Economy

Industry captains say robots to raise manufacturing jobs

ROBOTS

Robots at a technology exhibition in Las Vegas. Many CEOs see robots boosting rather than destroying jobs. PHOTO | AFP

Chief executives of leading firms in East Africa are upbeat about the global shift to artificial Intelligence (AI) with a majority saying use of robots in manufacturing would create more opportunities for jobs seekers.

In a survey conducted by consultancy firm KPMG among 51 industry captains (19 of them from Kenya)—an overwhelming 80 per cent of the CEOs are of the view that artificial intelligence and robotics will create more jobs.

“What we are seeing out of the 1,300 CEOs that we interviewed across the globe, over 80 per cent are of the view that artificial intelligence and robotics is going to create more jobs and destroy a few more,” KPMG head of advisory for East Africa Gerald Kasimu said.

“What one has to consider here is that there is going to be displacement of certain jobs---some of the traditional jobs where people sat on manufacturing lines to do monotonous routine activities will now be done by robots.”

The outcome sharply contrasts commonly held view that the shift to robots and other machines that are programmed to think like humans will wipe out jobs and render many workers jobless.

The survey also sampled at least 10 CEOs from Uganda, 10 from Tanzania, eight from Ethiopia and four from Rwanda.

Of the group interviewed, 51 per cent of the CEOs lead organisations that had between of $500 million and $999 million a year in revenues.

The report also found that only two thirds of East African CEOs believed that their organisations are prepared for a future cyber-attack.

It shows that just over half (55 per cent) of CEOs interviewed said they had the ability to contain the impact of an attack on strategic operations.

In Kenya, seven in 10 CEOs believe they can contain the impact of an attack on strategic operations as compared to only one in five for Uganda and one in 10 for Tanzania.

“You might think that you have put the right resilience in place but new threats are emerging on a day-to-day basis. This calls for some serious investments whether by a way of perimeter system to protect the environments and enhancing of knowledge of what these threats are,” said Mr Kamisu.

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