Category Archives: Automation

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AI, Automation, and Tech Jobs

There are some things that machines are simply better at doing than humans, but humans still have plenty going for them. Here's a look at how the two are going to work in concert to deliver a more powerful future for IT, and the human race.

The emergence of technology such as robotic process automation (RPA) doesn't necessarily lead to the loss of jobs, but to the elimination of certain tasks. What human workers do as automated programs take over some of these tasks might be largely up to them.

"Not every employee will adapt and innovate, but we believe most will," said Stanton Jones, director and principal analyst at technology research and advisory firm ISG. "Those that do adapt will go in two directions: one group will focus on becoming more productive by doing more of the same kind of work they did in the past with the assistance of digital labor. The other will move on to more value-added activities."

ISG is primarily seeing a focus on productivity improvements. But as companies get more comfortable with "digital labor," they will start to rethink their operating model.

With the assistance of digital labor that is constantly improving with each subsequent customer interaction, customer-focused employees such as those in call centers will be freed up to proactively reach out to clients when problems occur, or to prevent them in the first place, Jones said.

For example, in a telecommunications call center, an employee that typically handled incoming complaints can proactively reach out to a customer that dropped a call and offer them a discount for that month. Or, a help desk employee can proactively reach out to an executive letting him know that his hard drive is about to fail.

"In each of these cases, the human employee is improving their interaction with the customer because the virtual agent is improving as well," Jones said.

A number of organizations are starting to build automation centers of excellence, Jones said. "These are small teams that use agile approaches to identify, build, and implement automation throughout the company," he said.

Very few companies are focused on automating jobs. "Instead, they are focused on automating tasks and improving productivity," Jones said.

History shows that as automation increases, things get cheaper, and as things get cheaper, more people buy them, Jones said. "We believe the same thing will happen as automation and AI (artificial intelligence) moves into the enterprise. The products and services these companies create will, for the most part, become cheaper because the cost of the delivering them is going down."

Will some IT and business support employees lose their job due to automation? "Yes, but we believe this will be limited for now," Jones said. "The key is that over the long term, there will less routine jobs available."

A majority of IT and business leaders have indicated to ISG that avoiding long-term costs is an important outcome of automation and AI. "So while automation will reduce unit costs, and therefore create more buying opportunity for end customers, it will also mean that people that are focused on routine work will find less and less of those types of jobs available to them over time," Jones said.

IT is likely to be the corporate support function that will be most impacted by automation and AI.

"But this also creates opportunity," Jones said. "IT is in by far the best position to drive automation and AI into the firm. IT has the best experience with agile development and systems integration, and almost always has the best view into how business processes use technology. So, as long as the entry-level job is focused on agile, process design, change management, data science, or software engineering -- in support of the further automation of tasks within the firm -- it's a great place to be."

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Automation will take over IT tasks, not jobs | ZDNet - ZDNet

Israels labor force is undergoing a modernization process with fewer workers at risk of losing their jobs due to automation, according to a study by the Taub Center For Social Policy Studies in Israel.

The study examined the dangers posed by automation to the workforce as the nation moves from a traditional economy driven by manufacturing and production to an information technology and services economy, where high-tech and services are the major growth engines.

As a result of the market increasingly demanding high-skilled workers, the share of those whose jobs are highly vulnerable to automation went down between 2013 and 2015, the period covered by the study. However, this is less true for Arab Israelis and immigrants than for the native-born Jewish working population.

The study finds that the relative portion of workers in low-risk occupations has risen, while the share of workers in high-risk occupations has declined evidence of a continued labor force modernization process, the Taub Center said in a statement.

The findings of the study come as policy makers and business leaders in Israel convened for two days in Jerusalem, on Monday and Tuesday, to discuss the challenges automation poses to Israels labor market.

The former president of Intel in Israel, Mooly Eden, warned on Monday that the government was not doing enough to deal with the blow being inflicted on the labor market by automation.

Thanks to the likes of autonomous cars, chatbots and digital banking, he sees tens of thousands of people unemployed, he said. We can prepare for this, he said. But in my opinion we are completely unprepared.

The Taub study, by Prof. Claude Berrebi and Kyrill Shraberman, shows that changes among women were greater than among men with a significant drop in women employed in clerical work, indicating that these positions might have already undergone a process of automation as bank branches close, secretarial services become outsourced and offices computerize administrative tasks.

In the Arab Israeli sector the study shows a decline in the share of skilled workers in production and manufacturing considered at high risk from automation and a relatively strong rise in their share in sales and service as well as clerical work.

