As business, policy, and technology leaders gathered at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this year, the rise of populism with Brexit in the UK and the election of Donald Trump in the US drove discussions about the pros and cons of globalization.
While globalization has improved the living conditions of vast swaths of this planet’s population, it has also led to shifting employment patterns, as jobs leave the US for China and other low-wage countries.
However, the Davos cognoscenti believe wage inequality is only part of the problem. Hand-in-hand with globalization is the topic of automation – seen as more of a culprit for increasing inequality than the usual scapegoat, low-cost labor.
Automation, in turn, drives the need for new skills in today’s economy, targeting traditional blue collar jobs in particular. “[Automation] particularly represents a challenge for people in our economy with low skills, particularly the older workers who don’t feel able to embrace and learn new skills and new technologies,” says Philip Hammond, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, according to an article in the Washington Post. “It’s living in a fool’s paradise to pretend that you can ignore this.”
Cecilia Reyes, chief risk officer of Zurich Insurance Group, echoes Hammond’s perspective. “Without proper governance and reskilling of workers, technology will eliminate jobs faster than it creates them,” Reyes says in an article for ComputerWeekly. “Governments can no longer provide historic levels of social protection, and an anti-establishment narrative has gained traction, with new political leaders blaming globalisation for society’s challenges.”
Technology leaders also realize that automation presents a challenge that business leaders must address. “It’s less about the replacement than the augmentation of the workforce,” according to Ayman Sayed, President and Chief Product Officer at CA Technologies. “We need to know to grow in a responsible fashion, so that all people can participate in the benefits of automation. We need automation as well as confident consumers to buy products.”
Read the entire article at http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2017/01/22/davos-highlights-ais-massive-pr-problem/.
Intellyx publishes the Agile Digital Transformation Roadmap poster, advises companies on their digital transformation initiatives, and helps vendors communicate their agility stories. As of the time of writing, CA Technologies is an Intellyx customer. None of the other organizations mentioned in this article are Intellyx customers. Image credit: Marcus.
