In the last couple of years, leaders across the globe have stepped forward to discuss about the ramifications of the different innovations that have been occurring in the field of Artificial Intelligence and robotics. Many of the world leaders have shown concern regarding these bots becoming a perpetual threat to human employment. On one hand, there are people and thinkers who believe that bots and AI will flourish in an exceptional age of human evolution; on the other hand, there are those who foresee bots destroying mankind.

We are very well aware that Rome withstood the Trojans at the gates and ones they came in, they collapsed. Similarly, when we have AI as a helping hand and as long as they are not posing a threat to us, we are comfortable with them. But, when they start penetrating into our workspaces, they become a long-term threat.

How are bots likely to cause the death of the human employee in the workspace?

The survival instinct of human and the need for a system that recognises individual rights are the core reasons why capitalism is a successful economic and social system ever accepted, especially in India. It is also the basic reason behind the existing disparity among “classes” and the uneven distribution of resources. We go to work to earn a living and to fulfill our needs. In a capitalistic society, production is necessary for consumption, and so we produce to consume.

At the core level, in the capitalist system of India, the value of the produce dictates the amount of the particular resource that should be allocated to a  person or a household and also considering the amount that can be consumed by them. Theoretically speaking, social efficiency is also self-regulated through balancing supply and demand. If the you produce more than you can initially consume, then you will have to face with the problem of excess resource allocation.

The extra resource produced and allocated will diminish eventually because of its inactive nature, leading to resource allocation once again. The leftover resource is put to work for the production of additional resource for further allocation. This cycle forms the base of capitalism. You either produce enough for your consumption or you die. Simply put, the upper strata controls the production.The middle strata, and lower class are employees of the ones who control the means of production in numerous categories of pay.

Given the aforesaid socioeconomic structure, the question is what will happen when the “employee” is no longer a requirement for production? These eliminated classes of humans without doubt need to consume in order to survive. A report published by Oxford University states that over the next two decades, almost 50% of the jobs are likely to be taken over by bots.

Under the most extreme circumstances, no employee is needed for production or any other service such as communications. They can be replaced with the more cost efficient bots at all levels of any the organizational structure. Now, only the owners remain, and the bots who accomplish production for the end consumer.

In such a situation, the owners will receive profits stemming from cost efficiencies that India needs the most at this point of time and has never before seen, but the consequential effect might be something that would prove to be a total turnaround for both the lower and middle class consumer and employee.

As most developed societies are bolstered by the consumption pattern of  of the middle class, with no resources flowing naturally into the lower or middle class, the status quo of capitalism is destroyed. If the allocation of work as well as resources is not done on the basis of individual capacity, then the death of the workplace and employee culture is near, with bots replacing every possible platform.

Looking at the Brighter Side of it

After reading the aforesaid, the question is obvious. Are AI and bots actually altering the present social environment? It has never happened before with any other form of automation. When farming witnessed revolution in India through Green Revolution, the automation processes led to an increase in yield capacity, resulting in sufficient food for everyone.. Facebook chatbots are a current example of a social network that provides every individual with same and fair information. We know the same prices of goods as some leading business personnel through online banking or web-marketplace.

The bots crawling through servers and installed in the chat systems of financial institutions make sure that the actual and fair prices are communicated to every user or subscriber as they are programmed in that particular way. They eliminate the need for middlemen to convey the relevant information about the marketplace. This equality and a change in the status quo of capitalism when like the age old practices of going to the marketplace for gauging the price of goods and knowing the rate of interests, we can just go online or fill out a form with automated chatbots answering our queries.