Businesses struggling for staff 'may turn to automation instead'

Friday, 18 June 2021

A global trend of human labour being replaced by automation has been accelerated in New Zealand by Covid-19, experts say – but it doesn’t mean you will be out of a job.

“It is not a case of if this will happen, but when,” said Garry Green, founder of AI automation service Quanton.

“The pressures of Covid have stifled the flow of labour into New Zealand, as a result most businesses are struggling to get enough talent,” said Green.

The talent drought is a crisis for the workforce, according to a recent survey of business by the Breakthrough Co.

* Women first to be affected by technological disruption, expert says

Automation may help businesses facing labour shortages.

* The green tech that's helping us to cut greenhouse gas across the world

* NZ business confidence at lowest level since last recession, raising chance of rate cut

Garry Green founder of Quanton, says finding talent is a struggle.

The survey interviewed more than 100 business leaders throughout the country, and found Covid-19 had exposed problems in the economy long masked by immigration.

Rik De Smet says New Zealand has fewer skilled people.

Cameron Bagrie, former chief economist at ANZ said “the survey results show clearly the big issue for New Zealand firms is finding skilled staff, finding labour. Supply is the main problem, not demand.”

But some technology experts say this shortage of talent presents an opportunity for artificial intelligence to step up to the plate.

Asa Cox believes workers in New Zealand should embrace automation.

Rik De Smet, digital transformation consultant at Schneider Electric said: “We have less skilled people, it’s a fact”.

“Now we can cry about it, or we can organise ourselves so that we can automate certain activities. If we shy away from that question then we are going to have a problem.”

The price of refusing to automate would be being left behind in the global economy, said De Smet.

But contrary to prior reports that technological automation would mean the end of millions of jobs, one expert said automation would create more employment of a better quality.

“It is not an existential threat to the New Zealand workforce,” said Asa Cox, chief executive of AI company Arcanum.

“Automation augments what we already have rather than replacing it. Technology is driven by software, and software needs people to support them. Whilst you may lose some jobs to automation, you will gain a number of higher paid jobs through the software that runs that technology.”

Cox said the New Zealand workforce should embrace automation, rather than fear it.

“I think the general feeling around automation is fear-based, rather than opportunity-based. New Zealand as a country has committed to technology becoming a major source of GDP. There needs to be a belief that technology is not going to destroy us it is actually going to help us.”

Whatever happened in the workforce as a result of technological automation, it would happen fast, said Green.

“If you look at the last 20,000 years of human activity and how the pace of development has changed, in the next 100 years we are going to double that rate of progress.

“I can’t predict the future, but if you have a mindset that is open to change and an ability to adapt there will always be a place for people thinking creatively,” Green said.