Job Automation: Can You Have Your Burger and Eat It Too?
In the heart of San Francisco, back in 2012, Momentum Machines embarked on an audacious quest — to revolutionize the world of gourmet-quality hamburgers. Their ingenious robotic contraption crafted delectable burgers from freshly ground meat and grilled them to perfection. With an impressive output of approximately 360 mouthwatering hamburgers per hour, this marvel of engineering not only toasted the buns to a golden perfection but also artfully sliced and assembled fresh ingredients after receiving the customer’s order.
While many tech innovators treaded lightly when addressing the potential implications for the workforce, Momentum Machines’ co-founder Alexandros Vardakostas, was unapologetically candid about the company’s mission. “Our device isn’t meant to make employees more efficient,” he declared. “It’s meant to totally obviate them” — and he had the numbers to back it up. Momentum Machines, with a visionary zeal, estimated that the typical fast-food establishment was shelling out a hefty $135,000 annually in wages for the diligent hands that crafted hamburgers. In the grand scheme of the US economy, that translated to a staggering $9 billion being allocated to the art of burger production every year.
The allure of these robotic tasty burgers was rivaled only by the stark realities of the workforce that kept the wider culinary empire running. Historically, fast food and beverage jobs have been a safety net, a steady paycheck for those with limited options. However, as we emerged from the shadows of the Great Recession, the landscape of fast-food employment began to shift. In 2011, McDonald’s launched a high-profile campaign to hire a jaw-dropping 50,000 new workers in a single day. The response was nothing short of astonishing, with over a million eager applicants vying for a chance. Suddenly, landing a “McJob” became more of a statistical long shot than securing a spot at Harvard — but not more profitable.
In October 2013, McDonald’s became the center of a public storm when an employee, seeking financial assistance, was allegedly advised to apply for food stamps and Medicaid, igniting swift and relentless public outrage. A subsequent analysis by the Labor Center at the University of California, added to the fire, revealing that over half of fast-food workers’ families depended on various public assistance programs, costing US taxpayers nearly $7 billion annually.
A decade has silently elapsed, and Momentum Machines, which once tempted us with mouthwatering burgers, ended up serving an unexpected dish of insights. Renamed Creator, it found itself among the casualties of the turbulent COVID-19 era, an ill-fitting exit for a once-vibrant company. What later became clear to Alexandros Vardakostas, and what the scientific community had been deliberating behind the scenes for decades, was the pressing need to broaden the sustainability paradigm. It should no longer focus solely on a company’s ecological footprint but extend to encompass its economic impact as well. Creator, recognizing the inherent value of human interaction, boldly championed a philosophy of investing in employees, providing resources designed to enrich their knowledge and skills, ushering in a more comprehensive approach to progress.
The often-overlooked economic footprint reveals a subtle but crucial opportunity cost, one that is measured in the currency of time. When companies shoulder the mantle of social responsibility, offering their employees education that imparts them with adaptable skills, the advantages are twofold. In the short term, these individuals remain indispensable contributors to the economy, finding roles at the periphery of automation that still play integral parts. Take, for example, industry giants like Amazon and Microsoft, who have launched public initiatives to crowdsource data, compensating people for providing a much-needed commodity in the current market: data.
Over the long term, as they engage in educational endeavours focused on democratizing data and technology literacy, these companies not only secure a workforce better equipped to navigate the realms of automation and technological evolution but also assume active roles in the ever-evolving societal dialogue concerning automation’s impact on the job market. This encompasses ideas such as universal basic income projects and social taxation based on the number of jobs relinquished to automation, which are gaining momentum as prominent topics in European and Asian political debates.
In the fast-food industry, technology has brought about significant changes, yet the dreams, or perhaps nightmares, of achieving widespread fully autonomous restaurants remain a distant reality. Coincidentally, the companies that have endured over the past decade are those that, while integrating automation and technology into their operations, still emphasize their food as “handmade.” The revolution of technology and automation came in, not with a loud bang, but as a quiet whisper heard through the hum of quicker blenders, automated grills, conveyor belts and touchscreen ordering interfaces seamlessly making their way into the kitchens and dining areas of fast-food establishments across the globe.
Today, the doomsday predictions surrounding the fast-food industry have given way to concerns about automation encroaching on more creative and intricate roles, with headlines like “In Reversal Because of A.I., Office Jobs Are Now More at Risk” and “Advertisers Warily Embrace A.I.,” sparking a public discourse on which sectors, if any, remain impervious to this advancing wave of technology. But of course, companies can still find ways to have their automation burger and eat it too, if only they invest in creating a second burger that helps sustain the economical hunger that arises as automation takes its toll in the job market. And then, they may well find that making two burgers, does not take twice the work of making one.
