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Domestic Service Robots on the Rise, IHS Markit Says

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LONDON (August 31, 2016) - The domestic service robot market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent, from 5 million units shipped in 2015 to more than 12 million units in 2020, according to IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

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There was a time when you could find robots in just one of two places. If robots weren't working feverishly in factories, they were hopping from planet to planet in the realm of science fiction. Today, most of the actual robots are still found in the manufacturing industry. The global market for industrial robots, including automated systems, reached $46 billion last year. However, automation now goes beyond factories and warehouses, and there's a growing market for robots outside of the industrial sector. Recent projections show that the market for service robots will increase drastically over the next three years.

What are service robots?

Service robots are automated machines or systems intended to help humans with a wide range of jobs and tasks. Industrial robots, however, do not fall under the umbrella of service robots. Factory machinery and industrial robots certainly help humans carry out tasks, but industrial machines are typically large, stationary, and relatively dangerous.

Here's how the International Federation of Robotics (IRF) defines service robots:

A service robot is a robot that performs useful tasks for humans or equipment excluding industrial automation application. Note: The classification of a robot into industrial robot or service robot is done according to its intended application.

There can be overlap, but service robots typically carry out tasks not associated with manufacturing. Service robots do things like assist in surgeries, vacuum floors, run fast food restaurants, and fight crime.

The global market for service robots is set to skyrocket.

A recent IRF report examined global demand for service robots, and made a prediction about where that market could be in the near future. According to the report, there will be an additional 333,220 service robots installed for professional use, and 42 million service robots for personal and domestic use within the next three years. This forecast projects that the global service robot market will be worth over $45 billion by 2019.

The service robot market is projected to more than sextuple in the next three years. What about the industrial robot market? Make sure that you're ready for what's to come in manufacturing. Call us today for any of your Indramat motion control needs!

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An Increasing Demand for Service Robots - Indramat Products

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There was a time when you could find robots in just one of two places. If robots weren't working feverishly in factories, they were hopping from planet to planet in the realm of science fiction. Today, most of the actual robots are still found in the manufacturing industry.

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Good analysis Jason, keep up along this line for robots)

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Rather interesting articles especially the one on robots and tech which serves as updating knowledge. However you would 

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Rather interesting articles especially the one on robots and tech which serves as updating knowledge. However you would 

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need to use MIEC concepts to apply eg, the use of robots will result in mass production , reduces cost (lowering of ATC arising from economies of scale) and hence increase profit, along this line of analysis. the application of employment issue is more Maec concept.
In addition it would be helpful if you can research and look for articles /evidence if the robotic industry belong to which particular market structure (I suspect it coul b oligopolistic) but then again I do not have the evidence. Please help to look for evidence of market structure . It would be interesting to know more details about the industry and if you can apply market structures. Please proceedwith the report writing using these articles. If you need to use and research for info  from more than the 3 chosen articles , please proceed to do so and then declare these additional sources of info as "reference" in the report.

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Income Elasticity

Service robots in general are income elastic as they can be considered both a luxury and normal good.

They are said to be a luxury good as it is not a must for commoners to purchase these robots. Rather, they can sought to economical alternatives such as smartphones or a normal vacuum cleaner. They are also considered a normal good as an increase in consumers' income will cause an increase in demand for service robots.

Income elasticity helps sellers predict the growth rate of demand for their goods and services as consumers' income changes. This enables sellers to adjust their output in anticipation of any changes in a consumers' income. Since service robots are price elastic, commoners would consider to purchase these robots if they were to have a higher real income. Thus, such robots remain as a desire and not a need.

Price Elasticity of Demand

Demand for service robots is price elastic and this can be justified by the determinants of price elasticity.

(a) Availability of substitutes in consumption

There are many direct substitutes available to consumers such as normal lawn mowers and vacuum cleaners. They are available to consumers at departmental stores easily and thus, with more substitutes available, the more price elastic service robots will be as consumers will not resort to buying the alternatives.

(b) Proportion of Income Spent

Since service robots are sold at sky-high prices, a great proportion of a consumer's income will be spent on robots.

(c) Necessity against luxury

As mentioned earlier on, service robots are considered as a luxury and thus the demand for service robots will be price elastic.

Consumers of these service robots are very responsive to the change in prices of such goods. With reference to the midpoint price elasticity formula, the percentage change in quantity demanded of the robots would be higher than the percentage in prices. Thus, the absolute coefficient of price elasticity of demand would be higher than 1, and hence when plotted, the demand curve would be a gentle slope.

Also, service robots are widely used in the world. In this article, robots are mainly used to assist consumers to complete household chores. Though it may serve consumers at a great convenience, the price that comes along with it may tarnish one's idea to purchase the robot. However, if the price of service robots plummets in the future, consumers would definitely consider to purchase them and suppliers would look forward to produce greater quantities of such robots. Therefore, the demand for these robots would then increase greatly.

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Consumers' Attitudes About Household Robots

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Consumers' Attitudes About Household Robots

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Once robots started to emerge from industrial environments and appear in social spaces, consumer opinion about them changed significantly. The field of personal service robots, also called household robotics, is rapidly expanding and is forecast to grow even more in the coming years. Like home appliances, domestic robots are poised to become part of our everyday lives. However, robot makers cannot build a domestic robot based solely on laboratory research. In order to actually sell the robot, they need a clear understanding of consumer perceptions, acceptance levels, worries, and reservations. Robot makers have a long list of critical questions they need to address before jumping into the domestic robot ecosystem.

From a definitional standpoint, in Tractica's recently-published report on Consumer Robotics, we defined household robots as including robotic vacuum cleaners, robotic lawn mowers, robotic pool cleaners, and robotic personal assistants. Robotic vacuum cleaners include both floor cleaners and window cleaners. Robotic personal assistants are defined as stationary or mobile robots, both humanoid and non-humanoid, that act as companions in the household, with the ability to communicate with humans using voice or movement. While toy and educational robots are a closely-related category within the consumer robotics sector, we do not include them in our definition of household robots.

Tractica forecasts that shipments of household robots will increase from 4.3 million per year in 2015 to 19.3 million units worldwide by 2020. During the same period, revenue for the total consumer robotics market will rise from $3.1 billion to more than $10.4 billion.

A few of the more pertinent questions surrounding consumer demand for household robots are explored below.

Is There a Real Need and What Is the Right Price?

Considering the significant increase in popularity of household robots among consumers, enthusiastic robot makers are certain they can sell an impressive quantity of new lines of household robots to consumers within the next few years. However, several consumer research surveys, such as one published by Eurobarometer, suggest a different case.

While a household robot appears to be useful for many consumers, actually buying one remains a desire, not a need. Consumers can continue to live without household robots and invest in other more economical alternatives, such as smartphones or home gadgets. According to the survey, only one out of five potential consumers will consider purchasing a robot for their home, whereas others are not ready for it, will think about it in future, or are not at all interested. The majority of consumers who might be interested are aware of the technology. If they are already using cleaning robots in their homes, their expectations have likely expanded and they want new robots with additional capabilities.

