A company that introduces AI and robots… Rather, jobs increase?

As all products that exist in modern times use artificial intelligence and robots for manufacturing, quality control, and shipping processes, there is often an opinion that robots are taking human jobs. Contrary to common sense so far, the Wharton School research team at the University of Pennsylvania said that the total employment of companies with robots increased and the total employment of companies without robots decreased. It is said that it is done.

Based on the tax filing data published by Statistics Canada from 2000 to 2015, the research team used the National Accounts Longitudinal Microdata File (NALMF), a set of corporate employment and financial data, and the quality of employees managed by the Bureau of Statistics Business Labor Market Analysis Division and Labor Statistics Division. A cross-sectional survey on the employment situation Based on large-scale statistical data such as WES (Workplace and Employee Survey), AI or robot introduction and human employment relationship were analyzed.

As a result of the analysis, contrary to the conventional wisdom that robots take away human jobs, in reality, the total employment of companies that have adopted AI and robots tended to increase over time. On the other hand, companies that do not employ AI and robots seem to have found a tendency to fall into a situation where the decline in competitiveness leads to firing workers, and the introduction of AI and robots causes the phenomenon of taking jobs from competitors.

Moreover, it has been said that although robots deprive simple workers of employment by common sense so far, in reality, simple workers employment rather increases and managerial jobs decrease. According to the research team, this phenomenon is caused by the fact that AI and robots can manage worker schedules and check tasks without mistakes. have.

In addition, it is revealed that the employment of technical workers among those with high school graduation qualifications and bachelor’s degrees is reduced by AI and robots, but the demand for low-skilled workers who do not have high school graduation qualifications and technical workers who have college graduation qualifications is rather high. Regarding this phenomenon, robots are said to be unsuitable for managing low-skilled workers, such as picking and packaging. He noted that the results for high-skilled workers were somewhat uncertain, and assumed that the robotic effect was small because technical workers were able to manage their work on their own.

The research team advised that companies that want to adopt AI and robots should introduce robots to improve product and service quality, not to reduce labor costs. He said that quality improvement is suitable for robot operation, and that it may be disappointing if it is aimed at reducing labor costs. Related information can be found here .