The Robots are Coming
And we need them now.
Greg Cross made an unconventional statement at the Synthedia conference last week. He said that just a couple of years ago, a common discussion was about how robots were coming to take our jobs, or worse. Now, everyone is scrambling to build new robots, or virtual humans, to fill jobs that no one wants. We need the robots!
Cross’ thesis hinges on the premise that the impact of the COVID pandemic and the response to it by nations around the world accelerated societal change in many areas. He says, “we are living in 2025.”
The Impact of Time Acceleration
The great resignation is a phenomenon where many workers are resigning from their jobs due to a reset in priorities. Some are leaving the workforce altogether, while others are becoming more resolute about certain features of employment that they will accept. Some common requirements of workers now are the ability to work exclusively from home or expanded flexibility in when, where, and how they perform their work. This has led to a pile of jobs going unfulfilled.
In the restaurant business, companies are adding conversational AI assistants to their phone ordering and drive-thrus. Office buildings are installing kiosks with virtual human receptionists. These technologies are helping create efficiencies in part because humans aren’t there to fulfill the roles.
But, it isn’t just about work. It is also about how we spend our non-working hours. Gaming has expanded, consumers rushed headlong into NFTs and new blockchain products, and time spent in digital spaces increased. Many of these trends weren’t expected to reach this rate of expansion until 2025. Thanks to COVID, these phenomena arrived three years early.
Supporting Hybrid Worlds
Cross also points out that metaverse worlds are more than buzzwords. Consumers are spending increased time in them, and there are not enough interested humans to staff the metaverse. This again will likely fall to the robots (virtual humans) to fill in the gaps where humanlike services are needed.
Let me know what you think about Greg’s comments. This seems like a clear way to describe what we are now confronting. There is plenty of talk about accelerated rates of change in our time. That effectively means we are living in the future faster than expected. So, you might expect a long list of other innovations and new product adoption to take place sooner than previously expected.