers anticipate investing in predictive and software analytics for loss prevention and price optimization along with cameras and video analytics for operational purposes and improving the overall customer experience, the report stated.

Regarding automation and robotics, the report said 57 percent of respondents believe automation will shape the industry by 2021 helping retailers pack and ship orders, track inventory, check in-store inventory levels and assist customers in finding items.

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Retailers Eye Machine Learning, Automation and the IoT to Evolve Shopping Experience - WWD

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As more and more businesses find ways to eliminate employees, Wendys being the latest, its predicted by Yuval Noah Harari in his new book Homo Deus; A Brief History of Tomorrow that in the coming years by 2020 artificial intelligence will make it possible to eliminate much more than service and manufacturing jobs. How about doctors, teachers, soldiers, and truckers to name a few? Harrari tells the New York Posts Reed Tucker I think we should be worried and worried now

According to a report issued in 2015 by McKinsey Global Institute, a business think tank, 95 percent of jobs should be safe until 2020, then technology will change the landscape rapidly.

Self driving cars will wipe out the trucking industry. An Uber truck has already made its first driverless delivery taking 50,000 cans of beer 120 miles from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs. Amazon has already opened stores where sales people and cashiers are not needed. In the military, soldiers can be replaced by robots and drones that will always get it right and cannot be tortured.

What about the higher paying jobs like teachers and doctors? A recent experiment found that a computer algorithm correctly diagnosed 90 percent of the lung cancer cases presented to it. This could make the general practitioner obsolete as well as schools. Teachers could be replaced by AIs which can be tailored for the specific needs of the student and placed in a smart phone.

So whats a worker to do? That will be the big question facing the future leaders as not everyone will be able to get a job in these new fields, yet we all will need to be supported.

Harrari talks about people dealing with not being needed and what they will do with their time. Will they immerse themselves in video games? drugs? What will drugs be like in the coming years? Will less harmful ones be developed and legalized?

The only way I can see for us to stay ahead of this rapidly advancing curve is to learn to do as many things as you possibly can and be ready to change and adapt to new things at a moments notice. Is your job robot proof? Is there something else that you can do that isnt? You should think about it, just in case.

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Think your job is safe from automation? Think again! - New Jersey 101.5 FM Radio

Brocade networking solutions help the worlds leading organizations turn their networks into platforms for business innovation as they transition to todays era of digital business.

IT professionals are singing the praises of automation. Its a transformative technology practice that allows IT to improve agility and the availability of services while liberating IT staff from time-consuming routine tasks. These are essential factors as organizations transition to digital business.

But IT leaders also preach prudence. Automation in IT must be approached with a clear strategy. It must be fully understood, skillfully deployed, and diligently monitored, tested, and optimized.

We reached out to influential IT leaders to learn what factors and best practices organizations should consider in order to realize the maximum benefits of automation in the data center. Heres what they said.

Dan Conde (@dconde_esg), cloud and network infrastructure analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, summarizes some of the use cases of automation and its potential to influence enterprise IT:

Interest in automation has arisen for many reasons. Fundamentally, it is to assist in areas where there are skills shortages or issues related to scale. However, developments like the DevOps style of infrastructure management also contribute to its interest. One way to help is to treat infrastructure as code to help configure and provision systems using DevOps-style tools and scripts. Another important way is to use automation as a way to automate the workflow. This helps integration between different teams - and [Enterprise Strategy Group] research shows integration between network operations and other IT domains to be one of the biggest challenges facing the organizations networking teams.

Of course, the use of automation will be unique to every organization which is exactly why each company must make sure it is fully prepared before leaping in. This is a common theme among those that advocate for a deliberate approach.

Automating tasks and orchestrating processes is something that every IT organization should focus on when the time is right. However, before they do, the best thing that IT organizations can do is to ensure that everyone involved gets thoroughly educated on tools/systems that will be used for automation/orchestration as well as the business applications AND users that are involved. You cant automate what you dont understand and you cant automate properly unless you understand automation scripting and tools.

- David Davis (@DavidMDavis), Partner at ActualTechMedia.com

Businesses considering automation should first take the time to understand their technology processes thoroughly. That discovery process will inform their automation practice.