Current market pricing for an advanced domestic robot is somewhere between $1,000 and $3,000 depending on the robot's features and functionality. However, according to Tractica's research, especially for personal assistant robots, a price tag of $500 to $700 is the sweet spot for consumers today, similar to the price of a consumer-grade laptop. However, in the future, we believe this price needs to go down to $300 - essentially the cost of a smartphone - for robots to become a mass-market phenomenon. For a fully-equipped household robot that can do all the chores and be a personal assistant, the price would be much higher, but we do not expect to see such offerings in the market anytime soon.

Some consumers are also looking for financing options like loans, leasing programs, and financial incentives to entice them to purchase a robot. The market for domestic robots that cost more than $15,000 is limited to a very small pocket of elite consumers and does not offer great potential.

What Key Activities Should a Household Robot Perform?

At this stage, consumers are looking at domestic robots as helpers or domestic servants in their households that can perform domestic chores like cleaning floors, wiping windows, doing laundry, preparing food, and moving heavy objects. Some consumers would like a domestic robot to be their personal assistant to remind them of appointments or medical routines, teach them how to use new technology, make food suggestions, and help with climbing stairs or exercising. It is important to note that consumers expect very pragmatic help from robots and just a few are willing to see the robots as coworkers or friends in domestic situations.

Many consumers are uncomfortable with having a domestic robot for babysitting children, caring the pets, or providing intimate services. Also, domestic robots merely made for entertainment and fun will not impress consumers when they have the choice to select alternative smart technologies for similar activities. With that said, Tractica believes that companionship is likely to be one of the key areas for personal assistant robots, especially as technology capabilities continue to improve in areas like speech recognition, image recognition, and emotion recognition. Many of the use cases will center on elderly care, but we believe there will also be applications for younger or middle aged people who live alone.

How Important Are Appearance and Communication?

Domestic robots can have anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, caricatured, and functionally designed appearances, or be a hybrid variety. An anthropomorphic robot has a human-like body or is humanoid, a zoomorphic robot looks like an animal, a caricatured robot is focused on very a specific attribute like a mouth or eyes, and a functional robot is technically designed to perform a task in the most effective manner possible. Robot appearances play a significant role in the domestic environment, but can vary according to cultural context. For instance, consumers in Europe prefer that domestic robots do not look like living beings, whether human or animal, and are more satisfied with functionally designed robots.

Apart from the appearance that consumers are willing to accept, there is a strong preference for robots with a natural communication mode like speech, which should be a clear human-like voice. Highly autonomous robots are not desired, as consumers want clear control over the robot at any given point in time.

Do Consumers Really Like Robots?

Consumers worldwide generally react positively about the idea of household robots that can do household tasks. The majority believes that robots are good for society and necessary, because they can do jobs that are too dangerous for people. While consumers are okay with robots, they still want to be able to easily control and manage them. In general, the attitude is positive, but there is one issue. The consumer who is already using a household robot in their home feels disengaged with the robot after using it for some time, which might affect their decision to buy a new robot.

Conclusions

Consumers may want to own domestic robots, but they are not willing to pay a lot. They clearly see the potential of a robot as a servant and assistant, but friendship is more of a stretch. Over time, we see robot assistants becoming friends or companions as speech, image, and emotion recognition become more advanced. Some consumers in China have been growing more intimate with text-based bots, and we believe this phenomenon will transition to humanoid robots, as well.

When it comes to domestic responsibilities, consumers prefer to have robots perform household chores over child or animal care. The robot should communicate like a human, but not necessarily appear and behave like a human. The issue of consumers becoming disengaged with robots will take some time to resolve. Other important questions, such as accepting robots in very private spaces and having comfortable interactions, still need investigation. While much thought has gone into matching robots with industrial environments, seriously contemplating the issues outlined above is the first step to successfully matching robots with domestic and cultural environments.

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Consumer Attitudes About Household Robots

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Once robots started to emerge from industrial environments and appear in social spaces, consumer opinion about them changed significantly. The field of personal service robots, also called household robotics, is rapidly expanding and is forecast to grow even more in the coming years. Like home appliances, domestic robots are poised to become part of our everyday lives.

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(cont) a surge in the demand for Service Robots

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(cont) a surge in the demand for Service Robots

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The constant advancement in technology has finally brought the human race to its next evolution, using robots to do our work. Several companies have come out with their very own version of service robots, for example, in this article, Honda Motors demonstrated its Asimo robot during a media preview of the 2014 New York International Auto Show in New York. Another example would be the Ecovacs Deebot Robot Vacuum Cleaner, which aids the user in cleaning up their households, or generally anything they want.

Robots are meant to make our lives easier, but with that, it usually comes with a price.

Service robots are no stranger to the human race, going as early as 2001, Roomba, a robotic vacuum cleaner, was first released in 2002 by the company iRobot. However, the demand for service robots has gradually increased.

A statement made by the International Federation of Robotics claimed that the global turnover of service robots—which include robots that can mow the lawn or clean windows—is now forecast to increase to about $46 billion in the 2016-2019 period, compared with about $7 billion in 2015. The huge difference of $46 and $7 billion speaks to the high demand of the said product in the near future.

Relating to what we have learnt in Microeconomics, the law of Demand states that an inverse relationship exists between the price of a good and the quantity demanded of the good, ceteris paribus - in other words, with the surge in demand for service robots, we may expect the price of such products to drop from its hefty prices, which will cause the demand curve to shift rightwards, the determinant being the increase of number of buyers in the market.

With that being said arises another concerning factor that we should all worry about: with such high demand for service robots, is there a chance of robots taking over the working race, and how will this impact the economy?

In my opinion, yes, with the increase of production in service robots, companies and employers will definitely invest in such products as means to cut cost in production and salaries expenses, ultimately saving money for the company, and looking forward to higher and faster production rates. The economy can expect a higher rate of supply during this period, and expect prices to drop lower as well. This is contributed by the one of the determinant of supply, advancement in technology.

However, while the drop in hefty prices may sound like a dream to us, on the other side of the coin, with the increase usage of such intelligence, the human price has to pay a price for such efficiency and luxury - their jobs. Robots can replace the effort that a human can produce easily, and many companies may see human resource as a extra spending wastage in company funds and hence retrench them.

This may possibility lead to an undesirable
outcome where the salaries of the affected parties drop significantly, and due to the expectation of future prices of their income, the demand for any other services or product may drop significantly due to their inability to purchase.

How much the economy will drop or increase is unforeseen, but to reach a healthy level of increase and decrease, one should control the usage of such service robots.

