A fleet of 3,000 washing machine-like robots working inside Ocado's London warehouse can fill a 50-item grocery order in just five minutes, the firm claims. They travel along a grid inside the 563,000 square foot London warehouse and are controlled'like pieces on a chessboard' by an AI air traffic controller. As they move along the board, coming within a fraction of an inch of each other, they grab items and prepare them to be delivered to the customer in a process that can take just 15 minutes to process an order with 99 per cent accuracy, Ocado claims. The British online supermarket is now as much a technology company as it is a grocer, licensing its automation system to retailers around the world. Ocado's chief of advanced technology, Alex Harvey, said the eventual goal is to become fully automated and have items'out the door without a single human touch.'

Echoing Mr Topol's suggestion of greater stakeholder involvement in the development of medical applications, the role of low-code and no-code applications will come to the fore. In my previous blog, I spoke about low-code/no-code software, whereby staff drag-and-drop application components, connect them together and create a mobile or web app. These tools can empower staff in every department to be able to create their own internal applications to suit their needs, without writing any code or needing to bother the already stretched IT departments. These so-called "citizen developers", will have the means to create robust applications in a safe, scalable environment that has all of the tooling and procedures to ensure appropriate security, testing and sign-off as part of the NHS's Digital Transformation program.

The emergence of many artificial intelligence (AI) innovations are now ripe for the picking, and sparking much controversy and debate within global media networks. As businesses navigate this interesting, dynamic and highly unpredictable landscape, many factors have already revealed themselves to us and are understood while other unknown factors still remain points for debate and speculation. See also: True AI doesn't exist yet…it's augmented intelligence There is a need to understand the abilities, implications and value that AI and automation can bring to business operations as well as the broader business landscape. But beyond that, we also need to understand the concerns shared by global markets and enterprises. We need to address some of the most common issues and opportunities.

Robots have been taking our jobs since the 1960s. So why are politicians and business leaders only now becoming so worried about robots causing mass unemployment? It comes down to the question of what a robot really is. While science fiction has often portrayed robots as androids carrying out tasks in much the same way as humans do, the reality is that robots take much more specialised forms. Traditional 20th-century robots were automated machines and robotic arms building cars in factories.

Robots have been taking our jobs since the 1960s. So why are politicians and business leaders only now becoming so worried about robots causing mass unemployment? It comes down to the question of what a robot really is. While science fiction has often portrayed robots as androids carrying out tasks in the much the same way as humans, the reality is that robots take much more specialised forms. Traditional 20th century robots were automated machines and robotic arms building cars in factories. Commercial 21st century robots are supermarket self-checkouts, automated guided warehouse vehicles, and even burger-flipping machines in fast-food restaurants.

Robots have been taking our jobs since the 1960s. So why are politicians and business leaders only now becoming so worried about robots causing mass unemployment? It comes down to the question of what a robot really is. While science fiction has often portrayed robots as androids carrying out tasks in the much the same way as humans, the reality is that robots take much more specialized forms. Traditional 20th century robots were automated machines and robotic arms building cars in factories. Commercial 21st century robots are supermarket self-checkouts, automated guided warehouse vehicles, and even burger-flipping machines in fast-food restaurants.

It's being dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution: the explosion of robots, machines, algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is coming. There's been a lot of recent speculation about how robotics and automation will change the landscape of employment, and the professions that could become obsolete as a result. We're all familiar with those annoying "unexpected item in the bagging area" self-service supermarket checkouts, or the big robots used on the production line in factories making cars and other complex products. In the supermarket, now just one checkout assistant can manage 6 or more tills, or cars and machines can be assembled safely, with every one being turned out to the same standard. So what jobs will be next on the chopping block in this technological revolution? By and large, the main professions under threat are ones that involve repetitive tasks – that could be inputting data, preparing spreadsheets and reports and other administrative duties, retail jobs, manufacturing and even some more complex analytical roles that could be better served by an algorithm doing all the hard work.