Robots have started replacing humans in many industries and recent forecasts show that will increase. Choosing to replace humans with robots should be given adequate thought before a final decision is made. It has been proven that as effective as robots can be, there are various aspects of humans that are irreplaceable. Humans for example have great emotional intelligence and can display traits like empathy, kindness and other social traits.
Any organisation choosing to invest in robots has to understand that there are cost implications that must be considered and thought about before taking such steps. High initial and upfront costs needed to purchase robots have to be set aside by the organisation. However for organisations that choose to develop their own robots, upfront costs of human manpower needed to do the work has to be considered as well.
Purchasing or building a robot by an organisation is a great milestone but it should be not be forgotten that some costs will be incurred when integrating and installing such robots into the organisations existing workflow. Such costs can come in the form of the purchase of additional spare parts from other third party companies - needed to make the installation seamless or can also come in the form of the manpower needed to do the integration and installation work. Training cost is also a cost that is often missed by many organisations as they assume that their employees would automatically be able to use the new system without assistance.
Regular maintenance is needed for robots to function at their optimal. These maintenance would come with huge or not so huge costs in some cases, as new parts needed for the maintenance might need to be purchased. Specialised labour is also usually needed for these maintenance or repairs and this further increases the needed cost of maintenance. Since robots sometimes have to depend on electricity to function, an increase in energy costs might also have to be planned for by the organisation. Asides these, there is also the cost of severance packages that might need to be paid out to employees whose jobs will be replaced when robots take over.
Without an iota of doubt, humans will be replaced by robots in several vocations and organisations wishing to take this huge milestone should ensure that this change is thought about and planned carefully. A few long term benefit of using robots can include: long term savings on cost of production and manpower, depreciation and tax benefits, increased productivity especially for monotonous jobs and others. It should be noted however that these benefits are not guaranteed especially when the cost of regular maintenance of the robot is higher than the efficiency and profit made. Organisations should consider re-training employees whose jobs will be replaced by robots so they can take up new roles - especially roles that require human interaction.
Lastly, the move from using human to robots should not be made in a haste as factors such as : the product type, the overall cost of using robots, the impact on individuals, the impact on the society and lots of other factors not mentioned in this write-up should be considered.
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Application of AI is here to stay. However, the negative consequence that comes along with it in most organizations calls for a well prepared generation of people to stand up to it towards a creating a better future for all.
Nice read