Rise of the Machine
When we first wrote about the advent of autonomous machines several years ago, we highlighted areas for investment, new capabilities, and the promise for productivity-enhancing economic gains; however, there is another perspective to consider. Over the coming decade, up to half of all manufacturing jobs may be replaced by disruptive technologies including 3D printing, autonomous machines, and factory automation. Jobs thought to be “automation proof” are also coming under fire as advances in sensors and processing allow for machines that can do much of the work of lawyers, doctors, waiters, financial advisors, farmers, journalists, and even artists. This will shift the beneficiaries of globalization away from economies that can provide cheap labor, such as emerging markets, to economies that can provide cheap capital, historically the developed countries. Advances in technology that disrupted industries in the past would often lead to new and better jobs being created to service the new technology, but we may be approaching a point where the only beneficiaries of rapid technological change are greater overall economic productivity and the owners of capital.