- Ethan Banks (@ecbanks), co-founder at Packet Pushers

While the opportunities to automate data center operations are becoming greater every day, IT professionals have to continue to strengthen their own skills to successfully select, implement, and utilize the right automation tools to meet their specific IT and business management needs.

-Jeffrey Kaplan (@thinkstrategies), managing director at THINKstrategies, Inc.

IT leaders understand how essential automation will be, but they stress the importance of maintaining a perpetual strategy focused on maximizing the business value that automation can deliver.

Always start by understanding user requirements and how this impacts the organization. Remember, automation is designed to make both IT and business processes easier. And, a major part of this digital transformation were experiencing is because of the digital user. In designing automation for the data center, leverage the technology as a direct tool to help improve overall processes; and, like any tool, make sure to review your automation settings for optimal performance.

- Bill Kleyman (@QuadStack), chief technical officer at MTM Technologies

Critical to any automation initiative is a reporting system that monitors the system for out-of-scope effects. Automation is critical in virtualized environments to maximize the use of invested assets by avoiding variable HR costs as a factor of total assets invested.

-Jon Freeman (@Wi_FiMAN), vice president WorldWide sales and cloud design

The best thing you can do when implementing and using automated systems in your business is to test and optimize. A broken system will not delight your customers, and an optimized system will create an enjoyable experience for your customer and deliver better results for your business.

- Robyn Kyberd (@RobynKyberd), digital marketing consultant at Optimise and Grow Online

Indeed, automation promises to shake things up. Many organizations that embrace this technology will reap the benefits of increased efficiency and improvements to their products and servicesas well as the customer experience they deliver.

But as this transformation takes hold, IT leaders must prepare their teams for a future business environment that may look entirely different than the one they were hired into. Developing and integrating the technologies that will form that future is a big responsibility, and riding it out will require some outside-the-box ideas.

Or, as Sarah Austin (@sarahaustin), a data scientist and technologist, puts it:

Companies must sharpen their skills in creative thinking. Automation will replace mundane tasks, which will open more opportunity for creative strategies.

Automation is one of the pivotal tools that will help IT leaders envision and invent the future digital landscape - but only if they approach it with precision and practice it with diligence.

To learn more about automation, visit our blog page on Network World.com

To see how Brocade can help automate your organization, visit us here.

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IT Professionals Weigh in on Enterprise Automation - Network World

Adelaide Airport has announced it has replaced its key operational IT systems with automated solutions provided by Madrid-based IT firm Amadeus.

The airport has adopted Amadeus' full suite of cloud-based airport data management systems, which is expected to streamline Adelaide Airport's management of aircraft parking, boarding gates, check-in desks, customer information, and other mission critical airport terminal services.

"With our new terminal hotel about to start construction, the plans for the expansion of the terminal well advanced and new check-in kiosks and automated baggage systems being deployed, we need the right airport technology partner that can support our growth," said David Blackwell, Adelaide Airport executive general manager for customer service.

With more than 8 million passengers annually and a forecast of more than 18 million passengers by 2034, Adelaide Airport said it has implemented three Amadeus' Airport Solutions -- Airport Operational Database, Airport Fixed Resource Management Solution, and Flight Information Display System -- in a bid to meet growth plans and be "future-ready".

"These sophisticated aeronautical airport data management systems are the first cloud-hosted systems in Australasia and this partnership positions Adelaide Airport as a leader in airport operational data management," Amadeus added.

As a result of its new technology, Adelaide Airport said it will receive accurate and timely data from its daily operations, including information on flights, passengers, baggage, and equipment.

Over 124 airlines in more than 190 countries currently rely on Amadeus systems to manage travel reservations.

Speaking with ZDNet earlier this year, Olaf Schnapauff, CTO of global operations at Amadeus, explained that when taking a flight anywhere in the world, the technology will likely be run by Amadeus.

"Amadeus provides the technology that keeps the travel sector moving. From the initial search to find what you want, to making a booking, to pricing, ticketing, reservations, check-in and departure, hotels, rail, and the overall travel experience," Schnapauff said.

In 2015, Amadeus handled almost 450 million passengers, 4 million booking at peak times each day, according to the CTO.

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Adelaide Airport heads to the cloud for automation | ZDNet - ZDNet

Labour assembly member Fiona Twycross on the rise of the robots.

