Jeremiah Ajayi
The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic is still being felt in many sectors all over the world. Many business have folded up and the ones still standing are surviving on bare minimum. Entrepreneurs are lamenting and small businesses are struggling. This is because many small business owners can no longer provide the necessities to sustain their businesses like their staff whose cost of living have now increased significantly. Nevertheless, robots seem most promising to address this general worker shortage.
For restaurants, clubs, theaters, barbers, and other businesses that provide their services in person and are desperately trying to find methods to get back to some kind of normality and pre-pandemic income levels, the desire to reenter the labor could not have come at a worse moment. When Covid-19 forced their firms to close, the majority of them were forced to lay off their personnel.
The increased salaries demanded by employees after COVID-19 have accelerated technological advancement and increased our reliance on automation, scale, and productivity-enhancing applications, much like what happened during the Industrial Revolution and earlier economic rifts. Together, these two incidents have brought attention to a small company resource that is generally untapped: robot labor.
Naturally, robots are already common on auto assembly lines, in factories, and on construction sites. However, the lack of low-skill personnel in fast food, healthcare, reception, delivery, and other sectors has forced technology companies to modify their products for use in small businesses. White Castle has put Flippy, a robot that flips hamburgers, in many of its restaurants. Robot bartenders and baristas have been installed in taverns, coffee shops, and cruise liners to serve customers’ drinks. Robots can handle routine and repetitive duties like customer service, reading aloud instructions, describing products, giving directions and offering services, and food delivery.
Pepper, a humanoid robot originally created by SoftBank Robotics and now outfitted with new AI skills through my company, is one robot that can assist business owners serving clients. Small and medium-sized firms can benefit from Pepper’s assistance with customer flow management, information dissemination, customer service, product comparison, and more.
It might not be as exciting as people think to spend their day as a manager or entrepreneur of a small firm. In general, it is believed that entrepreneurship calls for big-picture and forward-thinking, invention, creativity, vision, tolerance of ambiguity, and violating rules (the list goes on).Contrary to popular belief, an entrepreneur typically performs a variety of smaller and more routine jobs, all of which are essential for the development of the business.
The current discussion on robots and employment seems to be mostly focused on a future without employment. However, research indicates that robotics and artificial intelligence will aid small businesses and entrepreneurial organizations in a variety of ways. Many of the menial and repetitive tasks, like making sure paperwork are filed on time or being accessible for routine questions during the day, can be performed by machines and robots. This enables business owners and managers to exercise greater creativity and initiative.
For instance, the business owner has more freedom to visit clients on the ground if a robot is receiving calls. Entrepreneur may concentrate on adding greater social and emotional value because they are no longer constrained by the 9–5 rules.
Robots would be immune to any uncertainty and the fear of failing that a human business owner could experience when spending time and money on cutting-edge technology that might or might not be beneficial to the success of their business.
For example, a robot can evaluate many information sources (such as market statistics) without being swayed by feelings like risk aversion or anxiety about entering strange places while considering expansion into a new, psychically distant market.
Business managers, especially those of creative, entrepreneurial organizations, now have more power than ever thanks to technological advancements.
In a few years, robot use will increase and human labor will become extinct.
