Software Robots Are Gaining Ground In White-Collar Office World (bloomberg.com) 23
"First they came for factory jobs. Then they showed up in service industries. Now, machines are making inroads into the kind of white-collar office work once thought to be the exclusive preserve of humans," write Alexandre Tanzi and Reade Pickert via Bloomberg. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: It's not just corporate giants, capable of spending millions of dollars to develop their own technologies, that are getting in on the act. One feature of the new automation wave is that companies like Kizen have popped up to make it affordable even for smaller firms. Based in Austin, Texas, Kizen markets an automated assistant called Zoe, which can perform tasks for sales teams like carrying out initial research and qualifying leads. Launched a year ago, it's already sold more than 400,000 licenses. "Our smallest customer pays us $10 a month and our largest customer pays us $9.5 million a year,'' says John Winner, Kizen's chief executive officer. There are plenty of other ambitious companies cashing in on the trend, and posting steep increases in revenue -- like UiPath Inc., a favorite of star investment manager Cathie Wood, as well as Appian Corp. and EngageSmart Inc. Alongside the growth of AI and what economists call "robotic process automation" -- essentially, when software performs certain tasks previously done by humans -- old-school automation is still going strong too.
The number of robots sold in North America hit a new record in the first quarter of 2022, according to the Association for Advancing Automation. The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2025, machines will be working as many hours as humans. What all of this innovation means for the world's workers is one of the key open questions in economics. The upbeat view says it's tasks that get automated, not entire jobs -- and if the mundane ones can be handled by computers or robots, that should free up employees for more challenging and satisfying work. The downside risk: occupations from sales reps to administrative support, could begin to disappear -- without leaving obvious alternatives for the people who earned a living from them. That adds another employment threat for white-collar workers who may already be vulnerable right now to an economic downturn, largely because so many got hired in the boom of the past couple of years.
KC Harvey Environmental, a consultancy based in Bozeman, Montana that works with businesses and governments on environmental issues, is one of Kizen's clients. It uses the software to automate document control -- for example, archiving and delivering new contracts to the right places and people. "A new project probably took our accounting group and project management team a day," says Rio Franzman, KC Harvey's chief operating officer. "This now probably streamlines it down to about an hour." The firm employs about 100 people and "we didn't lose any'' as a result of automation, he says. "What it did allow is for the reallocation of time and resources to more meaningful tasks." KC Harvey is now working with Kizen to bring AI into its marketing, too, with a partly automated newsletter among other projects. Some of the biggest firms at the forefront of automation also say they've been able to do it without cutting jobs.
Engineering giant Siemens AG says it's automated all kinds of production and back-office tasks at its innovative plant in Amberg, Germany, where it makes industrial computers, while keeping staffing steady at around 1,350 employees over several decades. The firm has developed a technology known as "digital twinning," which builds virtual versions of everything from specific products to administrative processes. Managers can then run simulations and stress-tests to see how things can be made better. "We're not going to automate people out of the process," says Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens USA. "By optimizing automation systems, and by using digital tools and AI, workers have increased productivity at Amberg by more than 1,000%." [...] Whatever the outcome, it's unlikely to allay the deep unease that the idea of automation triggers among workers who feel their jobs are vulnerable. With the rise of AI, that group increasingly includes white-collar employees.
The number of robots sold in North America hit a new record in the first quarter of 2022, according to the Association for Advancing Automation. The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2025, machines will be working as many hours as humans. What all of this innovation means for the world's workers is one of the key open questions in economics. The upbeat view says it's tasks that get automated, not entire jobs -- and if the mundane ones can be handled by computers or robots, that should free up employees for more challenging and satisfying work. The downside risk: occupations from sales reps to administrative support, could begin to disappear -- without leaving obvious alternatives for the people who earned a living from them. That adds another employment threat for white-collar workers who may already be vulnerable right now to an economic downturn, largely because so many got hired in the boom of the past couple of years.