The vision of the world of work being run by robots and machines is familiar from futuristic sci-fi films, but advances in technology could mean that a new post-industrial revolution is closer than we think.

Automation the application of new technology to produce and deliver products and services is not a new phenomenon: in London, for example, the tube and DLR already have driverless technology. However, the pace at which further automation is expected could result in a significant change to the labour market.

Humans have, throughout time, had a fascination with using machinery to increase productivity and create artificial intelligence. From the actual invention of the wheel and the imagination that produced Mary Shelleys Frankensteins monster, to self-checkouts, we have progressed to the point where MEPs have called for rules on how humans will interact with artificial intelligence and robots. The report from the Committee of Legal Affairs at the EU highlighted that robots will "unleash a new industrial revolution, which is likely to leave no stratum of society untouched".

Before we start imagining robots taking over all aspects of society, though, lets look at the automation already in place. We now have driverless trains, and generally aeroplanes only really need a pilot to take off and land; at present, though, the idea of driverless cars becoming a widespread phenomenon seems much more futuristic.

But is it? A report by IPPR has indicated driverless cars will become the norm by the mid-2030s. We have recently seen a move from cashiers, to self-checkouts. Amazon has gone one step further and even designed a shop that does not need any interaction with a human being or require self-checkout: instead technology monitors what you have taken from the shop and charges you through your Amazon account.

Technological change will displace some forms of work in one way or another. Estimates suggest that 15m jobs could be at risk with automation, and those jobs paying less than 30,000 a year are nearly eight times more likely to be replaced by automation than those paying more than 100,000 in London (compared to five times across the UK). This could have a real impact on low and middle income earners.

If we take a look at retail, a relatively low-pay industry, almost two-thirds of jobs are forecast to go by 2030. The move towards automated vehicles on the road will impact on transport services, deliveries and couriers and infrastructure.

Despite this, the labour market projections by GLA Economics last year estimate that the number of jobs in London is projected to increase by 1.2m by 2041.

In response to my question at Mayors Question Time last January, mayor Londons mayor Sadiq Khan said, rightly, that as much as we can predict and make projections, nobody is completely sure how automation is going to impact on our day-to-day lives. What we do know is what we want society to look like in the future and we can therefore use automation as an opportunity to achieve this.

A changing economy is not new to us. Even without automation, we have Brexit and changing businesses models such as the developing gig-economy. Whether we think we should resist the change or are excited by the possibilities, we need to be fully prepared to get the best conditions for workers and businesses.

In January, the Prime Minster released a green paper on her ten-point plan Industrial Strategy, which noted that Britain has been slow in its uptake of robotics and automation. This week, the government has published a Digital Strategy which includes an announcement for research funding of 17.3m to British universities to conduct research on artificial intelligence and robotics.

Despite the intentions in both strategies to focus on lifelong learning, there is a lack of detail over the government plans to achieve this. The reckless decisions in relation to our economy and the cuts which education is facing that her government has overseen, begs the question as to how skills will be provided that ensure a potential displaced workforce have access to the opportunities they need.

The future is in skilled work, and education reduces inequality. Yet on the job training has halved in the past two decades. In London, the Mayors Skills for Londoners Taskforce will be well placed to anticipate changes and identify ways to upskill Londons existing workers as technology advances. All the while we must ensure that workers rights are protected and all Londoners have access to skilled employment and a London Living Wage.

The impact of automation on the labour market will be a challenge but this is our opportunity to ensure the economy works for everyone. We cannot afford to fall behind in the new technological revolution; we must embrace technology to create a thriving economy but we need to make sure this does not leave those displaced by technology without the skills and opportunities they need.

The future is in high skilled and well paid jobs. The reality is, the robots are coming and we must prepare now.

Dr Fiona Twycross is a London-wide member of the London Assembly.

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The robots are coming: How will automation affect London's economy? - CityMetric

Air Cargo World editor, Randy Woods

Im sorry, Dave. Im afraid I cant do that Spoken nearly 50 years ago by the HAL 9000 computer in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, those words are still some of the most chilling in 20th century cinema. At that moment, when HAL refused an order to open the pod bay doors, leaving astronaut Dave Bowman stranded in space, the technology that mankind created to explore other planets proved that it had become self-aware, and considered humans to be dispensable cargo.

