Place of Robots in Employment and Their Development
Robot technology has been used in employment since the day it was developed and has been a part of the production factor. Artificial intelligence, automation and robotic technologies, which have reached a very advanced level with Industry 4.0, have begun to replace human power, and the emerging new economic system has been defined as “robonomics” (Ivanov 2017:284).
New generation robots, defined as collaborative robots and expressed with the term cobots (are the assistant of workers, especially in the automotive sector), significantly increase both speed and efficiency (Kurt and Bozoklu 2019: 28). Boston Consulting Group, conducting revolutionary work in this technological field, sees autonomous robots as the power to change industrial transformation. In addition, it is told that the technology of “Internet of Things”[13] may leave millions of people unemployed, primarily unskilled workers, in the future. The increase in industrial robot purchases confirms this. It is understood from the reports of international financial associations such as the World Economic Forum and the International Monetary Fund that the share of these technologies in employment is increasing. According to the report of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the number of expert service robots increased to 271,000 in 2018, with a 68% increase compared to 2017, which was 168,000 back then. Market sales values reached 9.2 billion dollars. The sectors where this increase was experienced the most were the logistics and production sectors, where the use of autonomous vehicles increased by 41% (IFR 2019a: 11). In 2018, the world average of the number of industrial robots used for every 10,000 employees was 99. The fact that the world average, which was 48 in 2010, increased more than 100% in 8 years indicates that robots will spread rapidly in production and other sectors in the future. In this area, Singapore is at the top with 831 robots, while South Korea follows it with 774 robots. Germany, one of the countries with the largest production capacity, ranks first with 334 robots in Europe. In the same report, it was estimated that the number of robots, which was 422,000 in 2018, will reach 584,000 in 2022 (IFR 2019b).In order to understand the position of robots in employment, it would be appropriate to mention Amazon GO, the unmanned store established by Amazon. This store, where every transaction in the store with no check-out or cashier is carried out by cameras and sensors and shopping is completed through the application, gives some clues about the future. Likewise, the autonomous robots used by AliExpress, one of the largest online shopping sites in the world, in storage and logistics prove that worker robots are being used more effectively. However, it is not possible to say that robot employment always produces satisfactory results. In Henn Na Hotel, which was established in Japan in 2015 and had only 7 human employees, many services such as guest welcoming, luggage carrying and reception services were provided by robots, but this application was abandoned after a short time due to the low performance of robots (Zeng et al. 2020: 6). Although robots are not considered sufficient, they successfully perform services such as cleaning, catering and carrying luggage in many hotels with the developing technology. In addition, considering that significant progress has been made in studies on unmanned aerial, land and sea vehicles, it is predicted that in the near future, we may come across with many more servant robots in daily life.
It is estimated that this transformation will cover 50% of the current world economy and affect more than 1 billion employees, especially in countries such as the USA, China and India. In some studies, it is thought that the number of employees who will be dismissed by 2030 will be between 400 and 800 million, while it is predicted that 75 to 375 million of these employees will find new job opportunities (Manyika et al.
2017: 11). If 41% of the employees in the USA cannot gain new competencies according to the new working order by 2026, it is expected that they will have narrow job opportunity, such as only three business lines, at best (Gokalp et al. 2019: 207). In fact, besides all these predictions, the report prepared by the World Economic Forum best summarizes how the new order will change the world. In the said report, it is estimated that 65% of the children who attend primary school today will not work in current jobs (WEF 2016: 32).Industry 4.0 made a rapid development compared to previous industrial revolutions and covers many sectors. While the First Industrial Revolution affected the transportation sector and agriculture sector, the Second Industrial Revolution had its effect on heavy industry. However, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which was realized by using the knowledge and technology accumulation created by the prior industrial revolutions, made great and important changes in every field from agriculture to heavy industry, from tourism to food sector and from transportation to service sector in a period as short as ten years. With the COVID-19 outbreak, the use of autonomous robot technology and digital service understanding introduced by the Fourth Industrial Revolution has peaked.
The pandemic period in which robot employment or digitization in employment increased rapidly, in fact, has proved that the economy has an infrastructure in this regard. It would be appropriate to discuss to what extent the role of robot employment and digitization in employment has changed in reducing economic impacts in the case of COVID-19 outbreak and similar outbreaks.
9.4
More on the topic Place of Robots in Employment and Their Development:
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