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  • Essay / How companies are exaggerating the automation narrative to accommodate structural changes in their businesses, particularly downsizing.

    Devika Narayan, a sociologist at the University of Minnesota, suggests that IT companies are exaggerating this talk of automation to adapt to structural changes in their companies, including downsizing. She points out that many IT managers are "flabby and overstaffed" and that the effect of increasing automation may have been overemphasized, as there appear to be other causes for downsizing. The argument that the tech industry will create enough new jobs should also not be overstated, as these new industries tend to be the most labor efficient. They just don't require a lot of people. According to the report 'How Automation is Changing Work Choices: The Future of IT Jobs in India' by Simplilearn, areas that will grow in the IT sector include big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and cybersecurity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Another factor in retaining human labor is that machines cannot make people instantly redundant. Jobs are not structured in such a hyper-specialized way. Modern work places people at the center and relies on their dexterity and agility. Furthermore, increasing computerization will lead to increased consumption and, ultimately, new types of labor will be required. While this argument is valid, such revolutions have a long arc and human lives are much shorter. It may take time to address unemployment, and many people may not see this change in their lifetime. Robert D. Atkinson and John Wu of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) vehemently believe this is all a false alarm. Atkinson and Wu in “False Alarmism: Technological Disruptions and the American Labor Market, 1850-2015.” state: “Such gloomy assessments are the product of faulty logic and flawed empirical analysis.” Some forecasts aren't as intimidating when you examine them closely. For example, Schwab's estimate of five million jobs lost by 2020 would be the result of just 0.25% of jobs lost each year during that period. Governments can also ensure that companies undertake reskilling tasks in order to retain their employees and use them in different facets of production. They criticize Oxford's percentage of 47 per cent of vulnerable jobs as "completely wrong". They believe that its authors did not precisely analyze all of the seven hundred and two American occupations. Their calculations suggest that only ten percent of these jobs are at risk, at most. They commented that researchers predicted that professions such as models, barbers and manicurists would be taken over by robots. This obviously seems rather far-fetched. David Autor, an economics professor at MIT, suggests that improving the quality of one part of a chain increases the value of improving others. Thus, he argues that computerization in fields such as medicine and teaching amplifies our advantage and increases the importance of our expertise, creativity and judgment. He then argues that as the standard of living increases, consumption is stimulated. Many industries that,.