Low-paid and unskilled jobs in retail will soon be automated absent. What will happen to the people?Automation may save a third of a million retail employees out of work in the next eight years,according to the British Retail Consortium. Across the sector as a whole fewer people are now working, and are paid less, and than in 2008. Competition,the plod online and the welcome rise in the minimum wage are all accelerating the job losses. But it is the rise in technology that will go furthest. Robotics and artificial intelligence are moving to eliminate all kinds of work that had seemed reserved for humans, even those tasks that had appeared too personal or lowly paid to be vulnerable. Most of the automations of the 20th century eliminated unskilled male labour. Now it is the turn of unskilled women. The process is already under way. Salespeople are increasingly regimented and scripted in their interactions, and a process that might be called artificial stupidity,while ever greater intelligence and ingenuity is demanded of the customer who tries to navigate an automated checkout. That “unexpected item in the bagging area” is your vestigial humanity. Related: UK retail sector predicted to cut 900000 jobs Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com