Women working in a matza factory (photo credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)

There was just a small change an increase of 1% in the share of Arab Israeli workers in occupations requiring an academic education. This is low relative to the Jewish population, which posted an increase of 1.9%. As a result, the average salary rise among Arab Israelis is also lower.

A possible reason for this is the relatively low skill level within the Arab Israeli sector: the share of those with high-level skills in reading comprehension and mathematics among Arab Israelis aged 16-64 is only 1%, versus 10-13% among the Jewish population, according to the OECDs PIAAC survey of adult competencies.

Among Jewish immigrants, there has been a rise in the share of unskilled workers and a smaller increase in the share of workers in academic professions, relative to long-time residents or the native-born. An exceptional rise in the share of unskilled workers (like cleaning and security workers) is seen among men ages 45-54 who came to Israel between 1990 and 1995. According to the researchers, the data point to the difficulties of integration among this adult male immigrant group who have been in Israel over a decade and have experienced difficulties adjusting to the modern labor market.

The major impediment to immigrant integration in the labor market is language issues Hebrew and sometimes English. Immigrants in general, and female immigrants in particular, are characterized by higher rates of academic education that do not match the local labor market. Thus, they often compromise by accepting employment in occupations that do not require an academic education. That said, immigrants are employed at slightly higher rates than Jewish long-time residents/native-born Israelis.

The study also examined to what degree a year of formal education improves hourly average salary, and found that since 2003 there has been an overall rise in return on education. This return encourages workers to get more education, and thus improves the quality and the skill level of the labor force.

But this rise also contributes to increasing wage gaps between workers. In 2014, the hourly salary for men with 18 years of schooling, equivalent to a masters degree, was 35% higher than for those with 12 years of schooling equivalent to a high school diploma.

This gap was higher for women at 41%. But for Arab men the return on education declined between 2011 and 2014, as the rise in wages over those years for Arab Israeli men was more moderate than among the general male population. Among immigrant men, there was also a rise in return on education, although the gaps remained lower than among the general male population, the study showed. Wage gaps between immigrants with 18 years of schooling and those 12 years of schooling were 22% in 2014.

The Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel is an independent, nonpartisan socioeconomic research institute.

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Israeli workers get more skilled as automation looms, study says - The Times of Israel

Automation key to personalized customer experiences SmartBrief Automation is a key way of achieving personalization at scale. Not only does it allow brands to simplify order processes and tracking, it can make it possible for customer service professionals to easily look up all relevant past data when interacting ...

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Automation key to personalized customer experiences - SmartBrief

The latest edition of MarTech Todays B2B Marketing Automation Platforms: A Marketers Guide examines the market for B2B marketing automation software platforms and the considerations involved in implementing this software into your business.

This 44-page report is your source for the latest trends, opportunities and challenges facing the market for B2B marketing automation software tools as seen by industry leaders, vendors and their customers.

Included in the report are profiles of 14 leading B2B marketing automation vendors, pricing charts, capabilities comparisons and recommended steps for evaluating and purchasing.

If you are a B2B marketer looking to adopt a marketing automation software platform, this report will help you through the decision-making process. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download B2B Marketing Automation Platforms: A Marketers Guide.

The 14 vendors profiled in this report represent some of the choices available for B2B marketing automation platforms; they are not a comprehensive list of B2B marketing automation vendors. This report is not a recommendation of any marketing automation platform or company, and is not meant to be an endorsement of any particular product, service or vendor.

This report was prepared by conducting in-depth interviews with leading vendors and industry experts in December 2016 and January 2017. These, in addition to third-party research, form the basis for this report.

This research report is sponsored by Salesforce, Marketo, IBM and Salesfusion.

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Report: 14 marketing automation vendors profiled updated for 2017 - MarTech Today

Rockwell Automation Inc. (ROK - Free Report) , a leading global provider of industrial automation power, control, and information solutions scaled a 52-week high of $165.39 yesterday, closing at $164.06. This was backed by increased investment, acquisitions and focus on long-term goals.

Rockwell Automation has a healthy year-to-date return of 23.3% and a solid one-year return of 43.1%. The company displays long-term earnings growth rate of 10.63%, making us confident of its innate strength.

Despite crafting a 52-week high, the price of the company has underperformed the Zacks Categorized Industrial Automation/Robotics sector over the last 12 months. The current rate of return for the industry is 43.5%, while that of Rockwell Automation is 39.9%.

The stock has a market cap of $21.1 billion. Average volume of shares traded over the last three months was approximately 951K. Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Rockwell Automation moved up 5.7% to $6.64 for 2017. We note that the company has beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average positive earnings surprise being 9.89%.

