With coronavirus, everyone is now aware of the contact transmission danger and businesses are challenged to operate processes that involve multiple people working in close proximity. So it’s no surprise that businesses are stepping up their focus on automation, which includes robots and Robotic Process Automation:
“ ’Pre-pandemic, people might have thought we were automating too much,’ said Richard Pak, a professor at Clemson University who researches the psychological factors around automation. ‘This event is going to push people to think what more should be automated.’
The grocery industry is leaning more on automation to free up employees to deal with the crush of demand during the pandemic.
Brain Corp, a San Diego company that makes software used in automated floor cleaners, said retailers were using the cleaners 13% more than they were just two months ago. The “autonomous floor care robots” are doing about 8,000 hours of daily work “that otherwise would have been done by an essential worker,” the company said.
At supermarkets like Giant Eagle, robots are freeing up employees who previously spent time taking inventory to focus on disinfecting and sanitizing surfaces and processing deliveries to keep shelves stocked.
Retailers insist the robots are augmenting the work of employees, not replacing them. But as the panic buying ebbs and sales decline in the recession that is expected to follow, companies that reassigned workers during the crisis may no longer have a need for them.
The role of a cashier is also changing. For many years, retailers have provided self-checkout kiosks. But those machines often require intervention by workers to help shoppers navigate the often fickle and frustrating technology.
The pandemic is prompting some stores to adopt even more aggressive “contactless” options. From farm stands to butchers, merchants are asking customers whenever possible to use mobile payment services like PayPal or Venmo. Banking regulators in Europe last week increased the amount of money that shoppers can pay through their mobile devices, while reducing some authentication requirements.
While fully automated stores, such as Amazon Go, might have seemed like a technological curiosity a few months ago, they are likely to become a more viable option for retailers.
“No one would probably have thought of a cashier’s job as being dangerous until now,” Pak said.
Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies labor markets, said that with companies hurting for cash, the pressure to replace humans with machines becomes even more intense.”
Overview provided by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group.
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