Advantages and Disadvantages of Automation
Discuss about the Artificial Intelligence and Tutoring Systems.
Automation has become a necessary process in the contemporary world of business. The major question that arises in this context is what are the advantages that the organization can have due to the process of automation? It is important for the companies to prosper in the global economy and to compete in the economically competitive world. The world is becoming a mechanical world and it is heading towards an advancement. There are five main benefits that have been spotted due to this process. These benefits are, cost reduction, productivity, availability, reliability and it enhances the performance of the employees. The process of automation reduces the cost of the company. It does it with the help of technological advancement. Technology can manage of the work of ten men at the same time. The process of automation is smarter way to do work. It makes work faster and therefore it reduces the cost of manpower in the company. This makes the work faster and therefore it increases the production. The companies depend hugely on their computers.
The process of automation helps the company to have a daily record in a systematic manner. The process of automation makes the people of the organization reliable towards it. It reduces the scope of manual work which is more laborious. This is the reason it enhances the performance of the employees. However the pitfall of the system is that it takes the job from many youths. The computer makes the job opportunity limited for the ones who are looking for new jobs. It has been argued many critics that the process of automation has made work easier but it has made the work difficult for the ones who are not aware of the technological systems and who does not know to do the work in computers. This is the biggest disadvantage of the system. In the article, named, “Beyond Automation”, (Davenport and Kirby 2015) the writer points out the fact that the business woman, Hutt was thinking about the future of her children and she realized that tried to know the fact that in what way the computers would compete with the experienced persons. It has been explored in the article that while the technological advancement is taking away the task from the humans, it is also taking away task from humans.
It is viewed in the article that the people in all the walks are becoming conscious off using technology in all the fields of work. The question that arises in this context is whether augmentation with automation is the way forward for employees in the modern workplace? The industry giants around the world are investigating in autonomous vehicles. Soon there are going to be augmented cars that would take the world to a better and technologically advancement. The process of augmentation saves time of work and as a result makes the work easier. It makes the systems automatic and hence decreases the labor of work. The humans are delicate. They are born to tear and they are usually unable to work under pressure. The robots on the other hand are used to work under immense pressure and they are rugged and are capable of doing strenuous jobs with relative ease. There is a contradictory view on this. Critics like Wallis and Detsky (2017), have argued that the robots are sometimes not flexible. The humans can experience a transition from one action to other. The robots cannot do the same. The machines are always mechanical and they cannot react outside the fixed order. This was further argued by another critics, Mendes et al. (2016), stating that the robots are capable of performing new tasks at any situation. However, this should be remembered that the artificial intelligence have made the workplace modern and it has made the workplace suitable. Both the humans and the robots are dependent on each other. In any organization or in the working system the intelligence of human workers is combined with the intelligence of the robots. It is an undeniable fact that the robots are metal bodies and they have more power than the humans (Lippi, Plebani and Favaloro 2015).
Impact on Job Opportunities and Employee Performance
The other question that cannot be skipped in this context is about the changing mindset of the people about the process of automation and whether the people are really ready to accept this process towards the formation of a collaborative platform? It is evident in the article (Davenport and Kirby 2015), that there are still many barriers that the humans face in accepting the process of automation. Many critic like, David (2015), believes that this system has taken away the job and has increased the youth unemployment. This is true that automation is coming to knowledge work but this is coming in the form of artificial intelligence. The critic Wenger (2014), have argued that knowledge work requires traditional knowledge like the educational knowledge which requires mental effort than the manual effort. It involves the process of decision making. A person puts all the hard work in studying the matters that are involved in a subject. He pursues the college studies and other studies that are involved in universities or schools. They do it for a large proportion of jobs in the current economy. The machines on the other hand can take up more challenges and this is the reason the arguments are in favor of stating the process of automation as a successful process. Experts like, Nigel Rayner comments that the many works done by the executives in the present world will become automated as this is a reliable process and a preferred one (Kaber 2018).
