Tillmann Prüfer is a member of the editor-in-chief of “Zeit-Magazin”.
I read in the New York Times that more and more services are to be performed by robots in the future. Mainly because people don’t want to do these things anymore. For example errands. Delivery services have a large need for staff, but the work is not attractive and it does not pay well either.
Companies also find it difficult to find staff for other services, such as for security services or in the catering trade. Unfortunately, simply raising wages massively does not work because it would reduce profits. It’s really a pity that the service staff today has such a small heart for capitalism.
The help should now come from robots. There are manufacturers who specialize in service and delivery robots and are now hoping for big business. I don’t know if that will happen. It wouldn’t surprise me though.
After all, I deal with robots everywhere in my everyday life. I have a vacuum cleaner robot at home and I talk to Siri and Alexa. Basically I get all the important information in the life of robots.
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When I call my bank, a robotic voice answers and discusses my account balance with me. Meanwhile, if I want to get a flesh-and-blood bank employee on the phone, it’s not that easy. Most of the time it’s almost impossible. I assume working in service at a bank is no longer one of the most attractive jobs either.
Robot, but as a manager
I also don’t know if there are any employees at my bank who aren’t robots. Sometimes it’s hard for me to tell the difference. Especially people in top management sometimes have something very mechanical about them.
Presumably, management positions are not yet filled by robots, because I have not read anything about the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill vacancies for bank directors. Such jobs are apparently still attractive to people.
More columns by Tillmann Prüfer
In my opinion, it would be a good idea not only to hand over work to robots that people no longer want to do. Robots should also be allowed to fill attractive jobs. Who knows if those robots just don’t hate errand jobs too?
I don’t want to sound too negative, but in case there might be a robot apocalypse at some point where machines take over, it would be good if there were also some robots that have fond memories of working with humans. In any case, I praise my vacuum cleaner robot, give it green electricity and always say please and thank you to Alexa. Maybe they’ll put in a good word for me.
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