Artificial Intelligence and automation is taking over different industries. A lot of tasks that humans would normally do, are now being left for robots and machines, for instance, providing data labelling and data annotation platform services.
This on one hand, creates jobs and it on the other hand, takes away people’s jobs. The retail and the taxi industries are currently being highly affected by the growth of automation.
Just a few years ago, you would have to wait for the cashier in the queue, whenever you went grocery shopping. You might be having a bad day and not want to talk to anyone, or the cashier may be the one having a bad day and then, transfer her aggression to you.
These things happen a lot in stores. However, with the growth of the self-checkout system, many stores are now embracing automation, almost totally at the expense of the cashier’s job. Furthermore, companies like CBX are introducing retail management solutions that may also improve the retail industry.
In one of the interviews below, The Circular spoke to a cashier at one of the petrol stations/grocery stores in town.
In the interview, he made it known that the whole petrol station and grocery store is currently in the process of changing to a totally self-serviced one. This would mean, even his job is on the line.
Another industry that is currently being shaken by technology is the cab-hailing business. A lot of people now prefer to hail cabs from the comfort of their homes, rather than call go the old-fashioned way, stand by the street and call a taxi.
This puts pressure on the taxi drivers to be technology-compliant, register on the app and remit a portion of their earnings to the cab-hailing technology providers.
Another way that technology is shaking up the taxi business is with the impact of driverless cars. These are cars that do not need anyone to drive them.
The passenger just dictates or types his destination for the car and it takes him there, without a driver controlling it. This technology is currently slowly being adopted in countries like Singapore.
A recent report says that, US-based software company, Waymo is currently testing its self-driving taxis in 2 US cities, Phoenix and Silicon Valley. Majority of the passengers are said to be giving positive feedback about their experiences in the taxis.
In my audio-interview with Edward (as seen below this article), a Dublin-based taxi-driver, he says he is confident that, taxi driving as a job would be extinct in the next 20 years.
Despite the fact that he is a full-time taxi driver, he has no doubt that there would be no need for his services in the nearest future, as driverless cars are now taking over.
While it may seem like automation and artificial intelligence a massively taking over the retail and taxi industries, a glimmer of hope might still exist for the workers.
It is still doubtful whether self-checkout systems would be able to take over all kinds of retail stores.
As for taxis, experts still doubt whether, laws and regulations around the world in the next few years, would allow cars to move about without a sound human mind behind the wheels.
How soon do you think self-driving cars are going to take over the automobile industry?
