automation
In plain wordsUsing machines or software to do work that people would otherwise do, from factory robots to programs that sort email or write reports.
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Work and economics
The substitution of machines, software or AI systems for human labor in carrying out tasks, so that a task is done with less or no human involvement. Economists analyze automation task by task rather than job by job: a technology automates some tasks within an occupation and changes what the remaining human work consists of, and its effects on employment and wages depend on how much cheaper and better the work becomes, whether demand expands, and whether new tasks appear. AI extends automation from routine, rule-based tasks, the target of earlier computerization, to non-routine cognitive work such as writing, coding, analysis and customer service and, through agentsAI agent, n.: An AI system that does not just answer but acts: given a goal, it decides on steps, uses tools such as a browser or code editor, checks the results and keeps going until the job is done., to whole multi-step workflows. Its counterpart is augmentationaugmentation, n.: Using AI to help people do their work better or faster while they stay in charge, instead of having the AI do the job on its own., in which technology raises a person's productivity without replacing them.
We automated invoice matching entirely but kept a person on the exceptions queue.
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Engineering
More generally, the engineering of self-regulating machines and processes, in which feedback devices, from the centrifugal governor and the programmable logic controller to software and AI, take over the operating decisions a human attendant would otherwise make; the degree of automation is often graded on a scale from manual control to full autonomy.
Origin
The word is usually credited to Delmar S. Harder, a Ford Motor Company executive, who is said to have used it around 1946–1947 for the automatic handling of parts between machines; it was rare before Ford set up an automation department in 1947, and John Diebold's book Automation (1952) generalized and popularized the term. The idea of self-operating machinery is far older.
Usage note
Automation is often contrasted with augmentation, but the line blurs: the same tool can augment each worker while letting a firm employ fewer of them. Erik Brynjolfsson's Turing trapTuring trap, n.: The risk that by building AI mainly to imitate and replace people, rather than to extend what people can do, society ends up with less widely shared prosperity and weaker bargaining power for workers. argument holds that current incentives favor automation.
Related
- augmentationaugmentation, n.: Using AI to help people do their work better or faster while they stay in charge, instead of having the AI do the job on its own.
- technological unemploymenttechnological unemployment, n.: Joblessness caused by machines or software taking over work that people used to be paid for, faster than new kinds of work appear for them.
- task exposuretask exposure, n.: A measure of how much of a job's work AI could, in principle, do or speed up. High exposure means many of the job's tasks are within AI's reach, not that the job will vanish.
- automation biasautomation bias, n.: The habit of trusting a computer's suggestion too much: following it even when it is wrong, or missing problems because the machine did not flag them.
- AI agentAI agent, n.: An AI system that does not just answer but acts: given a goal, it decides on steps, uses tools such as a browser or code editor, checks the results and keeps going until the job is done.
- Turing trapTuring trap, n.: The risk that by building AI mainly to imitate and replace people, rather than to extend what people can do, society ends up with less widely shared prosperity and weaker bargaining power for workers.
- LudditeLuddite, n.: Originally one of the English textile workers who smashed machines in protest in the 1810s; now anyone who opposes new technology, often used as an insult against AI skeptics.
- dark factorydark factory, n.: A way of building software in which AI agents write, test and ship all the code and no human writes or reads it, like a factory run with the lights off.
- augmentationaugmentation, n.: Using AI to help people do their work better or faster while they stay in charge, instead of having the AI do the job on its own.
Sources
- Diebold, J. (1952). Automation: The Advent of the Automatic Factory. Van Nostrand.
- Autor, D. H., Levy, F. & Murnane, R. J. (2003). The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration. Quarterly Journal of Economics 118(4), 1279–1333.
Mentioned in
algorithmic managementalgorithmic management, n.: When software, rather than a human manager, assigns work, sets pay, tracks performance and even disciplines or fires workers, as in ride-hailing, delivery and warehouse jobs., augmentationaugmentation, n.: Using AI to help people do their work better or faster while they stay in charge, instead of having the AI do the job on its own., centaurcentaur, n.: A human and an AI working as a team, each doing what it does best, like a chess player who consults a computer before every move. The name comes from the mythical half-human, half-horse creature., deskillingdeskilling, n.: The loss of people's skills when machines take over the work that used to keep those skills sharp, or when jobs are redesigned so that less skill is needed., GDPvalGDPval, prop. n.: An OpenAI test that pits AI against seasoned professionals on genuine workplace assignments, from reports and spreadsheets to slide decks, in 44 occupations important to the US economy., human-centered AIhuman-centered AI, n.: An approach to AI that puts people's needs, abilities and control at the center: systems designed to help humans do things better rather than to replace or overrule them., industrial robotindustrial robot, n.: A programmable robot arm used in factories for jobs such as welding, painting, assembling and moving parts, traditionally working inside a safety cage., LudditeLuddite, n.: Originally one of the English textile workers who smashed machines in protest in the 1810s; now anyone who opposes new technology, often used as an insult against AI skeptics., Norbert WienerNorbert Wiener, prop. n.: An American mathematician who founded cybernetics, the study of feedback and control in animals and machines, and warned early that machines might pursue goals we did not truly intend., Polanyi's paradoxPolanyi's paradox, n.: The observation that we know how to do many things — recognize a face, ride a bike — that we cannot explain in words. That made such skills hard to program until machines learned them from examples., robotic process automationrobotic process automation, n.: Software 'robots' that copy the clicks and typing a person would do in office computer programs — such as moving data between forms — to automate repetitive paperwork., task exposuretask exposure, n.: A measure of how much of a job's work AI could, in principle, do or speed up. High exposure means many of the job's tasks are within AI's reach, not that the job will vanish., technological unemploymenttechnological unemployment, n.: Joblessness caused by machines or software taking over work that people used to be paid for, faster than new kinds of work appear for them., universal basic incomeuniversal basic income, n.: A regular cash payment from the government to every adult, with no conditions attached, sometimes proposed as a way to share wealth if AI takes over much paid work., Erik BrynjolfssonErik Brynjolfsson, prop. n.: An American economist who studies how digital technology and AI change productivity and jobs, and who warns against AI built to replace people rather than to augment them., high-level machine intelligencehigh-level machine intelligence, n.: A yardstick used in surveys of AI researchers: the point at which machines on their own could outdo human workers at every task, in both quality and cost., intelligence curseintelligence curse, n.: The worry that once AI can do most jobs, governments and companies will no longer need ordinary people and so will stop looking after them, like oil-rich states that neglect their citizens., Remote Labor IndexRemote Labor Index, prop. n.: A test that gives AI agents real paid freelance projects — design, video, data work and more — and checks how many they finish to a standard a client would accept. Early agents managed very few., Turing trapTuring trap, n.: The risk that by building AI mainly to imitate and replace people, rather than to extend what people can do, society ends up with less widely shared prosperity and weaker bargaining power for workers.