Don’t fear automation: Experts

Fear of disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence, automation, robotics taking away jobs is misplaced , as technology has most often created many more jobs than those it destroyed, said experts.

Instead of fearing about new technologies, they said employees should focus on skilling. Ba-sed on 140 years of data, the rise of machi-nes has been a job creator rather than making working humans obsolete, said Deloitte’s report.

Speaking at the World Congress of IT (WCIT), Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Any technology if it displaces 10 jobs it creates 100 jobs. Re-skilling is crucial as technologies take time to adjust. So stakeholders shouldn’t be made uncomfortable instead the transition period should be well handled.”

Ms Rekha M Menon, chairman and Senior MD of Accenture India, said, “From ‘learn-earn-retire’ mode, people ha-ve to transform to learn-earnrepeat mode. There are unique job roles coming up in this sector and there is shortage of people in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics)”.

Speaking at at a seminar on ‘Future of Jobs’ at Magnetic Maharashtra Summit, SKF India managing director Shishir Joshipura said, “We are moving towards a situation where machines will make decisions. So it is important for people to reorient themselves, as lot of current jobs would become redundant. Even blue collared workers would be required to have the ability to read machine language.”

Bridgestone India MD Parag Satpute highlighted the need for ramping up the education curriculum to meet industry requirements as he believes that mere technical knowledge would not be enough.