In the film (spoiler alert), Dave was able to outwit the computer by climbing back aboard through the emergency airlock (without his helmet!) and shut down HALs higher cognitive functions. But ever since that 1968 exchange on the silver screen, the debate over the superiority of biological and artificial intelligence has been at the center of most good science fiction. The same could be said for science fact, too.

Thats always the promise and the risk of technology, isnt it? Something created to make work easier jumps its intended boundaries and takes jobs away from the less-efficient humans it was supposed to help. Since the global economic crisis, politicians in the United States have been quick to point fingers, accusing each other of being too lax on companies that move factories overseas, or allowing too many illegal workers to cross borders and steal jobs. In truth, the greatest blame for job loss lies not with immigration or trade barriers, but with global capitalisms relentless pursuit of automation, which has transformed many factory assembly lines into tireless robotic farms working 24/7, regardless of borders.

This months Warehousing 4.0 story, prominently features automation, with robots in one pilot project being used to pick-and-pack items at a distribution center at much lower costs than their human counterparts. For the first time, artificial intelligence has proven to be at least as good as trained humans at finding complex e-commerce orders quickly in the warehouse and processing those orders with a low number of errors. It seems it is only a matter of time before air cargo starts to move through the supply chain untouched by human hands.

But, according to many sources we spoke to, automation in the cargo business is not yet moving fast enough to keep up with the growth of e-commerce. As engineer John Cameron, of IAM Robotics, said in an interview with Air Cargo World, todays logistics robots are being designed not to replace humans but to just to keep pace with expected order-fulfillment demand above and beyond what humans can handle today. By around 2020, he said, there may not be enough employable people in the United States to even meet the demand for the e-commerce jobs theyre going to have.

On the flip side of the automation coin, of course, is the expected shift in the types of jobs that will be available in logistics companies in the wake of increased automation. While artificial intelligence replaces humans in the more menial and dangerous jobs on the fulfillment center picking floor, demand will rise for jobs that require more technical electronics skills to operate, program and repair these machines and web-based apps.

So are we just squeezing out lower-income, less-skilled jobs in favor of higher-income jobs that focus on data analysis and require costly training? As an industry, well have to figure out which way to open that pod bay door with our helmet or without.

Finally, its almost here: Air Cargo Worlds first-ever joint presentation, along with sister publication Cargo Facts, of the Cargo Facts Asia conference, April 25-26 in Shanghai. We are thrilled to welcome such distinguished speakers as Ricky Xue, from Alibabas Cainiao network, and Peter Huang of SF Express Airlines, who will describe the latest developments in cross-border e-commerce. Be sure to check out cargofactsasia.com for registration information and more details about speakers and sessions.

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The cargo automation odyssey - Air Cargo World (registration)

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Peter Woollacott: analysts come on board to solve problems, the surgeon comes on board to cut, not to push the patient from the ward into the theatre and wash them down.

Cyber security is all about speed finding and dealing with a threat or vulnerability as quickly as possible. The damage that can be wrought in minutes, let alone days and weeks, could prove devastating to any business, no matter the size or industry.

However this need for speed is not being seen in practice, with many reports putting data breach discovery taking upwards of 200 days. However, Peter Woollacott, Huntsman Security CEO, has a cure for the lag in cyber security automation.

At the moment, Woollacott argues, analysts are weighed down with basic tasks, drowning under the weight of less-important tasks all the while the more serious threats go unresolved and are left free to wreak havoc.

If they are manually trying to manage all of this information that they are being bombarded with and reach conclusions, while all of the information is coming in at machine speed, they are always under water, the Huntsman CEO told CBR.

Some may be quick to argue that the solution is the hiring of more skilled staff to handle the massive amounts of data being thrown at analytics, a fact which Woollacott disregards, simply because there arent any more analysts out there.

Automation, argues the CEO, will leave the analysts free to do the important work, the work where they will make the most positive impact for the business. Using the analogy that analysts come on board to solve problems, the surgeon comes on board to cut, not to push the patient from the ward into the theatre and wash them down, the CEO argued that it is imperative that automation is deployed to cut the shackles of the most skilled staff.

