The Three Eras of Automation

Write about the Trends in the Global Business Environment for Beyond Automation.

Automation is a trending issue in business and a serious concern among people from all walks of life. Automation is defined displacing human beings with machines. In the manual sector, people have long been displaced by machines. In the 19^th Century, which was named as era one among the three eras of automation by (Davenport & Kirby 2015), people were displaced by machines. That took away ‘dirty and dangerous’ equipment. There was an evolution of machines from looms to cotton gin which relieved people from tedious manual work.  Predictably the people who deal with knowledge work will soon be replaced (Harvard Business Review, 2018). The importance of this topic is to make the concept of automation familiar to the reader and educate the reader on how to reframe the threat of automation as an opportunity for augmentation.

Keywords; Knowledge work- work that only requires brain knowledge, Automation-replacing human workers with machines and Augmentation- becoming greater in knowledge, in this case, to compete with automation.

The essay seeks to answer the following four questions; what people can do to ensure that they are not entirely displaced by machines (steps to renegotiate with automation) (Jennings, et al. 2000). In the case of environments that are fond of automation, what should be done in case automated tasks do not work when the environment changes. (Automation Anywhere, 2018). One can also ask themselves how accurate automation is and the final question is how to control task creation.

(Kiulian 2017) gave tips on how to avoid being replaced by a robot. He stated that experts from various fields disagree on how fast and intense the transition will be. Part of those experts are optimistic and say that by 2055, 5% of the jobs in the United States will be fully automated. Pessimists, on the other hand, say that 47% of the United States jobs will be faced with a risk of automation in the next 20 years. People from different fields of work should acknowledge the fact that at some point, the Al driven economy will take control. Al software and robots replace humans in the tasks they do in the Al economy. In order for human beings to be competitive in the machine age, they need to formulate several strategies that will help them control the artificial intelligence. A human being can be competitive because it is human intelligence that gave birth to artificial intelligence so if machines outdo humans, it is entirely the humans’ fault. The first strategy that has to be formulated is knowing how to talk to the machines. Interactive Al software such as chatbots, virtual assistants, and analytics alter the way customers and businesses get information as well as decision making by businesses and its customers. People should then learn the human-machine efficient language in order to exploit the machines. It is said that machines will be more generous to people who communicate excellently. Just the way search engines respond in favor of those that enter relevant questions. It is advisable that employees be conversant with the machines for their job safety come the Al era. This kind of workers will be very important assets to their areas of work in the coming era.

Negotiating with Machines

Secondly, in order to be useful in the new age, employees need to assist and augment machines. The Al era will not replace all of the jobs but will augment workers and turn them into machine operators and assistants. This will mean that they will have to acquire the technological know-how to interact with machines. The Al employees will act as intermediaries between the machines and customers.

(Ayehu 2016) gave the most common reasons why most automation processes fail. One reason is focusing on tools and tasks instead of focusing on people.  Most automation projects are designed around tasks instead of people who would inevitably help. That is why most automated tasks fail when the environment changes. Therefore, when putting up automated tasks, it should be aimed at benefiting the IT team and not putting them through stress. The results would be much greater if human workers were considered prior to the tools or tasks.

The other reason why automated tasks fail is that the right tools are not used. Not every automated tool is created equal. Some are made using quality materials and are more efficient compared to the ones that people rush to purchase at cheaper prices. As the saying goes, you get what you ask for. A machine may also underperform in some areas because the management made a mistake of buying the tool thinking that it is top-of-line only to find that it is not suitable for the task. It is a total waste of money, therefore, the right thing that a company should do is carry out their own research and select a tool that is affordable and one that suits the company’s special needs.

(Bezuidenhout 2016) said that automation boosts accuracy. Automation cannot be compared to tasks performed by humans because whenever there is human intervention, there must be an error. As the saying goes, man is to error. Automation process runs constantly without fail or fatigue. When errors come up, the alarm beeps and that makes you know immediately. Automation is not completely perfect because, for example, an error can occur in Excel. The computer literate people know that in Excel, formulas need to be updated on the formula bar. An error may occur because the accuracy of the solution depends on the memory and keenness of the document holder. Errors may also occur in Excel if the formula cannot contain the range of data.

Avoiding Automation Failures

(Kaeb 2016) said that automation not only improves accuracy but also delivers accountability and safety when the right system is used. When records that contain details of how an operator performed his or her task helps the Manager in accessing employees competency.

There are numerous ways to keep automation from running out of control. Among these ways are, entrusting a group of employees who are experts in developing automated tasks and procedures and leaving the work of task creation in their hands. Giving other employees performance licenses who should be using automation but not giving them the work of task creation.

Thirdly, trainers should grab the opportunity of educating employees using the company’s devices. They can even do so online. That way, people involved with task creation will have a clearer understanding. The named three processes were developed by (Automation anywhere, 2018).

Automation has many advantages as opposed to disadvantages (Cameron 2018). Automation increases productivity. This is because it machines work continuously without failure. It is also available for day to day activities. It is reliable (Gardner 2014) especially during off-shift operations that are prone to errors. Automation is cost reducing because the costs are only incurred during purchase and installation. The other costs include repairs which are rare. Servicing of machines is also necessary to maintain a healthy system. Generally, automation is beneficial and should be adopted by as many businesses as possible.

Concluding the research, there is a disagreement on pessimists’ say that automation is going to replace close to half of the jobs in the United States. Automation is a necessary evil. (Heater 2017) said that technology is killing jobs and its only technology that can save them. From the findings, people only need to negotiate with the machines to make sure that their jobs are not rendered useless come to the anticipated age of Al (Winick 2018). Management systems of companies should also conduct research in order to avert underperforming machines. Automation errors should be dealt with, for example, experts coming up with automatic formulas instead of computer users updating their own formulas. That would be helpful. Lastly, people entrusted with task creation should be experts.

References

Automation Anywhere, (2018). Robotic Non-fiction. Available from: https://www.automationanywhere.com [Accessed 26 Apr 2016]

Ayehu, (2016). 5 Most Common Reasons IT Process Automation Projects Fail. Available from: https://ayehu.com [Accessed 26 Apr 2016]

Bezuidenhout, R. (2016). Automate your processes and reap credibility through accuracy. Emagination.

Cameron, P., (2018). Automated Operations: 5 Benefits of Automation. Help systems.

Davenport, H. T., and Kirby, J. (2015). Three Eras of Automation. BEYOND AUTOMATION.

Gardner, A. (2014). 7 Benefits of Business Process Automation. SOLIDitech; Automate Your Business.

Harvard Business Review, (2015). Available from: https://hbr.org/2015/06/beyondautomation [Accessed on 26 Apr 2018]

Heater, B. (2017). Technology is killing jobs, and only technology can save them. TC.

Jennings, N.R. et al. (2000). Automated Negotiation. Proc. 5^th int Conf. on Practical Application of Intelligent Agents and Multi-agent Systems (PAAM-2000), Manchester, UK, pp: 23-30.

Kaeb, J. (2016). Automation Ensures Accuracy. Seed WORLD

Kiulian, A. (2017). How To Avoid Being Replaced by a Robot; Facing the Next Wave of Automation and Machine Intelligence: Available from https://hackermoon.com [Accessed on 26 Apr 2018]

Winick, E. (2018). Business Impact; Every study we could find on what automation will do to jobs, in one chart. MIT Technology Review