Once confined to factory floors, automation has become a part of everyday life. As of 2019, 71% of global organizations had either adopted automation or were implementing it soon. Automated technologies have also become commonplace in consumer markets, whether people realize it or not.
Automation’s impact on both work and leisure may be more significant than many people realize. Here are 10 ways it’s making life easier for everyone.
1. Lowering the Risk of Worker Injury
Contact with harmful objects, overexertion, and repetitive stress are three of the most common injuries in many workplaces. These are also all areas where robots can automate tasks, keeping humans safe from harm. By automating riskier jobs, workplaces can reduce worker injury rates.
Robots tend to be better than humans at repetitive, physically intensive tasks. These are also areas where injuries are more likely. As companies have automated these jobs, injury rates have declined.
2. Streamlining Everyday Tasks
Many consumers use automation every day through their phones or other smart devices. Tasks like scheduling, starting household appliances, or organizing files may not seem overly time-consuming, but they amount to a considerable portion of people’s days.
When people automate them, they save a lot of time overall, giving them more free time.
3. Giving Workers More Time
Automation can also streamline non-value-adding tasks in the workplace. For example, employees can save time by eliminating the need to monitor some levels and processes through automation. When they don’t have to stop to check on things, they can focus on more valuable tasks.
Tasks like monitoring or data entry are essential but don’t add value. Automating them can free workers to address things that do add value while ensuring these other tasks get done.
4. Improving Medical Diagnoses
Studies have found that AI can outperform trained radiologists in assessing conditions like lung cancer. Since these algorithms are so accurate and don’t require a doctor, they can streamline and refine the diagnostic process. Automated systems can make a preliminary diagnosis before a doctor confirms it.
Automating early analysis will save doctors time, guiding them towards the correct diagnosis sooner. They can then treat patients quicker and more effectively.
5. Making Surgery More Precise
Diagnosis isn’t the only area of medicine where automation can help, either. Since robots are generally more precise than humans, they can handle smaller, more delicate operations. Hospitals could use surgical robots to perform sensitive procedures that would be risky with human hands.
6. Enabling More Sustainability
Many companies today automate their data analysis, which can reveal several helpful insights. One of the most significant use cases for these algorithms is highlighting ways businesses can reduce their carbon footprint. Since a 1% improvement in efficiency could lead to $276 billion in savings, automated data analysis can make companies more profitable as well.
7. Increasing Product Variety
In manufacturing, automation speeds up production, enabling companies to create and sell new products faster. Automation also frees human workers to handle the imaginative side of things, leading to better product variety.
With more brainpower behind ideas and faster production, markets will meet the needs of a more diverse consumer base.
8. Reducing Traffic Accidents
While it may be a while before self-driving cars populate the streets in vast numbers, roads will be safer when they do. One government study found that 93% of car crashes result from human factors. Autonomous vehicles remove the human element from driving, dramatically reducing accidents.
Even without fully autonomous cars, automation features in today’s vehicles can save lives. Lane correction and automatic braking remove some of the risks of distracted driving.
9. Securing Finances
Many banks now use automated systems to detect potential fraud in customers‘ accounts. Relying on automation instead of humans in this area leads to faster action and increased accuracy, given automation’s knack for data analysis. With these anti-fraud features, consumers can go about their days without worrying as much about credit card theft.
10. Making Tech More Accessible
Automated features in everyday tech like smartphones and computers make them more accessible. When users don’t have to handle every process manually, they become more friendly for non-tech-savvy consumers or those with some disabilities. When everyone can take advantage of the same tech, the world becomes a more equitable place.
Automation Is Changing Virtually Every Aspect of Life
It’s hard to think of an area that automation hasn’t influenced to some degree. As technology improves, automation’s reach will only expand further. Thanks to these technologies, life is becoming easier for a wider range of people.
