By Espie Angelica A. de Leon
A top regional executive of business software maker Infor said that while the Internet of Things (IoT) may be taking away some jobs, it also opening up other jobs as part of the digital transformation of various industries.
Citing robots as example, Infor’s solution consulting director for Asia Pacific and Japan Cas Brentjens said that while these may replace human workers on the assembly line, it opens up new employment opportunities as well because the company needs to hire someone to program the artificial intelligence or the robot, another one to maintain it, and another person to showcase the software via Youtube or any other platform.
?Everybody?s job is moving on, going with the latest technology,? said Brentjens at a media briefing following his talk on ?Digital Transformation: The Age of Connected Intelligence? during a business seminar on Infor?s strategy and updates on August 15 at the Shangri-la Hotel Makati.
He added that IoT is actually opening up in work areas which could be boring, or even unhealthy and dangerous to workers, such as those in the production floor in manufacturing plants and factories.
Carrying heavy boxes in the production line for example, could be dangerous said Brentjens, as the chore may be back-breaking.
?People have to move to the next level of job,? he claimed, ?and we see any job that is changing as part of digital transformation.?
Speaking earlier about digital transformation and disruption and why companies should join the digital bandwagon, the Infor executive said that any industry which has not experienced digital disruption will eventually have it running in their own operations.
In fact, according to Brentjens, all industries will be subject to digital disruption by the year 2020.
?There?s a risk that companies will become irrelevant if they do not transform, especially when the new generation takes over. You?ll see fast transitions of things. I think companies, when they do not transform, they would become irrelevant and stay behind,? he said, citing the case of Amazon and Apple.
Amazon did not exist 20 years ago while Apple was not making phones 15 years ago when the mobile phone market was dominated by Nokia, he related. But Apple saw it coming and knew that the company would be irrelevant in the market in three years if they do not take any measure.
?There is no safe haven for any industry. Any industry is up for disruption as we go,? Brentjens noted. ?If there?s an industry that hasn?t been touched on, there?s probably somebody working right now trying to disrupt that industry.?
