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Treating robots more like humans will help their adoption, insist Chris Duddridge, Area Vice President and Managing Director of UKI, UiPath.
It’s no secret that people are generally afraid of automation in the
workplace. In the first industrial revolution, the luddites broke
textile machinery they worried would leave them redundant. Even today,
there remains a fear that it’s going to take jobs and leave humans
bereft. Unions are making warnings and workers who interact with robots
have been seen to sabotage them.
Photo: Alex KNight / Unsplash
It’s also true that the introduction of new technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), will remove the need for humans to undertake repetitive and dull tasks. In this process, software operates a computer, mouse and keyboard like a human – but virtually. It’s like having a digital junior colleague who can do rules-based tasks, ranging from simple to more complex, that you’ve taught it to do.
But this should be welcomed, as it frees people to focus on fewer drudgeries and more interesting and satisfying work...
He once told me a story about his first ever robot colleague. He created her in 2000 and she was called Solly. She was involved with a legal database and sent out text and email notifications to let people know where they were with the case. Solly became part of the team. She used to send out emails and sign off with her name. The team would get calls into the office asking for Solly and he had to explain that Solly was a robot. Now he runs naming competitions for his software robots.
Another client named one of his software robots Archie, after an employee’s son, and another Marley, after a colleague’s dog. All his firm’s automations are named by the person who comes up with the idea. He says it’s, “A kind of sweetener for staff, I think it just helps with welcoming the robot into the team.”
Source: ITProPortal
