In previous posts, we discussed the trends of automated restaurant services and the incremental use of automated processes and robotics in the service economy.
This past Monday, IBM supercomputer system competed in a popular answer-and-question quiz show. Watson was the computer's name. Memorizing data and articulating in English is his game.
It was a great feat of brainpower. After a few moments of admiring the amazing functionality of Watson, we began to assess how it can be apply to our service economy.
Since Watson was able to handle a slew of game show's questions with ease, we concluded that Watson is technologically efficient and that it can be configured to manage the questions of the customers of companies that have various customer service centers, help desks, phone banks, fast food eateries, etc. (updated on 02.17.11)
Many months ago, we heard about the changing state of the fast food industry. We believed that a good percentage of the fast food industry will be automated in the urban areas. The projected timeline is somewhere between two to three years.
You can read more about Watson (or similar computer systems) from today's New York Times.
The Compass View
Overall, Watson is going to make millions of off-shore workers unemployed. One can only expect that these off-shored workers will join the current group of unemployed Americans.
Since commodity prices, medical costs and state employers taxes are rising, we expected that the captains of our global service economy will be purchasing the IBM's Watson computer system as their service center's system.
Summary
For every technological breakthrough In our information economy, new and improved automated services have always been a positive gain for the implementers. Just think about the number of banking jobs that were lost to the ATMs.
While operating costs shrinks, the risk of occasional social drawback and an economic consequence for the lower tier of the job market becomes obvious.
Countering the Unforeseen Technological Breakthrough
in the Informational Economy
It is important to know one's strategic position within their competitive (market) terrain and then look beyond.
Securing relevant data consistently is important.
In an information economy, the effect of the zero-sum gain becomes a significant factor to both the chief decision makers and the lower tier workers. The quality of positive impact (reward) goes to the chief decision makers who utilized the new and improved automated services is inversely proportionally to the quality of the negative impact that affects the obsolete workers.
Staying Ahead of the Curve
Spending time to understand the big tangible picture will enable the chief decision makers to stay ahead of the "automated services" curve. The key is to recognize the benefits, the challenges and the drawbacks of the various on-coming influences.
The Compass Rule For Viewing the Big Tangible Picture
Study the Big Tangible Picture. Define the Dots (opportunity, etc.). Connect the dots. Reap the rewards.
The challenge is to define the dots and connecting them within the timeline of the opportunity.
Are you doing it?
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