Festival of Work: Why job automation is an opportunity, not a threat - Personnel Today

Job automation was hotly debated by speakers at the CIPD's Festival of Work conference this week, with many agreeing that it will replace many middle-skilled occupations. But this shouldn't be seen as a threat to the human workforce, as Ashleigh Webber reports. Until very recently, job automation and the idea that artificial intelligence (AI) would put swathes of the workforce out of work seemed distant concerns. However, with Amazon recently rolling out 200,000 robots across 50 warehouses and two NHS hospitals in London introducing software to automate certain back office functions, the concept of a "robot workforce" appears to be rapidly becoming reality. What challenges will HR face in the next 10 years?