Computer engineer Eliseo Delgado Jr. is a tech reviewer in his spare time who keeps up with trends and newsworthy topics in the consumer electronics and technology fields. Below, he shares his insight on the growing robotics industry and explains how it affects today’s jobs and tomorrow’s job market.
Eliseo Delgado Jr. helps online readers understand complicated tech concepts as well as provide them with insightful product reviews to make educated purchases. Reading up on the ever-growing robotics industry, he discusses how these technologies help to optimize production and distribution on a large scale and will be used more heavily in the future.
“Robotics scare a lot of people because it makes them think that all their hard work will be obsolete in the near future,” says Eliseo Delgado Jr. “However, machines and robots are only being brought in to work alongside people in most cases. Only in small, certain instances are humans being replaced by machines entirely, but it is happening.”
For years, factory workers, warehouse stockers, and other similar positions have worked with machinery in their daily routines. They often use oversized vehicles and lifts to move heavy materials and conveyor belts to shuttle products along an assembly line. In these instances, robotics and machinery expedite processes and allow humans to accomplish feats they wouldn’t be able to on their own. As technology becomes smarter and more capable, though, it will be implemented more heavily into the job market and may have a slight impact on available jobs.
Robots are resourceful tools that help businesses improve their processes or save money, and they often accomplish this by reducing the cost of staff and payout liability (eliminating sick days, vacation time, workers’ compensation, etc.). Robots aren’t likely to make the same mistakes or user errors humans do, ultimately streamlining production for more efficient output.
Programs using artificial intelligence to accomplish tasks also qualify as robots, and many companies already use them in major capacities. These programs process transactions, handle large bulks of data and reply to emails among other tasks, which are jobs that were reserved solely for humans in the past.
“Robots and machinery aren’t inherently bad, and we wouldn’t be able to accomplish a lot of what we do today without their help,” says Eliseo Delgado Jr. “But they are taking over some jobs.”
One of the biggest industries soon to be affected by robotics is the transportation industry. Over-the-road truck drivers are becoming more and more scarce, regardless of our dependence on them to transport essential items across the country. To battle this decline in drivers, some trucking companies are turning to self-driving technology to power their semi-trucks. This means in the future you’ll likely pass alongside driverless trucks transporting food and goods while driving on the highway.
“Robots and automated machinery will have a growing impact on the job market in the coming years,” says Eliseo Delgado Jr., “but it’s up to business leaders enlisting their help to ensure work is distributed evenly among their human employees.”