More data is coming with IoT, so technologies that can close that decision loop are really going to help. You are not going to replace analysts, but it is really going to free up time for them to actually do some analytical work, and have machines do some of the lesser things, while they focus on the crown jewels type problems.

Hitting his point home, Woollacott conjured up two images one at the turn of the century, of a man building a Morgan car by hand, with the other a present day Toyota factory in Japan. The Toyota factory, with automation on side, was able to match the lifetime output of cars achieved by the turn of the century car builder in mere minutes.

We are up to the point of industrialising cybersecurity and thats really what automation is going to do. It is going to automate processes that are currently done by hand.

Showing confidence in the abilities of automation, Woollacott said: By introducing a level of automation to a process you are delivering a known, measured repeatable process. Once you are satisfied the automation works, you are going to have a much higher quality outcome.

To manage a group of people who are all doing things differently makes it difficult to know exactly what you are doing at any one point the CEO told CBR. Automation, Woollacott countered, would not only save analysts vital time and enable their skills to be utilised elsewhere, but it would eliminate human error, further improving efficiency.

Woollacotts sentiments highlight a little talked about topic in the much talked about Fourth Industrial Revolution that of cyber security. As is seen in other industries, the Fourth Industrial Revolution looks to transform cyber security processes through automation and smart tech like machine learning. We are, as Woollacott argues, on the cusp of the industrialisation of cyber security.

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Why automation is key for the future of cyber security - Computer Business Review

With mobile usage, virtual reality and voice-search on the rise, marketers must adapt to the changing landscape in which people search and consume information in order to stay ahead of the competition.

Below are five break-out trends that organizations will need to consider in 2017 in their marketing strategies. To start, lets look at one of the biggest and most controversial trends in marketing: The emergence of chat bots.

Throughout 2016, we saw a rise in the number of companies using intelligent live chat tools to automatically communicate with customers and users. This technology uses artificial intelligence to learn how to respond to questions in a way that mimics how a real person would respond.

So far, this technology is primarily used by a small subset of early-adopter companies in the software and media industries. As this technology continues to gain credibility and becomes increasingly accessible, its likely that we will start to see adoption break out of the early-adopter market and begin reaching the early-majority market.

Since Google Voice, Cortana and Siri have become increasingly embedded into devices, the usage of voice search has reached a point where many people now use it as a dominant way of searching for information.

As a result, marketers must consider how this impacts search marketing. For example, search queries are likely to become longer and more representative of natural language. Typed queries like Top beach holidays may instead be searched for like Where can I go thats hot and has a beach?

While Google has released several updates to its search algorithm to better understand the semantic relationships between queries, digital marketers will still need to consider an increasingly long-tail focused strategy for targeting voice search queries.

Another consideration is that, while Apple and Microsoft have enabled voice search on desktop devices, voice search is likely to be used primarily on mobile devices where typing is more cumbersome. As such, we can expect Google to continue increasing the importance of SEO ranking factors that impact the mobile user experience in 2017. We may even see Google announce AMP (accelerated mobile pages) as a ranking factor.

Forms havent changed much in 20 years.

For example, both of the forms below are from the same website, except one is a screenshot from 1996 and the other is from 2016. Despite 20 years of innovation, web forms still look just like paper forms.

Why should marketers care about forms? Well, forms represent the final step of the marketing funnel for most organisations. Theyre what separates anonymous web traffic from valuable leads. This means that any improvement in the form will improve the performance of all upstream marketing activity including PPC, SEO, content marketing, and native advertising.

Last year, my team ran a form A/B test on BrokerNotes. The new version of the form more than tripled the number of leads generated by the website improving the sites cost per acquisition and marketing ROI by 3X.

Like us, many organisations are starting to realize the impact that better forms can have on their bottom line. Hewlett Packard recently claimed that changing their web form resulted in a 186% uplift in leads. Expedia also generated an extra $12 million per year just by removing one field from their web form.

The ecosystem of tools and services around forms is also making it easier for organisations to upgrade the forms on your website. With services like Leadformly (for lead generation forms) and SamCart (for checkout forms), you no longer need to hire expensive consultants to get a high-converting form up and running on your website. There are also free or cheap tools like HotJar and Formismo for monitoring the performance of forms, making it easier to identify where the bottlenecks are in your forms.