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A surge in the demand for Service Robots

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A surge in the demand for Service Robots

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Service robots are the hype amongst those who require for domestic and personal usage.

Such robots are capable of performing many tasks or chores. i.e. Cleaning of windows or mowing of the lawn. Having to possess such skills would decrease the demand for many cleaning equipment (such as a lawn mower) as the robot can do the job while also perform other tasks which is programmed to do.

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Demand for Service Robots Seen at Breakthrough

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Demand for service robots is expected to accelerate in the next three years as robots become more popular for domestic and personal use.

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Technology is a double-edged sword. The following takes into account the pros of technology advancement:

- increased efficiency in workforce and production of goods
- radically improved performance
- fewer resources (mainly labour & capital) are needed for the production of a certain good
- while it phases out menial labour, there is also creation of new, higher-skilled jobs, generating new industries and products

- affects the elasticity of supply in certain industries, makes goods and services more elastic
- in the event of an increase in price, output is also increased by a greater factor because producers is able to produce more for a smaller price input
- maximised profit, benefits producers in the market

- lower cost of production implies that at every price, suppliers are able & willing to sell more
- or it could mean sellers are more able and willing to sell at a lower price at every quantity

Supply increase, rightward shift of supply curve.
Determinant of supply: Technology

With improved technology, PPF curve can also shift to the right (unattainable area). Meaning that we have the capacity to produce more goods.

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Learning new skills to stay ahead of the curve

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Learning new skills to stay ahead of the curve

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"The reality of today's work environment is that no one is irreplaceable."

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When Ministry of Manpower (MOM) figures earlier this month showed the number of job openings in Singapore had fallen below the number of job seekers for the first time in four years, workers like Bernadette Lee were taken aback.

"I was shocked," said the 56-year- old. "It's not good news. It's been a long time since I've heard something like this."

She left her job as a social worker last month to seek a better work-life balance, but worries now that her job hunt might be more difficult than she had expected.

"I have to lower my expectations. I was a manager but now I may have to settle for an executive position," she said.

Casting a shadow over the labour market in recent months were economic indicators reflecting the slowing economy. One of the most recent was the MOM's figures showing that unemployment among citizens and permanent residents rose to 3 per cent in the second quarter of the year, from 2.7 per cent in the previous quarter.

These rates, which are adjusted for seasonal factors such as Chinese New Year and school holidays, have not gone above 3 per cent since 2010.

Layoffs also reached a seven-year peak. The number of workers who were retrenched or had their contracts aborted in the first half of the year hit its highest level since the global financial crisis in 2009.

Unemployment among citizens and permanent residents in the second quarter of the year, up from 2.7 per cent in the previous quarter.

Number of workers made redundant in the first half of this year, compared with 6,750 in the same period last year.

Furthermore, the rate of workers re-entering employment has plummeted to its lowest since then.

Job growth has slowed and, for the first time in four years, job seekers outnumber job vacancies, which have been falling since last year.

Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say said at a career fair last Friday he hopes this is not so much a downward trend as a hump in the road that Singapore has to push itself over, to get to the greener pastures of productivity-driven growth.

He said: "As we go through this transition, there will be disruptions, there will be retrenchments, there will be downsizing in some sectors."

Creating more jobs is only part of the solution, he added. "If we are not careful, unemployment might go up, not because we don't have enough jobs but because there is a mismatch between jobs and skills. Then we would have structural unemployment, which is harder to solve."

LOOKING FOR A JOB: WHOM DO YOU CALL?

Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA)
The JTC Summit 8 Jurong Town Hall Road, #03-11

Nearest MRT: Jurong East
LifeLong Learning Institute
11 Eunos Road 8, #02-02

Nearest MRT: Paya Lebar
NTUC Income Tampines Junction
300 Tampines Avenue 5, #06-01

Nearest MRT: Tampines
HDB Hub Bizthree
490 Lorong 6 Toa Payoh, #07-11

Nearest MRT: Toa Payoh
Woodlands Civic Centre
900 South Woodlands Drive, #04-07

Nearest MRT: Woodlands

Telephone for all career centres: 6883-5885
Employment and Employability Institute (e2i)
Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability

80 Jurong East Street 21, Level 2

Nearest MRT: Jurong East

Tel: 6474-0606
National Trades Union Congress (NTUC)
NTUC Centre

One Marina Boulevard, #B1-01, NTUC Members' Hub

Nearest MRT: Raffles Place

Tel: 6213-8008

But it is not all doom and gloom. The Government, businesses, job hunters and even those who are still in employment are being pro-active in finding strategies to help them work things out in the changing work environment, as the stories in this package show.
WHAT'S DRIVING THE SITUATION?
With the global economy never truly recovering from the 2009 crisis, growth has been patchy in export hub Singapore. And now, recent global developments have turned up the heat.

National University of Singapore associate professor of economics Liu Haoming said: "Given the uncertainty introduced by the United States election, Britain's exit from the European Union and the slowdown in the Chinese economy, firms will be very cautious about their hiring."

He added: "Whether this trend will continue into the next year will depend on what happens in the rest of the world, particularly in the US and China.

"If (US Democratic Party candidate Hillary) Clinton wins the election, it will likely increase people's confidence about the US economy, which should have a positive impact on Singapore's economy."

Global economic headwinds aside, the nationwide productivity drive has required companies to restructure which, in turn, has forced them to shed jobs.

Ms Linda Teo, country manager of recruitment company ManpowerGroup Singapore, said the rise in redundancies, especially in the labour-intensive services sector, has been exacerbated by the slowing economy and softening consumer demand.

"Companies are either operating on leaner headcounts to contain costs or have replaced certain functions with technology," she added.

A total of 9,510 workers were made redundant in the first half of this year, compared with 6,750 in the same period last year.

The MOM was concerned enough to bring forward to this year a retrenchment survey due next year. The survey, which takes place every four years, will widen its scope to cover smaller firms employing between 10 and 24 workers.

But what is setting alarm bells ringing now could very well be Singapore's new normal, said SIM University labour economist Walter Theseira.

"There may be no quick rebound as there was from the 2009 global financial crisis," he said. "We are entering what is likely to be a prolonged period of low to moderate growth - a situation that Singapore has never experienced before, but which is normal for most developed economies."

Economist Selena Ling from OCBC Bank said the unemployment rate could hover above 3 per cent for the next two years or so.

Should firms still be pushed to restructure amid such uncertainty? "When it comes to economic restructuring, there is never a good time," said Ms Ling.

"If you do it when times are good, you'll have businesses asking why you're changing things while everything is going well. When times are bad, see it as a chance to put your house in order while things are quiet. The competition is always nipping at your heels."
NEW OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD

NUS Prof Liu Haoming said that global uncertainty affecting Singapore has made firms very cautious about hiring.

Ms Linda Teo of Manpower-Group said the rise in redundancies has been exacerbated by the slowing economy.

