World over automation has planted its seed in numerous industrial, commercial, and retail spaces. Apart from ushering high productivity and efficiency, they bring with them an uncertain future for many laborers and workers. According to many reports on automation, we are looking at massive automation in coming years.

What does the future hold for a human employee?

In fact, the future of human workers is not that bleak. A survey done by Pew Internet Report concluded that not all of the existing jobs are going to disappear or be performed by robots and smart machines. It is most likely going to give rise to new roles and jobs. It is an exciting time for those who upgrade their skills to brace for the changes soon going to hit the industries. ²

For instance, the automotive industry is already gaining immensely from the benefits of early adoption of automation in their assembly lines. Robots can efficiently do the repetitive tasks that were earlier prone to error when their human counterparts were at the task. However, the designing and problem-solving areas would still require the creative skills of an engineer. Therefore, although the manual work is done by robots, the brain behind it is still of a human.

Engineers are going to benefit from automation

A major part of an engineer’s life is spent on creating tiresome geometric designs on CAD systems. Creating such designs in multiple quantity is a gruesomely painful process that they have to go through. However, for effective problem solving it is an important step. If automation makes its way into designing geometric options in CAD then a large portion of manufacturing and construction engineer’s time can be saved to work on more critical and challenging roles. Roles that call for – brainstorming, assessing challenges, and looking for opportunities for improvements and growth.

On other hand, automation also opens up many new avenues of creativity for engineers. Ideas which were earlier impossible to implement can now be conceptualized and designed using generative designs and 3D printing. Automated systems will allow engineers to focus on the more creative and intellectual roles of their job and leave the mundane, repetitive, and sometimes dangerous roles to robots.

In a nutshell, it seems automation is here to augment existing jobs. Engineers need to gear up for upgrading their talent and skills to be able to work in synergy with robots. As past revolutions have shown, change only brings newer opportunities and jobs that the existing workforce needs to be ready for.