“It doesn’t call sick,” says Amir Siddiqi, whose family installed the AI voice at its Arby’s franchise this year in Ontario, California. “It doesn’t get corona. And the reliability of it is great.”
The pandemic didn’t just threaten Americans’ health when it slammed the U.S. in 2020 — it may also have posed a long-term threat to many of their jobs. Faced with worker shortages and higher labor costs, companies are starting to automate service sector jobs that economists once considered safe, assuming that machines couldn’t easily provide the human contact they believed customers would demand.
Past experience suggests that such automation waves eventually create more jobs than they destroy, but that they also disproportionately wipe out less-skilled jobs that many low-income workers depend on. Resulting growing pains for the U.S. economy could be severe.
If not for the pandemic, Siddiqi probably wouldn’t have bothered investing in new technology that could alienate existing employees and some customers. But it’s gone smoothly, he says: “Basically, there’s less people needed but those folks are now working in the kitchen and other areas.”
Ideally, automation can redeploy workers into better and more interesting work, so long as they can get the appropriate technical training, says Johannes Moenius, an economist at the University of Redlands. But although that’s happening now, it’s not moving quickly enough, he says.
This story is from the 01, January 2022 edition of Techlife News.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the 01, January 2022 edition of Techlife News.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
TIKTOK SUES US TO BLOCK LAW THAT COULD BAN THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are suing the U.S. over a law that would ban the popular video-sharing app unless it's sold to another company, arguing that it vaguely paints it as a threat to national security to get around the First Amendment.
INSTACART PARTNERS WITH UBER EATS TO OFFER RESTAURANT DELIVERIES
Grocery delivery company Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to offer a new perk to its customers: restaurant delivery.
DISNEY'S STREAMING BUSINESS TURNS A PROFIT IN FIRST FINANCIAL REPORT SINCE CHALLENGE TO IGER
India, Disney+Hotstar, it expects its combined streaming businesses to be profitable in the fourth quarter and to be a meaningful future growth driver for the company, with further improvements in profitability in fiscal 2025.
RYAN GOSLING AND EMILY BLUNT ARE GREAT FUN, IN 'THE FALL GUY'
One of the worst movie sins is when a comedy fails to at least match the natural charisma of its stars. Not all actors are capable of being effortlessly witty without a tightly crafted script and some excellent direction and editing.
FRENCH CYBERWARRIORS READY TO TEST THEIR DEFENSE AGAINST HACKERS AND MALWARE DURING THE OLYMPICS
Just like the Olympic athletes, the cyberwarriors that will be crucial for the success of the Paris Games are deep into training for the big event.
VISION PRO UNVEILS MARVEL'S NEW INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE: 'WHAT IF...?
Walt Disney Company revealed an innovative addition to its Disney+ lineup, exclusive to Apple Vision Pro users.
NINTENDO TO ANNOUNCE SWITCH SUCCESSOR IN THIS FISCAL YEAR AS PROFITS RISE
Japanese video-game maker Nintendo said this week that it will make an announcement about a successor to its Switch home console sometime before March 2025.
FTX WILL RETURN MONEY TO MOST CUSTOMERS LESS THAN 2 YEARS AFTER CATASTROPHIC CRYPTO COLLAPSE
FTX says that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded, and some will get more than that.
SLOW TO EXPAND INTERNET CASINO GAMBLING IS THE FUTURE OF US BETTING, INDUSTRY EXECS SAY
Internet casino gambling is legal in only a handful of states, but the industry is convinced it is the future of betting, even as some worry about cannibalizing physical casinos.
US SEEKS INFORMATION FROM TESLA ON HOW IT DEVELOPED AND VERIFIED WHETHER AUTOPILOT RECALL WORKED
Federal highway safety investigators want Tesla to tell them how and why it developed the fix in a recall of more than 2 million vehicles equipped with the company’s Autopilot partially automated driving system.