SIM University's Dr Walter Theseira said Singapore is entering a prolonged period of low to moderate growth.

OCBC Bank economist Selena Ling said when it comes to economic restructuring, there is never a good time.

NTUC's Patrick Tay said a mismatch of skills has prevented jobs that are available from being filled.

In fact, an unemployment rate of 3 per cent would be considered something to cheer about for almost any other developed country.

Dr Theseira said that while things might look dire compared to what Singaporeans are used to, the country is - relatively speaking - not that badly off.

"Many advanced economies would love to have our present unemployment rates, which would be considered to be unusually low by their standards."

Economists and labour MPs alike said it is too soon to characterise the labour market as slackening.

Prof Liu said: "The decline in employment and job openings happened only in the second quarter. After four quarters of almost continuous growth in employment across all industries, it is still too early to say the tight labour market is over."

National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) assistant secretary-general Patrick Tay cited numbers to show there are jobs available, but a mismatch of skills has prevented them from being filled.

"For example, we hear there are more than 15,000 vacancies in the tech and IT sector. But the problem is, do we have enough experienced persons available... to fill those jobs?"

The Government has been rolling out scheme after scheme to tackle this mismatch, from a new virtual career fair in the last two weeks to better connect employers and job seekers online, to plans to transform entire industries.

Last Friday, MOM's Mr Lim launched two new career programmes for the hotel sector, which employs 35,000 people.

One is a new skills framework under the nationwide SkillsFuture initiative. It is a structured guide to help workers chart their career progression and identify specific skills to get jobs they want.

The other is the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) for Professional Executives, to ease the transition for mid-career professionals between multiple industries. It starts for the hotel industry next month.

NTUC's Mr Tay, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Manpower, said the lower birth rates of the past two decades meant there will be fewer new entrants to the workforce, as the baby boomer generation go into retirement. This will keep the labour market tight.

But this is scant consolation for workers who are used to almost full employment but must now worry about their rice bowl.

From a young age, Singaporeans are told to study hard and earn tertiary qualifications to get a good, white-collar job which they can keep until retirement. But good qualifications are no longer a guarantee of employment in a world disrupted by technological change.

Speaking to global business and political leaders at the Singapore Summit recently, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam called for students to be put on "paths of advancement" for skills in dealing with real-world situations.

"The whole mantra of college education - of trying to make it as easy as possible for everyone to get a college education - is a big mistake," he said.

Indeed, as to what opportunities are emerging on the job landscape, some areas workers should look at are compliance and financial technology, said Mr Foo See Yang, vice- president and country manager for recruitment company Kelly Services Singapore.

He said another paradigm shift arising from the economic situation is a growing interest in contract and freelance work.

From 2011 to last year, Kelly saw a 70 per cent increase in placements of high-end contract jobs with monthly salaries of more than $10,000. "Contract work can be a long-term career option with similar remuneration rewards as full-time employment," he said.

Offering advice for workers, ManpowerGroup's Ms Teo said: "In today's ever-changing job environment, career longevity, and not job security, is more crucial. The reality of today's work environment is that no one is irreplaceable."

Job-hunter tries to stay positive

Freelance income helps Mr Lau pay the bills while he continues to look for a job. He plans to explore career programmes that could help him widen his options. ST PHOTO: NIVASH JOYVIN

The first thing that job seeker Leonard Lau usually gets asked by headhunters is his age.

The second is his last-drawn salary.

Says the IT project manager, 46: "After that, they usually don't call back."
READ MORE HERE
Skill gap a big problem for fresh grads

Ms Boon posing for a bleak graduation shot that struck a chord with many fellow graduates facing a tough job market. PHOTO: ALEX IAN LOH, COURTESY OF ELIZABETH BOON

When she finished her university studies in July, Ms Elizabeth Boon made a splash online with her unorthodox graduation photo shoot.

The National University of Singapore communications graduate, 24, eschewed hat-tossing euphoria in favour of bleak photos styled to match the economic outlook.

In them, she poses listlessly in the Central Business District with a cardboard sign that implores: "Hire me leh."
READ MORE HERE
Employed, but staying ahead of the curve

Two Fridays ago, Ms Pauline Parimala was going from booth to booth at a career fair, chatting with potential employers and putting in job applications.

Unlike most of the others at the fair, the 38-year-old has a job - she works as an administrative manager for a company in the oil and gas sector.

But the company is restructuring and she expects to be let go. She intends to stay ahead of the curve and find a job in a new industry before it happens.
READ MORE HERE

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Singapore's job crunch: Time to learn new skills and update that CV?

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When Ministry of Manpower (MOM) figures earlier this month showed the number of job openings in Singapore had fallen below the number of job seekers for the first time in four years, workers like Bernadette Lee were taken aback. "I was shocked," said the 56-year- old. "It's not good news.

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With the advent of automation, the instability of people's job just got greater.

Technological advancements will definitely benefit the bosses of companies as they will be able to cut down on their costs by a tremendous amount using automation instead of hiring workers. The total variable cost of using for example, electricity for the machinery would be cheaper than the total variable cost of paying wages to workers. Thus, total cost would be reduced if factories were to use automation.

Not only that, with greater technological advancements, factories are able to produce more using less resources, causing an rightwards shift in the supply curve, as there is an increase in quantity supplied, producers are willing and able to sell more at cheaper prices. causing a drop in prices of the product which can be a good thing for consumers.

The article also states that the government can save up to £12 billion in public sector wages by 2030 which can be put to good use in order sectors such as health or education.

However, there are two sides to every coin and with people who benefit comes people who will be disadvantaged from the technological advancements. People that take up jobs that are easy labor or easy to execute runs the risk of having their jobs replaced by automation. Even though prices may get cheaper and they may receive better healthcare and such,  they might not be able to afford them as their money income may remain the same or they have lost their jobs.

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In Brief

850,000 public sector jobs in the UK are at risk of being lost by 2030 due to automation, and more than 1.3 million administrative jobs in the public sector have a 77% probability of being automated.

This is good news for fiscal policy makers who wish to cut costs - the government can save up to £12 billion in public sector wages by 2030.

Decimating Jobs

Tough times lay ahead for human workers. With the advent of automation comes a much smaller job market and an ever-shrinking work force. Jobs traditionally held by humans are now being taken over by robots and computer software. Now, another job sector is being threatened by automation: the public sector.

A study conducted by Oxford University and Deloitte, a business advisory firm, found that 850,000 public sector jobs in the UK are at risk of being lost by 2030 due to automation. The report also mentions how more than 1.3 million administrative jobs in the public sector have a 77% probability of being automated. These jobs include highly repetitive jobs like clerical work and transportation work.

-This report comes as good news to fiscal policy makers who wish to cut costs. It shows the government can save up to £12 billion in public sector wages by 2030.