KC Harvey Environmental, a consultancy based in Bozeman, Montana that works with businesses and governments on environmental issues, is one of Kizen's clients. It uses the software to automate document control -- for example, archiving and delivering new contracts to the right places and people. "A new project probably took our accounting group and project management team a day," says Rio Franzman, KC Harvey's chief operating officer. "This now probably streamlines it down to about an hour." The firm employs about 100 people and "we didn't lose any'' as a result of automation, he says. "What it did allow is for the reallocation of time and resources to more meaningful tasks." KC Harvey is now working with Kizen to bring AI into its marketing, too, with a partly automated newsletter among other projects. Some of the biggest firms at the forefront of automation also say they've been able to do it without cutting jobs.
Engineering giant Siemens AG says it's automated all kinds of production and back-office tasks at its innovative plant in Amberg, Germany, where it makes industrial computers, while keeping staffing steady at around 1,350 employees over several decades. The firm has developed a technology known as "digital twinning," which builds virtual versions of everything from specific products to administrative processes. Managers can then run simulations and stress-tests to see how things can be made better. "We're not going to automate people out of the process," says Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens USA. "By optimizing automation systems, and by using digital tools and AI, workers have increased productivity at Amberg by more than 1,000%." [...] Whatever the outcome, it's unlikely to allay the deep unease that the idea of automation triggers among workers who feel their jobs are vulnerable. With the rise of AI, that group increasingly includes white-collar employees.
"Software Robot" == program (Score:5, Insightful)
TFA is the dumbest thing I have read so far today.
A "software robot" is just a program, and they have been replacing human workers since the 1940s.
Re: (Score:3)
I think they left out things like legal researchers who use to fill rooms trying to find information that would win cases but now are just iPhone apps.
Long article short.
Humans refactor and optimize.
As we establish potential functions of society that may present opportunities for a return on investment, we implement optimized solutions... Which generally present other functions that can or should b
Re: (Score:1)
I was wondering if there was anything moderately valid in the article... Meaning anything which wasn't obvious.
The summary is too awful to read, as usual, but I'm surmising that this is a company that sells "automation", like tarted-up canned searches and calls it "research assistance".
Humans refactor and optimize.
By and large office personnel doesn't, at least not with the clicky computars. They have a "do this" kind of job, not a "think about it and make it work better" kind of job.
Max_W [slashdot.org] says
It existed in the 80s, and was called "mailmerge". You just had t
Re: (Score:2)
This. And "software robots" (programs) are the natural extension of "hardware robots" (machines) that have been making people more productive since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
Re: (Score:2)
TFA is the dumbest thing I have read so far today.
advertising tends to be. if you read slashdot you are reading plenty of dumbness every day.
Re: (Score:2)
thank you for promoting my ideas. it wasn't really necessary but i guess you have nothing better to do, so ... enjoy!
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If they are all software, then they are NOT ROBOTS.
Robots do stuff in the physical world. They are machines, not just code.
Ah, you say, but the code is running on a physical computer! Irrelevant, if it doesn't have any actuators. Sometimes actual robots get data from these programs, but these programs still aren't robots.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sorry to break it to you, but you might be part of the "AI redefinition" problem, now bringing your magic to redefine "robot".
Re: (Score:2)
'Software robots' took the jobs of white collar workers first. That is why they were invented. Before 1950, "computer" was a job title.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
On the other hand, those rooms were filled with women, thus increasing their proportion in "computer" jobs.
"a partly automated newsletter" (Score:4, Informative)
My coffee machine robot (Score:2)
It can bring me coffee any time.
It's so much better than these rookies who don't understand what a 'Expresso Romano Puñet with extra Eggnog Latte' means.
And with the Microsoft (r) Tay (c)(tm) chat bot technology we can even have all kinds of slurry discussions when I'm alone in the office!
Re: My coffee machine robot (Score:2)
And apparently... (Score:2)
...Elon Musk will do the same to the kitchen-apron world.
imagine that (Score:2)
Hmmm (Score:2)
I have been noticing that CSRs are currently about as responsive as the chatbots that the companies installed in 2008. But, I am happy that mentally defiicient people are still able to get jobs telling me I am dumber than they are.