Growth Catalysts

Rockwell Automations new Connected Enterprise (CE) integrated supply chain management system will prove conducive to growth. The company is increasing the number of industries, applications and geographies, as well as improving its investments to expand the value of CE. With average profitability well above the corporate average, CE sales will be an integral part of Rockwells incremental growth and boost margins over the next few years.

Notably, the company acquired Automation Control Products in Sep 2016 to help customers enhance global competitiveness through CE. Further, the MagneMotion acquisition adds to its portfolio of innovative motion control solutions for consumer and transportation verticals. Finally, MAVERICK Technologies buyout has boosted expertise in chemical, consumer, life sciences, along with oil and gas industry applications.

In addition, Rockwell Automation continues to target long-term revenue growth of 68%. The company also maintains its objective of delivering double-digit EPS growth, return on invested capital (ROIC) of more than 20% over the long term, and cash flow of around 100% of adjusted income. These long-term goals will be supported by Rockwell Automations strategy of diversifying its sales streams by expanding products portfolio, solutions and services, and global presence.

The company is also aimed at achieving growth rates in excess of the automation market, by expanding its served market, strengthening competitive differentiation, and serving a wider range of industries and applications. Rockwell Automations objectives also include market share growth by gaining customers, capturing a larger share of existing customer spending, as well as improving quality and customer experience.

Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

Rockwell Automation currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Other top-ranked stocks in the same sector are iRobot Corporation (IRBT - Free Report) , Altra Industrial Motion Corp. (AIMC - Free Report) and Parker-Hannifin Corporation (PH - Free Report) . All three stocks boast a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

iRobot Corporation has an average positive earnings surprise of 61.72% for the trailing four quarters. Altra Industrial Motion generated an average positive earnings surprise of 15.93% over the past four quarters, while Parker-Hannifin has an average positive earnings surprise of 14.94% for the last four quarters.

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Rockwell Automation Hits 52-Week High on Solid Prospects - Zacks.com

When Amazon completes its acquisition of the grocery chain Whole Foods, announced on Friday, the e-commerce giant plans to cut prices at the premium grocer while maintaining its reputation for high-quality boutique foods. The push for lower prices could be fueled by automation, staff reductions, and inventory changes.

The plans were first reported by Bloomberg and attributed to a source familiar with them. According to that person, Amazon also plans to add automated checkout systems at Whole Foods, which may include the technology under evaluation at the AmazonGo convenience store in Seattle.

That would mean fewer workers running checkout lanes. An Amazon representative quoted in the report denied that any layoffs or automation initiatives were planned for Whole Foods.

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How will Amazon reduce Whole Foods' legendary "Whole Paycheck" reputation? Its plans could also include inventory changes that would eliminate the most expensive items from shelves and introduce more private-label goods.

Whole Foods' reputation has become a major pain point for the grocer, which has steadily lost sales to lower-priced competitionincluding Amazon. In February, after six straight quarters of falling sales, Whole Foods closed nine stores . It has already been lowering prices and experimenting with a lower-priced store format with fewer employees, 365 by Whole Foods.

True or not, the rumor of job cuts and automation points to a potential sticking point in the pending acquisition. Whole Foods has been recognized as one of Fortunes 100 Best Companies to Work For every year since the list was created in 1998. It's described by employees as a workplace offering fair pay and a welcoming environment.

Amazon, on the other hand, has been described as having an intense workplace culture marked by infighting and high turnover among staffers. Work conditions in its warehouse-like fulfillment centers have been described as demanding and even dangerous . Those divergent approaches to labor could well clash when the acquisition closes.

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Amazon: Whole Foods Plan Hints at Price Cuts, Automation - Fortune

Forbes

When Combating Crew Fatigue, Automation Has Its Rewards And Risks Forbes In 2013 the US Federal Aviation Administration introduced new regulations for aviation crew flight time and duty time, known as FAR 117. While those changes incorporated the latest in fatigue science up to that point, similar rules have not been ...

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When Combating Crew Fatigue, Automation Has Its Rewards And Risks - Forbes

The Drive

GM's Cruise Automation Wades Into HD Mapping to Aid ... Wall Street Journal (subscription) A small autonomous-cars company owned by General Motors Co. is getting into the high-definition mapping business, a move that could help the Detroit auto ... GM's Cruise Automation Wants to Make HD Maps for Self-Driving ...The Drive GM lets Cruise Automation run free - General Motors Company ...Seeking Alpha GM lets its Cruise Automation self-driving unit work autonomouslyAutomotive News (subscription) (blog) all 6 news articles »

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GM's Cruise Automation Wades Into HD Mapping to Aid ... - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

(Image: PRNewsfoto/ American Staffing Association)

Workplace automation is a polarizing issue for Americans, according to the results of a new American Staffing Association Workforce Monitor survey. About equal percentages of respondents say that automation in the workplacerobots or artificial intelligencewill be a good or a bad thing for the future world of work.

