Andrew McAfee

Blog Link:  https://hbr.org/2014/07/the-kind-of-work-humans-still-do-better-than-robots/

As the technology advances rapidly, will human workers eventually be replaced by robots? What kind of work do humans still do better than robots? According to Andrew McAfee, at least for now, humans exceed robots in fields that requires innovation, aesthetic and emotional response.In his blog, McAfee also expresses an implicit concern that as technology races ahead, how people continue to add value in production.

This is a thoroughly inspired article which leads me to have a further thought on the relationship between humans and robots in business world. I do not think the fact that robots are gradually replacing human labor is something to be worried about. Instead, this trend will bring positive impact in manufacturing industry. In the long run, the cost of high-tech machines will decrease and the cost of labor will increase. Using robots in factories enables companies to lower cost to produce the same amount of products, which maximizes their profits. Meanwhile, this also benefits the society as a whole. I concede that the trend of robots replacing human labor may lead to a cyclical unemployment. However, in the long run, human workers will eventually switch to the third industry to seek new opportunities. In this sense, popularizing robots in manufacturing industry actually frees people to do work that we are innately good at, such as creative, innovative and interactive tasks. Therefore, there is no need to worry that robots may replace humans in some domains. After all, we just treat robots as tools to help companies to be more efficient.