Beyond Simple Tasks

It is not all doom and gloom though, as a previous report from the same firm argues that, over the last 140 years, automation has created jobs more than it has destroyed. The current report also mentions a lot of jobs that have a low probability of being automated. These jobs include medical care practitioners and social workers, which only face a 23 percent chance of automation. Further, chief executives, finance directors, and other roles that require "strategic thinking and complex reasoning" only have a 14 percent chance of being automated.

Nevertheless, there is still a chance for those jobs to be automated, further strengthening the notion that automation is taking over not only basic human tasks, but also a variety of other human functions. But, it's also slow going - the shift isn't going to occur overnight. Good or bad, the impact of automation will surely reshape our society.

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Experts State Robots Will Take Over Additional 850,000 Jobs By 2030

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850,000 public sector jobs in the UK are at risk of being lost by 2030 due to automation, and more than 1.3 million administrative jobs in the public sector have a 77% probability of being automated. This is good news for fiscal policy makers who wish to cut costs - the government can save up to £12 billion in public sector wages by 2030.

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Eg. 3: McDonalds introducing self-ordering kiosks and robotic table service

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Eg. 3: McDonalds introducing self-ordering kiosks and robotic table service

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Reference

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Facing a shortage of cashiers, more fast-food chains are using machines to take customers' orders, with fried chicken chain Popeyes the latest to come on board.

At its Punggol East outlet, customers must place their orders at one of three kiosks, collect a receipt and exchange it for their food from counter staff. The outlet has not had any cash registers since it started testing the kiosks on Oct 15 last year. They were officially launched yesterday.

Popeyes joins fast-food rivals Yoshinoya, McDonald's and BurgerUp in adopting self-ordering kiosks.

"We used to have three cash registers at the outlet, but we were able to hire only up to two people to man them due to the tight labour market," said Mr Dickson Low, Popeyes Singapore's group chief operating officer, yesterday. "This led to long queues and frustrated customers."

With the kiosks, the time taken to place an order has been halved to one minute per customer, and orders can also be customised easily.

The kiosks accept payment via credit cards, Nets and ez-link. Customers who pay by cash must hand it to staff upon collecting their orders.

The more efficient service, especially during mealtimes, has led to a 10 per cent to 15 per cent increase in sales.

Popeyes has also replaced cashiers with the kiosks at its outlets at the IMM Building in Jurong and 313@Somerset in Orchard Road.

It intends to extend the initiative to the rest of its 16 outlets.

Mr Low said this does not mean his cashiers will be out of jobs. They have been redeployed as "service ambassadors" who greet customers, encourage them to return trays and even deliver orders to them.

Minister of State for Manpower Teo Ser Luck, who attended the launch, commended Popeyes for making the "sometimes difficult and painful, but necessary" change.

According to enterprise agency Spring Singapore, about 1,000 food and beverage outlets have adopted manpower-lean measures since 2011, when the Food Services Productivity Plan was launched.

These include using mobile applications, self-service kiosks and tablets to take orders.

McDonald's now has self-ordering kiosks at 25 outlets after introducing its first one in 2014. But unlike at Popeyes' revamped outlets, customers at McDonald's also have the option of placing their orders with staff cashiers.

McDonald's Singapore director of technology Tan Min Hui said: "We'll continue to introduce self-ordering kiosks to more restaurants as well as leverage technology to offer our customers an even better dining experience."

Subway Singapore is exploring the feasibility of using such kiosks.

Country director Raphael Chan said: "The sales generated (have to be) sufficient to pay back the investment, with subsidies, of the kiosks before the shop's lease expires."

Secondary 2 student Eunice Yap, 14, who ate at Popeyes' Punggol East outlet yesterday, prefers the self-ordering kiosks to cashiers as they eliminate the likelihood of miscommunication.

"Sometimes cashiers cannot hear my order properly, and end up serving me the wrong order," she said.

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Popeyes' self-ordering kiosks serve up efficiency

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Facing a shortage of cashiers, more fast-food chains are using machines to take customers' orders, with fried chicken chain Popeyes the latest to come on board. At its Punggol East outlet, customers must place their orders at one of three kiosks, collect a receipt and exchange it for their food from counter staff.

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China Stringer Network/Reuters
For centuries, the way people make money has stayed mostly the same: People earn a living based on the skills they bring to society. Doctors make more than plumbers because open-heart surgery saves more lives than fixing leaky toilets. Star athletes make more than teachers because entertainment is more lucrative than education.

But the recent evidence is overwhelming: Automated robots are replacing workers faster than our economy can handle. Some evidence even suggests that today's technology could feasibly replace 45% of jobs right now.

The consequence may ultimately be that people will no longer be able to make money based on their usefulness in society - because they won't be useful anymore. There has to be another system of income distribution, and the one that seems most poised to ease the burden is universal basic income.

Basic income is a form of income distribution in which people earn a monthly allowance to cover basic expenses like food, clothing, and shelter - whether they work or not. Over the last year, the idea has started spreading around the world. It's gone from Switzerland to the Netherlands to Finland to Canada, where programs could begin as early as next year.

The nexus of the American basic income movement is Silicon Valley, where techies are now realizing the importance of a fail-safe in the event that the leaps forward in automation they help create end up putting millions of people out of a job.

Albert Wenger, a partner at venture capital firm Union Square Ventures, for example, is currently at work on a pro-basic income book. And Jim Pugh, former analytics chief for President Obama, hosts regular weekend-long "Create-a-thons" in the Bay Area so artists and advocates can produce media centered around basic income.

"As the nature of work starts to change, disruption will certainly affect people's lives," Pugh tells Tech Insider. "But if you can guarantee that income floor to everyone, at least it won't drop people into desolate poverty."

The best estimates find that up to 50% of jobs risk automation by the late 2030s.

Certain jobs, like teachers, police officers, and business managers, are more immune to displacement given their human components. But the spectrum of jobs that are at risk is surprisingly vast. Surgeons may risk getting replaced by surgical robots just as easily as self-driving cars may replace long-haul truck drivers.

"It's not just the blue-collar area that seems at risk," Pugh says. "What we think is easy or hard does not correspond all that well to what's easy or hard for a computer."

Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's largest startup accelerator, seems to be leading the charge in the US in figuring out how to adjust to a robot takeover. Past startups incubated at Y Combinator include Dropbox, Zenefits, Reddit, and Airbnb, all of which are now worth billions.

Sam Altman, Y Combinator's president, wrote in January on the company blog that he believes in 50 years "it will seem ridiculous that we used fear of not being able to eat as a way to motivate people. I also think that it's impossible to truly have equality of opportunity without some version of guaranteed income."

Altman announced in that same blog post that Y Combinator was hiring a researcher to head a five-year experiment in which a select group of people will get monthly checks on top of their regular salary, no strings attached.