About one-third (34%) of Americans say automation will be a positive development for the workforce in the next 10 years or morecompared with 31% who say it will be negative: 35% are neutral on the matter or just dont know.

However, more than four in five Americans think that increased automation will revolutionize work (83%)and that this transformation is inevitable (82%). A substantial majority think that automation will fundamentally change the quantity (79%) and types (68%) of jobs available in the U.S. Seven in 10 (72%) say its increased use will lead to higher unemployment.

But most Americans are in denial that automation will ever affect their work life. Nearly three quarters (73%) do not believe that their work can be easily replaced by robots or artificial intelligence, and 85% agree that the human factor outweighs any benefits from mechanizing their job. Nine in 10 (90%) say that there are some tasks that automation will never be able to take over from humans.

Automation is revolutionizing the who, what, where, and how people will work in the future, said Richard Wahlquist, ASA president and chief executive officer. The ASA Workforce Monitor found that nearly nine out of 10 (87%) Americans believe that to succeed in this new world of work, additional training will be needed.

Harris Poll conducted the survey online within the U.S. on behalf of ASA March 79, 2017, among a total of 2,133 U.S. adults age 18 and older. Results were weighted on age, education, race/ethnicity, household income, and geographic region where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the U.S. population.

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Americans Split On Impact of Workplace Automation - Facility Executive Magazine

"Data-Driven Thinking" is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.

Todays column is written by Dennis Buchheim, senior vice president of data and ad effectiveness at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and general manager of theIAB Data Center of Excellence.

Soon, truckers may be out of a job. Why? Automation. Factory work continues to dwindle, again, because of automation. Artificial intelligence, the driver du jour of high valuations in tech, is all about you guessed it enhancing automation.

Already this year, the Harvard Business Review has published more than a dozen articles related to the topic. Automation is a global force across all industries, and its being wrestled with at the highest and lowest echelons of organizations and society in general.

But we in advertising dont talk about automation. Instead, we use the word programmatic, an increasingly ambiguous industry term that cant hold the weight of the conversations that need to be had. Now dont get me wrong: Jargon can be OK. Every industry has it. But any language we choose to use must enable rather than disable communication. And in this case, its beginning to hurt.

A semantic and contextual shift is necessary. To achieve new levels of efficiency and effectiveness, digital advertising leaders need a new lens through which to perceive and discuss the massive changes going on in their companies because of, yes, automation.

The term programmatic originated years ago to describe elements of digital advertising campaigns performed by software. The word was generally used to distinguish transactions executed by machines, especially via real-time bidding, from those negotiated and executed by flesh-and-blood salespeople and media buyers. At first, the word was apt. But times have changed.

The rapid evolution and extensive adoption of data-fueled technology has pushed us into a post-programmatic world. Today, partially or wholly machine-driven processes are woven throughout the entire digital advertising supply chain. We need to talk in depth about automation across not only transactions but also planning, creative development, data management, decisioning, personalization, measurement, verification, optimization and more. This is all more far-reaching and complicated than the original notion of programmatic advertising. And yet were still using the term and concept of programmatic. Its a vast oversimplification and cause of confusion.

Automation is a universally understood term that refers to all of the ways that technology is replacing or augmenting humans. Use of this term within advertising will force all of us to unpack whats been obscured by the idea of programmatic, and it will empower discussions about the role automation plays or could play in specific supply chain processes, as well as the utility that can be provided by technology and data relative to their costs and, most importantly, the value that can be created or destroyed by automation.

These conversations need to be had and can lead to a spectrum of benefits. The benefits notably include increased transparency and control related to tools, data, ad inventory, vendors and associated costs; more efficient and more effective advertising; and better consumer experiences. The industry has long tended to rush toward adopting automated technologies, but relying on zeros and ones instead of a person isnt always cheaper or faster and the black boxes that have developed between buyers and sellers often cause more cost than benefit.

Questions such as When does automation save time? and When doesnt it? and What is the optimal mix between humans and machines? need to be answered for each application of automation in a business.

Now, a change in language alone clearly cant resolve all of these open issues. But a shift in perspective toward the challenges and opportunities created by automation across the supply chain is the foundation of these explorations.

The digital advertising ecosystem has achieved a scale so gargantuan and personalized that humans cant do all of the driving. Its up to business leaders to determine when their teams should step on the gas, tap the brakes or even change lanes and when a machine should do this for them.

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Unpacking Programmatic: How Automation Impacts The Digital ... - AdExchanger