OP-ED: There’s a robot on my stoep: Job security in the age of 4IR By Fazila Farouk
No matter what profession you’re involved in, you’ve probably heard by now that there’s a robot coming to take your job. Until recently, the threat of automation was largely confined to blue-collar work. But, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence is swiftly throwing white-collar work into sharp relief and with it, the middle class – already under pressure from a general malaise of stagnant income growth – now also finds itself under threat of technological unemployment.
We’re starting to see what impact new technology is having on routine white-collar jobs in the banking sector. In September 2018, Nedbank made headlines when it started installing software robots that could potentially eliminate 3,000 jobs. Similarly, in March 2019 it was reported that 1,200 Standard Bank jobs are at risk due to the imminent closure of 91 of the bank’s branches because it is becoming more digitised.
But recent research reveals a worrying picture in SA. Studies show that the evolution of the 4IR reinforces the historic cleavages that exist in our economy and in our society. Beyond job losses, the 4IR also produces inequality as a result of skewed access to finance, technology and other opportunities to participate in high-tech industries evolving from it.
The automation problem, as many South Africans perceive it, is about how to protect existing jobs as well as expand new job opportunities while at the same time embracing the 4IR. While this may seem like a reasonable objective, in truth it embodies a conceptual contradiction because embracing the 4IR necessarily encompasses accepting the idea that automation reduces human involvement in jobs.
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