COVID 19 Pandemic has impacted the businesses badly but today’s technology has enabled business to most extent. Every country is suffering today. Including developed countries like United States, Canada.
Working without human currently is impossible in most of the cases. But, it has previously been discussed many times that the 4th Industrial revolution is going to replace human.
Corobotics concept is not new now, human are working along side the robots, but now the concern is if these robots and automation works, then what will be the people doing.
We all must have heard this statement many times. Will Technology replace Humans? Is this factual and realistic?
Industry 4.0: COVID 19 enables the Technology
We were expecting that till 2030, rapid change in Information Technology will speed up the Industrial revolution , but it can be seen that it has started happening. Businesses are now seriously thinking to adapt to the change.
4th Industrial Revolution and Emerging Technoogies
Timeline of the Industrial revolution has changed the industries and Industry 4.0 that relates to 4th Industrial Revolution. Which is all about machines talking to each other. Smart factories, with connected machines and intelligent robots.
Technology like Internet of things (IoT) enables smart factories.Which means that machines can talk to each other on real time.
All this together with many technologies increases the volume, velocity and variety of data creating Big Data.
Then we have Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to make sense of this data and predict various things before it happens.
Predictive Maintenance of machines and letting a bank know that a credit card fraud is going to happen before it happens.
We have now interconnected supply chains, where factories are talking to suppliers.
suppliers are talking to ships, ships are talking to warehouses and warehouses are talking to trucks and are updating the customers.
All tracking can be done in real time. And even the shipping to customers using Robots and Drones.
Intelligent Robots and Then we have Block-chain technology which makes the transactions immutable, secure and decentralized.
We really need to rethink about the businesses today and help the businesses to shift from Industries from Industrial Revolution 3 to this great world of Industry 4.0
Technology Improvement and Automation during COVID 19
We have seen that many companies have done Investment in Automation during crises. It can be expected that in the coming months, businesses will need to automate their processes more.
People usually say they want a human element to their interactions, but for better or worse the robots are going to replace many humans in their jobs.
Work from home is not possible for all the roles, that is why robots are also being used to perform various roles.
In 2017 it was predicted that a third of workers in the United States would be replaced by automation and robots by 2030, but events like pandemic have the potential to change all the timelines
Rise of Robots during Corona Pandemic in 2020
- Walmart is using robots to scrub it’s floors.
- Robots in South Korea have been used to measure temperatures and distribute hand sanitiser.
- Food service is another area where the use of robots is likely to increase because of health concerns.
- Fast-food chains like McDonald’s have been testing robots as cooks and servers.
- In warehouses, like those operated by Amazon and Walmart.
- Robots working alongside humans in hospitals to perform cleaning
- once schools and offices will reopen many will see robots cleaning their schools and offices. China already started.
Robotics Process Automation
Robotics Process Automation or RPA which helps robots to mimick human.
Many industrialists are now concerned, ‘How can robots enable us to continue manufacturing while keeping social distancing’?
Considering the current pandemic I am expecting the social distancing measures will be in place through 2021.
So robot workers may be in greater demand.
Where robots can’t work we now have drones and thanks to New Generation of IoT together with communication technologies like NBIoT, LoraLan, Sigfox, 5G and many others has transformed IoT to new Generation.
This proves Robotics and Drones as a Technology has helped industries during COVID 19
IoT now more in Demand by Industries
When we talk about Controlling your home through your smartphone, then wearables, smart grid and smart metering, , connected cars, connected heath, smart retail and smart supply chain.
These all are applications of IoT. There are countless applications and projects in IoT and it has really helped individuals and businesses.
Be it connected inhalers by asthma patients or real time body temperature monitoring of Pizza Delivery guy.
IoT is now at its golden age, where Big Data, AI and Edge Computing is making IoT more independant and better.
New generation IoT Platform have improved smart city and drones.
Application of Drone During Covid 19
Recent application of drones can be seen in battling the virus.
- Medical Drone Deliveries and Test Samples in China
- Surveillance & Monitoring
- Broadcasting
- Surveying
- Spraying
Talking about Smart City Initiatives : Korea, the country that perhaps best handled the pandemic, used its “Smart City Data Hub”. Other cities, such as Boston, built up new platforms as the pandemic spread.
Today the world is turned upside down. The time is right to scale these technologies. Those who were not even using computer they have started using it to do only meetings. But , this is not going to help to do business in long run.
Augmented Reality and Virtual Really can help human less
When talking about AR, VR, MR or XR these aren’t science fiction; they are fully developed technologies that are as reliable as laptops and smartphones. The only thing missing is their widespread adoption.
We have previously seen its application in acton such ;
- BMW
- IKEA
- Staff Training in Factories
- Flight Simulators
Due to the current pandemic I can clearly see an adoption.
- Virtual Visitors in Businesses
- Transformation in Education
How can it really work in normal busineses?
Physical tour in Warehouse, Shop or store, where you don’t see the product inside the box. Using these technologies, you can get all information of product without even opening it. Real time information is also possible.
Virtual Tour using VR glass of the same application and then mixed it with AR to make it interactive.
Artificial Intelligence can replace human.
And when you need to interact with a person AI will act like an real human. We witness many AI Chat bots in various banks have generated positive ROI and AI approved the credit and loan.
Instructor, Advisor, Tutor, Teacher, Coach doesn’t need to be the real person.
Artificial intelligence is working better than human. There is high chances that it will replace school tutors, fitness trainers and financial advisers.
Facebook and Google are relying on AI to remove, inappropriate posts since the companies’ human content moderators can’t review certain things from home.
AI in call centers amplifies customer voice with speech analytics.
Artificial as Technology is able to replace human, thus during COVID 19 pandemic, a such implementations can really help the businesses.
Blockchain enables global economy
Blockchain is not a new technology, an algorithm that has already helped many industries.
Today many industries have adopted Smart Contracts, banks are using RippleNet and other technologies.
Adoption of Blockchain was highly expected in 2020, and now we see it will be adopted.
There are many use cases in Finance, Insurance, Travel, Real Estate, Asset Management, Healthcare, Services, Supply chain and many more.
I must say decentralizing is feasible because data is immutable. Companies, Organizations, Banks and Government are always concerned about high quality data and there is no doubt blockchains are highly secure and reliable.
Cloud Computing Enabler for Industry 4.0 Technologies
Cloud Computing is the driving force for many technologies. You don’t need to develop AI, Big Data, ML and related technologies, these are readily available in the cloud.
But to integrate your Application, Technology, Data with these powerful technologies on need to focus on the new technical skills and businesses need to rethink about adopting new technologies before it’s too late.
Cloud Technologies enabled many big applications like Airbnb and Uber.
We are seeing an increase in usage of artificial intelligence and machine-learning concepts alongside blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) in order to create better and more efficient applications and services.
Will our Job Exist in next 10 years?
Nothing can work without human input. None of the technology is more powerful than human intellect.
The road to Industry 4.0 won’t be completely free of speed bumps or detours. Overall creation of 555 to 890 million new jobs by 2030. Whether your Job will exist in next 10 years or not, you can now decide better.
You can watch the Technology talk where I have discussed in detail.