"My hope is that it'll inspire larger-scale experiments that governments might want to undertake, be it local, state, or federal government," says Y Combinator's Matt Krisiloff, who heads the company's fellowship program and will manage the basic income experiment.

But not everyone sees basic income as a solution to automation.

Ross Baird, executive director at Village Capital, a company that "finds, trains, and funds entrepreneurs solving global problems," sees basic income as a solution that arrives far too late to fix the problems society currently faces.

Baird doesn't believe robots will necessarily take over. He thinks it's arrogant that Silicon Valley wants to be the paternal figure that helps people in a robot-run dystopia, because smarter and more caring business practices can lead to a future without robots. Automation, he believes, is just what happens when businesses prioritize the bottom line over their workers.

"Assuming that machines will automate people's jobs and put people out of work is a way of thinking that treats most workers like commodities, rather than people who can contribute valuable things to companies beyond just X output," he says.

The way to reconcile that, Baird says, is for business owners to stop relying on low stock prices as a sign to lay off thousands of workers on a whim. Instead of using robots to cut costs, businesses could rely on creative, human-based solutions. They could invest in additional training, so people can branch out and perform more than one task.

Or, as Baird suggests, they could think about putting employees' prosperity ahead of the company's.

Pugh and Krisiloff believe strongly that robots' presence will grow in the future, but they also acknowledge basic income may not be the only solution.

Pugh, for instance, says a New Deal-type program, in which people are put to work repairing the existing infrastructure of bridges, buidings, and highways, could reinvigorate a nation of displaced employees.

Krisiloff points to policy programs that are different from basic income but similar in that they bridge political parties, like the federal earned income tax credit (EITC). With an EITC, low- to moderate-income families earn a much larger refund when they file their taxes than they would without it - the idea being that people will want to find a job, since it rewards them come tax season.

What remains to be seen in the coming decades is whether current trends of automation hold.

Basic income has proven successful in past experiments, but the extent to which it uplifts displaced American workers all depends on whether we change our attitudes to prioritize employee satisfaction over pure profit.

Collectively, those decisions will determine how quickly and to what degree robotics replace the most vulnerable people: the long-haul truck drivers, fast-food employees, customer service reps, and so on.

If basic income does end up being the hero that saves American workers, Pugh still advises people to value the entrepreneurial spirit.

"It's not going to make everything easy for you," he says. "But it means if you're stuck in a crappy business relationship, you have an opportunity to step away from that and know that you won't be homeless."

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Giving people free money could be the only solution when robots finally take our jobs

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For centuries, the way people make money has stayed mostly the same: People earn a living based on the skills they bring to society. Doctors make more than plumbers because open-heart surgery saves more lives than fixing leaky toilets. Star athletes make more than teachers because entertainment is more lucrative than education.

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Populism is sweeping the nation, but it's likely just getting started.

Donald Trump's win is a wake-up call that voters are angry with a system that's mademiddle-class jobs tougher to come by, and increased inequality.

As pronounced as the trend already is, it's only just the beginning, experts say.Looming technological advances will wipe out more jobs, broadening the base of disenfranchised, unemployable and frustrated citizens. Meanwhile, elites with the skills to flourish in the digital economy will get richer. And governments will have to figure out how to help struggling citizens.

Trump has suggested bringing back jobs to the U.S. from overseas. But even if these jobs return, they may soon vanish in a tide of automation.

Manufacturing jobs aren't the only ones at risk.Pizza delivery guys, garbagemen, radiologists, retail workers, truck drivers, call-center workers and cab drivers are among the most obvious casualties.

The World Economic Forum has estimated that five millions jobs will be lost by 2020. A 2013 Oxford study estimated that 47% of U.S. employment is at risk of being computerized. Economist Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury secretary, expects that more than one in three men in their prime working years will be out of work in 2050.

The technology world is going through tremendous advances in artificial intelligence that are powering everything from self-driving cars to apps that help diagnose cancer. Many benefits await society. The change is so profound that some have started to call artificial intelligence the new electricity. But like all technologies, it's a double-edged sword, and a lot of people are about to get shocked.

"It's going to get worse. The inequality will get worse. There's going to be more anger and social upheaval," said Martin Ford, author of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future. "What we're seeing is in large measure because of technology."

Related: Amazon only needs one minute of human labor to ship your next package

Trump ran on issues of immigration and trade. Ford argues this is because it's easiest for people to point a finger at another person, be it a worker in China or an immigrant.

The true culprit, as Ford sees it, is new technologies that have made it increasingly possible to automate traditional middle class jobs. The education required to hold down a middle class gig is increasing. There are new jobs, but most don't guarantee the lifestyle of yesteryear. Median American wages have been flat for decades, even as the country's economy grows -- concentrating wealth in fewer hands.

"We talked 20, 25 years ago about the need for more than a high school education," said David Colburn, a history professor at the University of Florida. "Now we're talking about the need for more than a community college education. And in some cases, we're talking about a greater need than just a college education."

We're already seeing signs of how unemployment could run rampant, triggering a broader populist backlash.

This week, Domino's began delivering pizzas with drones in New Zealand. When an autonomous drone can make deliveries, there's little need for humans to drive cars or trucks. Amazon also is investing heavily in drone delivery. And Starbucks has reportedly talked with Google about delivering coffee via drone.

Car and tech companies like Google, Uber, Ford , Toyota , Intel , Daimler, Samsung and GM are investing in autonomous vehicle technology. This October, Budweiser delivered beer in Colorado thanks to a self-driving truck.

Related: Is Uber's push for self-driving cars a job killer?

Our shift to the convenience and low prices of online shopping also risks accelerating these trends. Retail jobs are already shifting from brick and mortar stores to e-commerce warehouses.

While new jobs may sound like a good thing, this is actually dangerous for workers' job security. Warehouse work is far easier for a machine to learn, according to Ford. It's much simpler for a robot to learn to box up a package in an Amazon fulfillment center, rather than standing at a Macy's checkout counter, making small talk with a customer. Warehouses are controlled, predictable environments -- brick and mortar stores are not.

So what do we do about this? We could try and bring factories back from overseas, as Trump has suggested. Yet much of the work available in factories appears to have a shelf life due to robots' increasing capabilities.

Some are suggesting that governments pay citizens a regular stipend, a concept called a universal basic income.

Related: Google drones deliver Chipotle burritos at Virginia Tech

"The universal consensus from the smartest people in the world is that universal basic income is a given," said John Marshall, chief innovation officer at Lippincott, a creative consultancy that convenes expert panels for its clients on issues such as basic income. "It's something that society won't be able to function without."

Yet figuring out how such a system could be afforded -- and not turn a country into a nation of slackers -- is unclear. Several countries, including Finland and the Netherlands, are taking the concept seriously.

"I don't think we're anywhere near the brainpower we need focused on this problem to solve it," Ford said.

