Top insurer asks staff if robot could do their job
IT’S a question for the modern age – do you think a robot could do your job better? And, if you answered yes – would you admit it to your boss?
That is what insurance giant Aviva will be asking its 16,000 employees – and the ones who say they could be replaced by a machine will be retrained for another role at the firm.
Call centre staff and those who assess customers’ credit ratings and calculate the price of insurance are most likely to have to transfer.
The increasing sophistication of robots has preoccupied company bosses across the world looking to cut costs and boost efficiency.
But Aviva is thought to be first company in the world to pose this question directly to its staff, according to The Sunday Times.
Robots have already replaced tens of thousands of jobs in manufacturing – including in the car industry.
But experts have warned entire professions dominated by middleclass workers – such as accountancy – could be pushed to the brink of extinction as developments in computers make their roles redundant.
Ministers believe the onward march of the robots is inevitable and must be embraced.
Last weekend the government announced it will hand £17million to universities for artificial intelligence research, including robots and driverless cars.
It has seized on estimates from consultancy firm Accenture that artificial intelligence could provide a £654billion boost to the UK economy by 2035, creating more highly skilled jobs.
But the latest developments will fuel concerns that many white col- lar jobs will also soon be obsolete. Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned in December that 15million Britons – almost half of the 31.8million workforce – could be replaced by robots over the coming years as livelihoods were ‘mercilessly destroyed’ by the technological revolution.
Deeply worrying forecasts from the Bank say that a new ‘machine age’ would be particularly devastating for those on lower incomes.
Researchers from Oxford University also recently compiled a list of jobs which are most in danger of being automated, and found that 35 per cent of jobs in the UK were in danger of being automated.
Insurance underwriters were top of the list, with a 98.9 per cent risk of becoming automated. Other high-risk professions were estate agents, postal service workers, and accountants.
But firefighters, dentists and doctors all have a less than a 1 per cent chance of being replaced by robots.