Among the many effects of the novel coronavirus, and the lockdown which came as a response to it, is an acceleration of the trend toward an automated workforce. To lessen the risk of contagion, employers are insisting that fewer workers be onsite at any given time, and some of the resulting slack is being picked up by machines.
Automation was already coming
In manufacturing, the internet of things was already being widely implemented prior to the arrival of Covid-19. Through this technology, devices can communicate with one another, and also report back to the manufacturer. This information could then be used to inform future product development. For example, if a certain sort of car is statistically likely to develop an engine fault after a certain number of miles, this would show up in the data. Subsequent versions of that same car could then be tweaked to limit the likelihood of the fault developing.
IoT is being adopted more widely in established economies than in emerging ones. While emerging economies represent the majority of growth in the automation industry, they lack the specialised workforce needed to grow and develop IoT solutions.
The mechanisation of the manufacturing process has been a longer-term project, with humans and machines increasingly working side-by-side. This relationship has been made safer through the use of smarter machines, and through specialised devices like safety light curtains.
What impact has covid-19 had?
As we’ve mentioned, automation helps to fight the pandemic by limiting the number of people in the office space. Working from home has already made a swift transition from being an eccentricity to a staple of the modern business.
Automation has also been used to effectively monitor the spread of the virus itself, which is too complicated a phenomenon for human beings to effectively keep tabs on. Machines may help with diagnosis and contact tracing, allowing human beings to effectively submit a sample without endangering medical staff, who in turn might spread the virus to other vulnerable people. This will in turn allow the economy to continue to function, and lessen the need for further draconian lockdown measures being implemented.
What does the future hold?
We can expect a continued growth in the use and availability of robots and artificial intelligences, in workplaces of every kind. This growth may plateau or skyrocket in response to world events; but for the most part we’ll see a steady increase as the benefits of automation proliferate through the economy, and ultimately become affordable even to smaller businesses with less resources available to invest in new technologies.
