Currently employed automation professionals are wondering if expert systems and automation are good enough to replace the vacancies left by retiring workers. Are computerized programs so great that those empty positions don't require another human to fill them?
The article "How automation and technology affect the future of workers and managers," published by our sister publication Plant Services says this is not the sort of question one asks in the staff room on coffee break, especially when a third of those present will reach retirement age in the next five years. But you should, because history shows that leveraging technology to unburden labor broadens opportunities for human capital, and that should interest the ones who aren't retiring so soon.
If technology and automation does take over our jobs, what will happen to the knowledge, where will the jobs go, and what’s to become of the art and the judgment and the human elements we thought were indispensable?