The Great Resignation Will Only Accelerate Automation. Employers Will Retaliate With Machines. – Forbes

Businessman hiding his face behind paper with I quit words written on it, resign employee concept

Resignations are triggering an increase in automation spending, especially in labor-intensive industries.This will be the impact of Americans rethinking their relationship to work, life/work balance and the over ROI of their jobs.Be careful what you ask for.

The Great Resignation is everywhere.It seems that Americans are resigning from their jobs at unprecedented rates.In August of this year (2021), more than 4,000,000 Americans quit their jobs the greatest monthly total ever recorded.Others are staying on only if they can work remotely or if working conditions improve dramatically.Whats going on?There are all kinds of theories about why Americans are turning their backs on work, especially certain kinds of work.Lets not explore the theories here.Lets just acknowledge that theres a trend toward assessing the life/work balance in the most profound ways possible as well as perhaps spending the savings banked during the pandemic.

But who really cares?Well, employers care, because without employees especially in service industries they have no customers.Some employers are responding to the walkouts with higher wages and better working conditions, a perfectly rational response to resignations.But this tactic isnt working fast enough, even as wages have increased over and over again (note that the official minimum wage has been $7.25 per hour since 2009).So, now what?Enter the machines.

Those who explore the 4thIndustrial Revolution and The Future of Work know all about automation.Its the cornerstone of the predicted future.Timelines about the arrival of automated solutions across industries are impossible to make.But what we can make are predictions about how welcome automation will be across a number of industries, including the ones where the greatest resignations are occurring and especially in most human-intensive ones, such as fast food and agriculture.

Rear view of self-driving pizza delivery van parking side of road. Last one mile concept. 3D ... [+] rendering image.

Fast food restaurants are investing heavily in automation.Motivation?Fast-food's biggest players are letting the robots right in through the front door as they seek out ways to overcome rising wages and worker shortages.As reported byBrian Sozzi inYahoo News:

McDonald's is testing automated voice ordering for its drive-thru (and) looking at better ways to automate the kitchen (with) automated fryers (and) automated grills

Dominos struck a deal with self-driving delivery company Nuro.Select customers who place an order on Domino's website can choose to have their pizza delivery by Nuro's R2 robot

Taco Bellopeneda tech-forward new location in New York City's Times Square in late April this Taco Bell is built mostly for one thing only:get your food super quickly and get back out into the party scene (with) touch screens for food and drinks (and) minimal interaction with an employee

White Castle was among the first in the fast-food industry to begin testing robots in any interesting capacity, launching a robotic fry cook test with Miso Robotics.

smart robotic in agriculture futuristic concept, robot farmers (automation) must be programmed to ... [+] work in the vertical or indoor farm for increase efficiency, growing a seed, harvesting, reduce time

Agriculture is one of the most aggressive targets of automation.Robotics are already having impact on the industry.Some examples(thanks toDonovan Alexanders reporting inInteresting Engineering):

Ecorobotix:Powered by the sun, this lightweight GPS, fully autonomous drone has the ability to use its solar power to run all day.The robot uses its complex camera system to target and spray weeds because of its very precise arms, the robot uses90%less herbicide, making it30%cheaper than traditional treatments.A fleet of these robots could easily replace human farm labor down the road

Naio Technologies hasa host of robots that not only act as the perfect farm hand using techniques that preserve and protect the local environment the robots have the ability to weed, hoe, and assist during harvesting

Energid Citrus Picking System:Perfect for those in the citrus fruit business, the Energid systems are fast and efficient harvesting systems (which) can pick a fruit every 2 to 3 seconds.Even more so, the robot is cheap to build, making it significantly cheaper than human labor

Agrobot E-Series:If you are expecting to have any strawberry fields in the near future, you may want to look into getting an Agrobot E-Series.With its twenty-four robotic arms working wirelessly and an advanced AI system, the E-series cannot only pick strawberries really fast but it can identify the ripeness of a strawberry in the field

Vision Robotics:The VR team has used AI-powered robots that can tackle a host of products include a vineyard pruner that images vines and uses a robotic arm to thin plants, as well as an automated lettuce thinner

Robotic automation is here. (Photo credit should read GERARD JULIEN/AFP via Getty Images)

The pandemic and The Great Resignation have accelerated investments in automation.The robotic examples here are in just two areas, but automation doesnt stop there.Do we need tax preparers?Car salesmen?Loan officers?Automation has only begun, and as more and more employees call it quits automated workers may take their place faster than we think.The incentives are clear.Why wouldnt Uber want to eliminate their biggest headache drivers with autonomous vehicles?Why wouldnt all companies want to deploy workers that work 24/7, never need vacations, never join unions and never get sick (from viruses, at least)?Checkout clerks?Postal workers?Gas station attendants (almost gone now)? And many more.

The Great Resignation is an automation stimulus.Honeywell reportssome survey results:

The productivity gains that we see from robotics have increased, said John Dillon the technology has gotten better (and) the cost of not automating has gotten higher

Thats because a warehouse that might typically require 2,000 workers could deploy technologies and warehouse execution software to instead operate with only 200 people

Robotic technologies directly replace labor, whether it be unloading trucks, picking orders, fulfilling orders

3D illustration robot resting in a chair

Brace yourself.The Great Resignation has unleashed unanticipated new forces and created unexpected collateral damage.Yes, wages will increase.Working conditions will improve.Flexibility will grow.All good, from labors point of view.But not from the perspective of business owners, shareholders and investors who want to see profitable growth all day long.They will respond with a vengeance.Remember that automation happens when the die-is-cast meets the law-of-unintended-consequences.Were here.

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The Great Resignation Will Only Accelerate Automation. Employers Will Retaliate With Machines. - Forbes