AGVs

Feb. 16, 2022

I read an interesting conversation between two business people this morning. They discuss AVGs. AGV stands for automated guided vehicles. They pick up, pack, and load products in place of humans. 

One of them makes presentations about introducing AGVs in the company. One presentation is to the mangers, and the other to the workers. 

After successfully presenting his speech, he asks his female co-worker for advice as to how best address the workers. In his opinion, it's harder than talking to the managers because some may regard their introduction as a potential threat to their employment. The woman advises him to stress that not one work will lose his or her job to an AGV.

The conversation got me thinking about pros and cons of AGVs.

One most obvious plus is safety. An AGV can operate under extreme conditions such as high radiation without risking human lives. 

One demerit, on the other hand, may be extra training cost. Businesses may need to upskill their workers to do something complex after their jobs start being done by AGVs. 

AGVs may seem irrelevant to my industry, the education industry. But no quite so. AI-based learning apps are somewhat like AGVs, because they deliver "information" to a learner. And the right kind of information can be programmed to be sent to the learner by optimizing algorithm. Will I lose my job to AI-based learning apps? It is an exciting challenge to figure out a way not to.