Marketing automation has ballooned from a $225m industry to a multi-billion-dollar industry in just a few years, and its showing no signs of slowing down.

With the starting cost of marketing automation tools dropping from $100s per month down to as little as $10 per month, its now more accessible to small businesses looking to streamline their marketing and sales processes.

This increased adoption will mean that marketing automation shifts from being a competitive advantage to an expected tool in every marketers toolkit.

The amount of noise online is growing at an exponential rate. As a result, its becoming increasing difficult for organisations to stand out from the crowd and acquire quality leads through saturated social networking sites, blogs, and video channels.

One channel that seems to be going against the grain is podcasting. Podcast advertising has been noted as one of the most effective form of online advertising, due to the trust and familiarity that people have with the hosts of their favorite shows. This trust means that listeners are likely to consider adverts as endorsements from the hosts themselves.

Another option being pursued by number of forward-thinking organizations is creating a podcast to build an audience of prospects to share insights and learnings with. While some companies, like Intercom and Unbounce, offer monthly or weekly interviews with notable people in their industries, some companies are choosing to create a podcast series a set number of episodes focused around a specific topic.

Given the effectiveness and increasing popularity of podcasts, I think its fair to assume that this channel will continue to become more popular in 2017.

Digital marketing will only become more competitive. As acquisition costs continue to rise, we can expect more attention to be placed on optimising and automating as much of the marketing funnel as possible to enable a profitable return on investment, despite higher acquisition costs.

In addition to this, there are many emerging technologies that are ripe for savvy marketers to get a head start on.

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Why AI and automation are among the key marketing trends to watch in 2017 - Marketing Tech

OpenConnect automation is trusted by multi-billion-dollar companies to handle many millions of complex tasks every year.

Dallas, Texas, and Orlando, Florida, (PRWEB) March 06, 2017

OpenConnect, a leader in enterprise software products that deliver efficiencies derived from objective workforce intelligence, analytics, and robotic process automation, announced today that an interactive benchmarking tool by SSON Analytics shows OpenConnect's robotic process automation (RPA) products have a significant presence in enterprise.

This information was first released during OpenConnect's participation in the 21st Shared Services & Outsourcing Week (SSOW), beginning today in Orlando, Florida. The SSON Analytics benchmarking tool uses vendor-verified data to assess the offerings from automation software vendors participating in the SSOW event.

In the case of OpenConnect, the benchmarking tool showed that OpenConnect enterprise RPA software's installed or piloted base consists of companies with total annual revenues in excess of $100 billion. Some of these OpenConnect automation customers are among the largest and best-known healthcare payers in their industry. OpenConnect automation serves these customers, in particular, by processing nearly 20 million complex medical claims a year. This points out a significant difference between the true enterprise RPA offered by OpenConnect and other vendors' more limited RPA tools, which cannot handle such complexity.

"We're pleased to see the results of the SSON Analytics benchmarking of automation software vendors," said Mark Dailey, OpenConnect's Chief Executive Officer. "This confirms OpenConnect's in-production market presence among some of the largest companies in their respective industries."

"It's unusual for us to share the kind of data that this benchmarking process required, but we felt it was important," said Kevin Culliton, OpenConnect's Vice President of Product Management. "It often surprises people when they learn just how much we do for our customers, as well as how big those customers are. This benchmarking tool brings that into clarity, especially considering what it shows and, in some cases, doesn't show about our competitors who also are participating in this SSOW."

About OpenConnect

OpenConnect is the leader in process intelligence and desktop analytics solutions that objectively identify and illuminate workforce activity, resulting in associated productivity gains. With OpenConnect's process automation software, the costliest processes performed by a workforce can be automated. Combining unparalleled experience and solution capabilities, OpenConnect enables its clients to more quickly address and adapt to today's operational and competitive challenges so they can accomplish more with fewer resources. Learn more about OpenConnect and its products at openconnect.com.

