Making and training robots to do certain jobs instead of people in the world is largely underway.
It is inevitable that “robotization” will reach Serbia as well, which will significantly change business in some sectors and jeopardize jobs. However, experts assure us that this is just a plus for us.
The latest research has indicated that in 10 years, robots will replace up to 80% of cashiers, call center operators and taxi drivers. Many more jobs are on the list for “robotization”, and it is predicted that the main substitute occupation will be – robot maintenance, writes Sputnik.
There are a total of about 17,000 taxi drivers in Serbia, self-service cash registers are becoming more widespread in retail chains, and many companies employ our people as operators in call centers. How will “robotization” affect all those sectors in Serbia?
“Robotization” of Serbia is changing business
Slobodan Bubnjevic, a scientific journalist and head of communications at the Institute of Physics in Belgrade, pointed out that it is difficult to predict how the development of robotics will change the world in the coming decades, but also that Serbia is not far behind the world in introducing new technologies.
Referring to the trade sector, Bubnjevic points out that it is almost certain that the number of cashiers and servants will decrease in the next decade, because robots will replace not only cashiers, but also warehousemen. This will make it easier for employers, but it may jeopardize the labor market.
When it comes to the introduction of smart technologies in the field of traffic, our interlocutor is skeptical, because that endeavor has not given good results in Serbia so far.
“Some highways and intersections that were experimentally robotized are no longer like that today, because it largely depends on the general infrastructure. I am very skeptical when it comes to the speed of introduction of smart cars that could replace taxi drivers, and I think that our taxi drivers will still to be busy for a long time, because it is something we cannot expect because we have a lot of infrastructural problems in the cities,” Bubnjevic points out.
As for the call centers, he points out that people have to work in them, in order to solve situations that machines cannot. According to his information, Serbia is assessed as a country with a staff that is capable enough to do that job and provides a sophisticated service.
Therefore, Bubnjevic believes that many jobs in those centers will not be automated.
“People are already providing this type of smart service in our country, and that market is, as far as I know, much branched. I know of many German companies that use Serbia as a country from which people respond and answer calls from clients from all over the world. It is much more important that it stays that way, because it is irreplaceable,” Bubnjevic pointed out.
Customization – key
Bubnjevic points out that “robotization” in our country will mostly not lead people to have to change occupations, but only the way they will do their job, but also that it is not a process that will happen overnight.
“It doesn’t happen like in a science fiction movie – a genius discovers a new robot and in three years everyone gets fired. The introduction of new technologies is a slow process that, above all, follows the paradigm of the market, not technology. Technology enters where there is space, where it makes the product cheaper and more attractive. We do not have the kind of economy that could have such a direct impact,” Bubnjevic explains.
However, he notes that it is certain that a certain number of people will not be able to adapt and that they will not keep their jobs because of that.
Automation is better than “primitive” jobs
Bubnjevic estimates that automation in our case would not be bad and that it is not a cause for concern, because he believes that our people will mostly adapt to it, which is better than foreign investors viewing Serbs as cheap labor and hiring us as “primitive” jobs.
“The robot will come to do dangerous jobs, those that endanger health, that are boring, repetitive… All those that are such that you can entrust them to the robot, which means that the man who would do that would be very modestly paid. For the country as what Serbia is, ‘robotization’ is just a plus,” concludes Bubnjevic, B92 reports.