CNNMoney (Washington) First published November 17, 2016: 11:40 AM ET

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Trump's populism is only the beginning. Here come the robots.

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Donald Trump's win is a wake-up call that voters are angry with a system that's mademiddle-class jobs tougher to come by, and increased inequality. As pronounced as the trend already is, it's only just the beginning, experts say.Looming technological advances will wipe out more jobs, broadening the base of disenfranchised, unemployable and frustrated citizens.

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Eg. 1: Uber pushing for self-driving cars

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Eg. 1: Uber pushing for self-driving cars

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Uber has generated thousands of jobs since launching in 2009. But that trend could be shifting.

The company is feverishly investing in self-driving technology, putting the economic futures of drivers around the world in question.

Uber announced Thursday that it will soon offer rides in self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, a significant step toward rides without a human driver. Uber also announced Thursday that it acquired highly-regarded self-driving truck startup Otto. Uber is ramping up efforts that began last year when it hired scores of robotics experts from Carnegie Mellon University.

For Uber, mastering autonomous driving is a matter of survival. Competitors like Google , Ford , Tesla , Lyft and GM have expressed interest in offering self-driving rides. These rides should be cheaper for customers, since there's no need to pay a human driver. If Uber doesn't embrace cheap, autonomous transit, it will likely fall out of favor with customers.

"This is everything. This is all the marbles for Uber," chief executive Travis Kalanick told the Associated Press Thursday.

Uber has 600,000 drivers in the United States and 1.5 million around the world. But experts in robotics and automation see these driving jobs as on the chopping block. Such roles won't last in a world where computers and robots are rapidly getting smarter and faster.

"Why would you pay $60 for a ride to the airport when you can pay $20?" said Vasant Dhar, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. "Do you really want to pay an extra $40 for the privilege of having a human drive you? I don't think so."

Related: Elon Musk's push for autopilot unnerves some Tesla employees

Scott Santens, a writer who has written viral stories on the impact of artificial intelligence on humanity, thinks Uber could potentially be directly responsible for eliminating over 10 million jobs in the United States. Santens believes a basic income for all citizens is necessary, and moderates a popular Reddit forum on the topic.

There are 7.3 million people employed in the trucking industry, according to the American Trucking Association. Of these 3.5 million are drivers. Santens argues a large percentage of those jobs will disappear as Uber disrupts the industry with its technical prowess, just as its Silicon Valley cohorts have brought automation to other industries.

That would be a far different reality than the uplifting, job-rich narrative Uber has touted to cities around the globe as it sought to expand and avoid government scrutiny.

In May 2014, Uber said it was generating 20,000 new driver jobs every month. Then in 2015, Uber said it could create 50,000 new jobs in Europe if cities partnered with it. Uber also said it could create one million jobs worldwide in 2015. It's unclear if the claim has come to fruition. Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Related: Uber will soon offer free rides in self-driving Volvos

Kalanick still sees a rosy future for drivers. In a recent interview with Business Insider, he argued that in an autonomous world the number of human drivers would go up.

Kalanick suggested that a city that transitioned to self-driving cars would still need humans to drive difficult routes that driverless cars couldn't handle.

Santens warned that while there might be more Uber drivers in such a circumstance, the number of human drivers overall would drop.

With fewer cars in a city, there would also be less demand for dealerships, repair shops and car washes -- leading to even more job losses.

Exactly when a potential nightmare situation for drivers will unfold is unclear. Estimates range from a couple years to as many as 30. It's tough to assess progress with so much work happening in secret, according to Karl Brauer, senior director of insights for Kelley Blue Book.

Related: How Uber punishes drivers who refuse to use UberPool

A rollout of self-driving vehicles would likely happen in stages, with the cars first being limited to roads that are easiest to drive on.

How much despair we should have over these lost jobs is debated. Some experts point out that most Americans once worked on farms, but the country's population found new jobs and a higher standard of living even after those jobs disappeared.

And new technologies have traditionally created some new jobs too.

Tasha Keeney, an industrial innovation analyst with ARK Investment Management, suggested the likelihood of some drivers transitioning to jobs in call centers where they would manually take control of confused self-driving cars that were in situations they couldn't handle.

CNNMoney (Washington) First published August 19, 2016: 6:30 PM ET

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Is Uber's push for self-driving cars a job killer?

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The company is feverishly investing in self-driving technology, putting the economic futures of drivers around the world in question. Uber announced Thursday that it will soon offer rides in self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, a significant step toward rides without a human driver. Uber also announced Thursday that it acquired highly-regarded self-driving truck startup Otto.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) wiping out jobs

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) wiping out jobs

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In recent years, the tech industry has been infiltrating into our daily lives at an accelerating rate. All kinds of routine jobs (eg. manufacturing industry) have become automated over the past few years thanks to breakthroughs in technology.

Businesses have long embraced automation because it lowers their cost of production and improves profits. In addition, robots are proven to be highly efficient and error-free. As far as that's concerned, the rise in digital technologies have led to the eradication of menial labour (especially blue-collared jobs).

Also, globalisation is making it easier for companies to relocate and outsource overseas (in developing nations like India, China, Vietnam, Cambodia etc) , where wages are lower and regulations are less stringent.

"The World Economic Forum has estimated that five millions jobs will be lost by 2020. A 2013 Oxford study estimated that 47% of U.S. employment is at risk of being computerized. Economist Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury secretary, expects that more than one in three men in their prime working years will be out of work in 2050."

With that being said, unemployment rates are definitely on the rise.
Type of unemployment: Structural unemployment; whereby human skills become obsolete.

Consequences:
- Lowered/ lack of disposable income
- Consumers' ability to purchase goods will drop as a result (spending power drops)
- Falling real incomes and a widening of inequality/disparity of income and wealth
- Fiscal policy: government receives a fall in tax revenues and devotes higher spending on unemployment welfare costs. This can possibly result in an increase in the budget deficit which then increases the risk that the government will have to raise taxation or scale back plans for public spending on public and merit goods.

Determinants of Demand (TEN PM) affected:
1. Money income
- with unemployment on the rise, a decrease in money will result in a decrease in the demand for normal goods
- demand curve for normal goods shifts left

- related goods: decrease in money income leads to a subsequent increase in the demand for inferior goods
- demand curve for inferior goods shifts right

Human labour will never be cheaper as we get more advanced.
Solution:
- Lifelong learning is the key to survival
- Constant upgrading of skill set and widening your knowledge is required to ensure that you will not be replaced by machineries
- Retraining, reskilling
- Government to regulate and lift standards of the local private education sector
- Push towards a more efficient workforce, more on R&D technology, and less focus on blue-collared, labour intensive jobs
- Examples include: SkillsFuture, Earn and Learn programme, WDA --> helps workers to thrive amidst technological changes and globalisation
- Providing unemployment benefits (not recommended)

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President Obama joined a chorus of those warning of the potential downsides of artificial intelligence.