The most important question that comes to the mind is there any change in the scenario of the new job opportunities due to the process of automation? In the article, “Beyond Automation”, it is stated that the job opportunities have become limited. It is a matter of fact that the machine can do the work of ten or more worker at one single time and therefore the company will try to cut out the more number of employees in order to save the increasing cost of the company. The companies reduces the number of employees and saves the cost by reducing the number of money that the company would give to their staffs through their salary. The automation is taking the place of the knowledge work. It has increased the economic recession and the youth unemployment. It has been contradicted by many critics, like Livingstone (2018), have proposed that the process of automation has given chance to the youths who has acquired knowledge in field of technology. It has made work easier for the youths as they can apply for their jobs through a transparent process. While it has limited the chance of new job opportunities, at the same time it has extended the job opportunities (Grote, Weyer and Stanton 2014).
Artificial Intelligence and Upskilling
The other area that can be considered to be important is whether the process of automation is helping in the upskilling of the employees, the staffs and the future generations in order to work with the incoming changes and roles that are usually seen in the process of automation? According to Groover (2016), the process of automation is making the entire system of work mechanical and it is limiting the work of the humans. It is putting a limitation in the work of the humans. The sills of the employees are destroyed because of this. There is no space left for creativity. The staffs and the employees of any organization are getting more dependent on the artificial knowledge that they are being to acquire from the means of artificial intelligence. Critics like, Scerbo (2018), have defended the point of view by saying that the process of automation have made work faster. Human beings are not flexible to work in some situations. The process of automation makes this factor flexible. It saves the manual work and the data that are presented using this method are more genuine and more transparent. The work load is getting evenly distributed among the employees and the staffs. This is the reason it is a preferred system. It ensures the speed of development (Chui, Manyika and Miremadi 2015).
In the current world, technology is required to make huge progress for any organization. The process of augmentation harnesses technology to speed up development of improvement. It brings development in many facilities like the education facilities, in the field of health and in the field of corporate development. It enhances the means of communication and develops the network of communication. This is the reason the world is heading towards the acceptance of the system of automation. Like all the systems it has advantages as well as disadvantages. However the advantages are more than the disadvantages. It is making the world smart and therefore is a preferred system.
References
Chui, M., Manyika, J. and Miremadi, M., 2015. Four fundamentals of workplace automation. McKinsey Quarterly, 29(3), pp.1-9.
Davenport, T.H. and Kirby, J., 2015. Beyond automation. Harvard Business Review, 93(6), pp.59-65.
David, H., 2015. Why are there still so many jobs? The history and future of workplace automation. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(3), pp.3-30.
Groover, M.P., 2016. Automation, production systems, and computer-integrated manufacturing. Pearson Education India.
Grote, G., Weyer, J. and Stanton, N.A., 2014. Beyond human-centred automation–concepts for human–machine interaction in multi-layered networks.
Kaber, D.B., 2018. Issues in human–automation interaction modeling: Presumptive aspects of frameworks of types and levels of automation. Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, 12(1), pp.7-24.
Lippi, G., Plebani, M. and Favaloro, E.J., 2015, April. The changing face of hemostasis testing in modern laboratories: consolidation, automation, and beyond. In Seminars in thrombosis and hemostasis (Vol. 41, No. 03, pp. 294-299). Thieme Medical Publishers.
Livingstone, D.W., 2018. The Education-Jobs Gap: Underemployment or Economic Democracy?. Routledge.
Mendes, N., Neto, P., Loureiro, A. and Moreira, A.P., 2016. Machines and control systems for friction stir welding: A review. Materials & Design, 90, pp.256-265.
Scerbo, M.W., 2018. Theoretical perspectives on adaptive automation. In Automation and human performance (pp. 57-84). Routledge.
Wallis, C.J. and Detsky, A.S., 2017. Pitfalls of prioritizing cost-effectiveness in the assessment of medical innovation: A case study of robotic-assisted prostatectomy in Ontario. Canadian Urological Association Journal, 12(2).
Wenger, E., 2014. Artificial intelligence and tutoring systems: computational and cognitive approaches to the communication of knowledge. Morgan Kaufmann.