THE ROBOT REVOLUTION
of science fiction will have profound consequences for jobs , pay and the makeup of workforces .”
Robot versus human One consequence of the trend may be that , with the movement of people from high paid to lower paid – thus less intelligent – work , income inequality will increase further . Perkins reflects that : “ This poses significant societal challenges . Technology is part of our lives in ways we couldn ’ t have imagined two decades ago , from the rise of big data to the app revolution . That trend will continue and it means the shape and size of workforces of the future will look radically different to those of today . How businesses and governments deal with these changes will be critical to long term economic growth prospects .”
The surveyed employers are not immediately planning to cut staff . More than half of the surveyed companies plan to redeploy affected staff . Of those kept , 28 percent expect the old employee to operate the machinery that replaces them .
However , Perkins stresses that the long term effects of automation remain unknown . “ The roles reserved for
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