END ###

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/OpenConnect-SSONAnalytics/prweb14122997.htm

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OpenConnect's Enterprise Automation Presence Spotlighted by SSON Analytics Interactive Benchmarking - Benzinga

Todays information technologies big data, artificial intelligence, robotics, and embedded computing (the so-called Internet of things) are transforming every industry and raising widespread concerns about job losses and economic inequality. Analysts differ on whether the issue is about jobs, tasks or work activities; they disagree on the extent of automation; and theyre not sure how long it will take.

Even the conservative forecasts are bleak. McKinsey and Company estimates that existing technologies could eventually automate about half the activities that people get paid nearly $15 trillion to do globally. This amounts to 1.2 billion full-time equivalent jobs (FTEs), of which 61 million are located in the US. If we apply a 10 percent rule of thumb our population is about one-tenth that of the US this could mean 6 million Canadian FTEs are at risk: equivalent to one-third of our workforce.

Should we worry? Likely not, say optimists (including McKinsey). Demographic trends are about to produce a shortage of human labour. The productivity and GDP growth associated with automation will not arrive any time soon, the optimists argue. And the full effects of job displacement will take several decades to unfold. In the meantime, humans should learn to manage and complement smart machines and do the sorts of things that only people can do.

The pessimists, on the other hand, say it wont be that easy. Tomorrows jobs will be insufficient in number, inferior in quality and badly paid. We must address the impacts of net growth in unemployment, underemployment, precarious jobs, and economic inequality, they say.

But there is an elephant in the room that no one is talking about. The focus on labour substitution in Canada and everywhere else vastly underestimates the breadth and numbers of at-risk jobs.

Labour substitution relates to the replacement of humans (e.g., car insurance sales representatives) by machines (e.g., car insurance sales apps.). But innovations dont just automate jobs and tasks. They can also make them functionally irrelevant or economically unviable. Its not just about labour substitution: its also about labour obsolescence.

Take the transportation sector. Soon a handful of global firms, such as Uber, may be the dominant providers of automated mobility (transportation) services, provided on demand. Many Canadians will refrain from owning vehicles, which sit unused over 95 percent of the time. They will reap huge cost savings, including over $1,000 per year on car insurance. On-demand, automated mobility, if adopted widely, will yield enormous environmental, safety, health, accessibility, financial and other benefits.

But global automated mobility companies wont buy personal car insurance. Some will self-insure. Others will cut big deals with big insurance firms. Demand for car insurance will plummet. Car insurance jobs wont just decrease as a result of labour substitution. They will become obsolete.

Changes like this have happened throughout history. A disruptive technology innovation facilitates business model innovations that transform entire industries. This results in old jobs (or tasks) becoming irrelevant or economically unviable. The changes also generate demand for new occupations and skills. But the balance these days is typically negative.

Online advertising, viewed from a labour substitution perspective, is the automation of print media ad advertising jobs. This is true in a minor way. But, for the most part, online advertising made those advertising jobs obsolete. More important, online advertising contributed to the collapse of print publications, eliminating or reducing the market value of all sorts of jobs, in areas ranging from home delivery to investigative journalism. Canadas production of newsprint, printing and writing paper declined by half over the 2005-15, and jobs went with it. These losses occurred at dizzying speed, belying the view that the changes would take many decades.

Rather than look exclusively at labour substitution to understand the impact of technology on jobs, we must define and analyze changes that affect changing labour demand in the extended ecosystem (or the business web), inside and outside a core sector. The result of this analysis is often a combination of job creation, job destruction and job displacement.

Changes that will result in labour obsolescence include:

To measure the size of this problem, I identified automotive ecosystem jobs and subsectors using the 2011 Census. Based on this initial assessment, business models built around self-driving vehicles will pose big job risks for 1.1 million Canadians over the coming decades. Half a million of these, again according to the 2011 Census, are professional drivers who face the prospect of labour substitution. They include transport truck drivers; delivery, courier and mail workers; and taxi/limousine drivers. (On-demand drivers for Uber and the like were not counted in the 2011 census.) For the remaining majority (600,000 jobs police; and insurance, auto service/body shop, dealership/distribution/rental/leasing, manufacturing and gas station workers), the main challenge isnt labour substitution, its functional obsolescence.

The automotive ecosystem is but one of many ecosystems. Similar changes are occurring across the economy in agriculture, natural resources, retail/distribution, professional services and many other sectors. In every case, labour obsolescence will exacerbate the challenges of labour substitution.