In an interview with Wired Magazine, Obama spoke of redesigning the social compact and starting a conversation around fair wages. He cited teachers as being underpaid, and called for a reexamination of what we value, and what we'll pay for.

Obama addressed basic income, a proposal for all citizens to receive a government stipend in order to meet their costs of living. The idea has gained recent support among some futurists and economists, given concerns over how technology will eliminate jobs and impact salariesin coming years.

"Whether a universal income is the right model -- is it gonna be accepted by a broad base of people? -- that's a debate that we'll be having over the next 10 or 20 years," Obama said.

Related: Is Uber's push for self-driving cars a job killer?

A 2013 Oxford study concluded that 47% of U.S. jobs are at risk of being handled by machines over perhaps a decade or two. Some experts fear we're headed toward mass unemployment.

Truck drivers, cab drivers and deliveryman are the most prominent example of those at risk. The tech and car industries are currently pouring billions into self-driving vehicle technology.

Businesses have long embraced automation because it lowers their costs and improves profits. But advances in technology are expected to broadly expand the jobs that automated machines can handle.

Of course, most Americans once worked on farms. Our country has survived transitions before. Yet experts caution this revolution in how we work could unfold much quicker, making it more difficult and unpleasant.

"Oh, we survived the Industrial Revolution, sure we did. But millions of people suffered tremendous hardship," said Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, in a recent interview with CNNMoney. "This revolution could be faster and sharper and more devastating."

Related: Amazon only needs a minute of human labor to ship your next package

The tech industry has made rapid advances because for decades, computers have doubled in strength every two years, what's called Moore's Law. For example, the everyday smartphone is more powerful than the computers used to land on the moon. The graphics on today's video games are overwhelmingly better than 20 years ago.

There are signs that we're already seeing the impact of digital technologies on employment. The number of working U.S. men has been declining for more than 60 years, according to a recent White House report. In 1954, 98% of men between the ages of 25 and 54 were in the workforce. Today, that figure is 88%.

Median wages are no longer keeping pace with the U.S. GDP, thinning out the middle class. Wealth is increasingly held by the top 1% of the country.Money is concentrated in a smaller group of people in digital businesses, which are typically winner-take-all markets. MIT professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee detailed this in their 2014 book, The Second Machine Age.

While there were multiple big winners in earlier times, think Coke and Pepsi coexisting, or Ford and GM -- in the digital world there's generally only one winner. Look at Google in the search engine space, Microsoft's dominance on desktop operating systems and Facebook's runway success in social networking.

While technology has for centuries generally improved the human condition, it always brings some negatives too. And it's up to us to figure out what to do about them.

CNNMoney (Washington) First published October 12, 2016: 4:17 PM ET

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Obama warns of the danger of AI wiping out jobs

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In an interview with Wired Magazine, Obama spoke of redesigning the social compact and starting a conversation around fair wages. He cited teachers as being underpaid, and called for a reexamination of what we value, and what we'll pay for.

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Eg. 2: Growing demand for robotic cleaning products

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Eg. 2: Growing demand for robotic cleaning products

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Q When was Klenco set up, and what is the company about?

Mr Beh Klenco was set up in Singapore in 1971, and we're celebrating our 45th anniversary this year.

We started off as a distributor of professional and industrial cleaning supplies, mainly smaller products and chemicals.

Over the years, we have expanded to cover a much wider range of cleaning products. These are mostly for cleaning the physical environment, from building interiors to factory yards to roads.

Since 20 years ago, we have also been manufacturing our own cleaning products at our subsidiary in China. It is not a big range, just a handful of products, but it gives us a core equipment product line that we call our own.

Q Tell us more about the cleaning robots Klenco sells.

Mr Tan We sell an autonomous floor scrubber called Muratec Buddy. It can be "trained" by an operator who will map its cleaning route by using it manually for the first time. The machine will "remember" everything and can subsequently run by itself. Mr Beh We started working with our Japanese partners in April last year, who came up with the product and were looking for someone to market it outside of Japan. We've sold some units to Changi Airport, which is widely known as one of the first-movers in adopting automation and technology, and we've also sold some units to hospitals here. Mr Tan Right now, such robotic products are still high in cost, so local SMEs, especially, find it a bit tough to incorporate these machines into their contracts due to the money involved.

We work with the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) to help our customers get the funding. The IMDA assesses all our products and makes sure they meet the requirements related to productivity and robotics under the iSprint funding programme. At the end of the day, the machine must still be able to do its job - to clean the floor well.

Q How has demand for robotic cleaning products been? And what is the company doing to meet this demand?

Mr Beh Demand has definitely grown. In the last three years, we've seen the market ask for more and more robotic products. This is, to some extent, Government-driven, because the use of such robots can lead to productivity gains and manpower savings.

As we're selling these machines, we're also gathering a lot of feedback and we're going back to our partners to tell them how the product can be improved. We were not involved in the initial development of the product, but right now we're working very closely with them, and some of the modifications or improvements that are being planned came from direct responses we got from our customers and our own experience.

We are also in talks with our partners and exploring what other products we can come up with together. For example, the market has been looking for a robotic dry vacuum or sweeper. There are also a lot of requests for robotic window cleaners, especially for high-rise buildings, for safety reasons.

To develop a robotic product, you need to first have the foundational technology. But our expertise is in the cleaning sector. So rather than trying to do something we have no footing in, it's more realistic to work with a strong partner and offer our vast experience and expertise in cleaning knowledge and application. For example, we can help by selecting and designing the machines.

Q Part of Klenco's business is in servicing the offshore and marine sector. Has the company been affected by the industry's downturn?

Mr Beh Surprisingly, that part of our business has held up pretty well in the last couple of years. Definitely, business sentiment in the sector is not good in Singapore, but where cleaning is concerned, it has been relatively stable. When there is an economic boom, I don't think the cleaning sector follows suit. When the economy goes down, yes, companies do cut down on costs, but for us, it is not as bad, because cleaning is still required. Mr Tan We face ripples but not waves. Mr Beh There will be a slowdown, but there also comes a time where companies cannot not clean. Even if they don't buy a new machine, they will have to extend the operating life of their existing one machine, which means maintenance and repair - so we still get business, although in another way.
Q What are the company's plans for growth?
Mr Beh Robotic cleaners are definitely one key area we see growth in. Right now, it's still a very new market. If we do it right, this will grow to become a major, important part of our business. Geographically, we have mainly been focusing on mass product distribution in the Asean region. The aim, in the next five to 10 years, is for our products to be distributed through our channels on a global scale.

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Q When was Klenco set up, and what is the company about? Mr Beh Klenco was set up in Singapore in 1971, and we're celebrating our 45th anniversary this year. We started off as a distributor of professional and industrial cleaning supplies, mainly smaller products and chemicals.