Clearly, we must get more creative if we are to understand our labour market challenges (and opportunities). We must face up to the likelihood that a new economy one with fewer good jobs and lower pay is upon us. And we must act now to minimize and mitigate the impact on Canadians. We owe it to our kids.

This article is part of the The Changing Nature of Workspecial feature.

Photo:AP Photo/Eric Risberg/The Canadian Press

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The automation elephant in the room - Policy Options (registration)

As one of the world's largest employers, McDonald's(NYSE:MCD) often finds itself at the center of debates about wages and the potential effects of automation. Rising labor costs pose a threat to the company and its franchisees, and the scale is starting to tip in favor of developing technology being cost-effective enough to replace human jobs.

The restaurant chain's new automation push is still in its early stages and can be counted on as a source of controversy in the years to come, but the effects of the trend stand to create long-term tailwinds for McDonald's and its investors.

Image source: McDonald's.

McDonald's is in the process of bringing self-order kiosks to all of its locations, and this initiative, along with the rollout of mobile-based ordering and payment, presents a way to improve functions and efficiency throughout the chain. Perceivedquality of service has been an issue for the company, and reducing employee-customer interaction has the potential to relieve friction and free up employees to perform other tasks. Studies and customer feedback have also indicated that a substantial portion of the millennial generation prefers to bypass human interaction when placing orders, so the new initiatives could help to ingratiate Mickey D's with one of its most crucial age demographics.

The surge in kiosk and mobile adoption is occurring industrywide and points to technology that's becoming increasingly attractive. Wendy's (NASDAQ:WEN)recently announced that it will add self-ordering stations at 1,000 of its restaurants by the end of 2017, and Panera Bread plans to have kiosks at all of its locations within the next several years. Other competitors, including Burger King, CKE Restaurants, and Tim Hortons are also transitioning to automated ordering.

McDonald's hasn't given much color on the expenses of adding self-order stations, but comments from Wendy's management could provide some insight. Wendy's Chief Information Officer David Trimm has indicated that franchisees will pay roughly $15,000 for three ordering kiosks, and he anticipates that it will take less than two years for the benefits created by self-ordering kiosks to offset the investment. The timeline to break even is probably similar for McDonald's franchisees, and the benefits of kiosks will likely become more pronounced with time.

Shifting to this new technology requires that stores continue to employ cashiers to assist with the new process and cater to customers who prefer traditional service. But the need for these roles should fall as kiosks become the norm, leaving employees free to take on other roles. Kiosks have already freed up some McDonald's staff to provide table service, and the company is testing curbside delivery in conjunction with mobile ordering and payment.

Automated ordering also means that more workers should be available for the kitchen, helping to address franchisee concerns about increasingly complicated menus and challenges related to customization.CEO Steve Easterbrook believes that the perception of time constraints can make ordering at McDonald's stressful and that this issue can be alleviated through the company's new investments. He has also indicated that the additional time to peruse the menu encourages customization and premium sales, generating higher average spending per consumer.

Payscale lists the median wage for an American fast food worker at $8.24 per hour, a far cry from the $15 per hour benchmark that many groups are calling for. With labor often making up 20% or more of costs for this industry, sizable increases to payroll can reasonably be expected to be passed onto consumers. That presents a major problem for value-focused restaurants like McDonald's.

In the U.S., the fast food chain is struggling with declining traffic but has managed to offset this trend by increasing the average spending per check. The extent to which the company can continue to raise prices is limited, however.McDonald's thrives by offering low-cost food options -- a model that makes it very sensitive to increasing expenses. While food and materials may fall mostly outside the company's control, it will enjoy increasing flexibility with labor thanks to the automation trend.

Easterbrook has been careful when commenting on the likelihood of new technologies that will eliminate jobs, but competitors including Wendy's and CKE Restaurants have directly linked their respective automation efforts to rising labor costs, touting the benefits of smaller in-store headcounts. Talking about replacing workers with technology might not be politically expedient for McDonald's at the moment, but a pared-down workforce is almost certainly a desirable outcome for the company -- and one it is certain to explore going forward.

Keith Noonan has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Panera Bread. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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McDonald's Automation Push Is Great News for Investors - Motley Fool